Born in France and Belgium, the cradles of literary Symbolism, Symbolist painting plunged headlong into the cultural space opened up by the poetry of Baudelaire and Mallarme and by the operas of Wagner. Symbolist painters sought not to represent appearances but to express the Idea, and the imaginary therefore plays an important part in their work.
The reader is taken from the beginnings of British lustreware in 1805, through its heyday in the first half of that century, with later wares also touched upon. Techniques are described in some detail and there is comprehensive coverage of the companies and personalities involved in its manufacture