The Revival of ROCOCO

The Industrial Revolution gave rise to a super-rich tranche of society who could finally afford porcelain and craved a brand new style, says Willa Latham

- Willa Latham

Having supplied a demanding nobility with neoclassical wares of unrivalled quality throughout the late 18th century, Worcester factories went into decline and in the 1830s the glory shifted to Staffordshire, where hundreds of porcelain factories had emerged. From about 1800 onwards, the Staffordshire Potteries began generating a huge output, not only for the nobility, but also for the rapidly emerging middle class and a growing global export market.

The Industrial Revolution was underway, and entrepreneurs were making large sums of money that would not have been accessible before industrialisation. Now, anyone hard-working with intelligence and a bright idea could lay their hands on investment, make a fortune and move up society's ladder. And this wasn't just in Britain: as the Empire catapulted these ambitious young people into all corners of the world, and the United States turned to industrialisation, suddenly many more people could afford porcelain. And thus a new style of decorative arts was born: Rococo Revival.

By the 1820s the prevailing neoclassical style had ended up in a bit of a muddle. The Prince Regent (later King George IV) was largely responsible for first popularising and then wrecking it: he was at the centre of a race among the nobility to spend more, be more lavish, embrace more gilt and decorations, which of course undermined the very idea of simplicity that the neoclassical style was based upon.