ABSTRACT
It is difficult today to imagine the excitement and desire that glass and ceramics once stirred among people of all social classes in Europe. How can we appreciate this wonder when the shelves of every neighbourhood grocery store are filled with glassware of all types, and porcelain objects have long been relegated to curio shelves? Yet, there was a time when Chinese porcelain was a gift fit for princes and popes, when glassmakers from Venice were lured to other European cities, and when entrepreneurs such as Josiah Wedgwood deliberately manipulated fashion and taste for ceramics among the English aristocracy.
