Renaissance to Regent Street: Harold Rathbone and the Della Robbia Pottery of Birkenhead

This thesis examines the ways in which the unique creativity brought to late Victorian applied art by the Della Robbia Pottery was a consequence of Harold Rathbone’s extended engagement with quattrocento ceramics. This was not only with the sculpture collections in the South Kensington Museum but through his experiences as he travelled in Italy. In the first sustained examination of the development of the Della Robbia Pottery within the wider histories of the Arts and Crafts Movement, the thesis makes an original contribution in three ways. Using new sources of primary documentation, I discuss the artistic response to Italianate style by Rathbone and his mentors Ford Madox Brown and William Holman Hunt, and consider how this influenced the development of the Pottery. Rathbone’s own engagement with Italy not only led to his response to the work of the quattrocento sculptor Luca della Robbia but also to the archaic sgraffito styles of Lombardia in Northern Italy. Thirdly, the thesis identifies how the Della Robbia Pottery established a commercial presence in Regent Street and beyond, demonstrating how it became, for a short time, an outstanding expression of Italianate style within the British Arts and Crafts Movement.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Liverpool John Moores University

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Carroll, JL

Contributors dc:contributor

• Sheldon, J

• NB Sculpture
• NX Arts in general

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.24377/LJMU.t.00007287

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk:7287