ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the more prominent features of the complex and often highly contested relationship between contemporary forms of craft and their earlier incarnations. It responds to a persistent conceptual challenge that also has significant practical implications. The chapter summarises the main themes identified in the existing body of research and illustrates how historically informed studies have shed new light on craft practice and modes of organisation in the modern era. It explores the different ways in which craft practitioners and others, such as market intermediaries and connoisseurs, have enrolled historical narratives and associations as a resource, typically with the aim of either promoting or defending particular craft products, practices or values. The chapter explores the scope and limitations of historical research methods. Historical theorising plays an essential role in locating the surface phenomena that we observe in contemporary craft in relation to the deeper currents of cultural, technological and socio-economic development.
