Thomas Chippendale, Grinling Gibbons, William Morris, Josiah Spode, Josiah Wedgwood, Clarice Cliffa??the history of handmade decorative arts in Britain boasts names known the world over. This important book explores hand-crafted British ceramics, metalwork, wood, textiles, and stained glass through objects from the renowned collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and contributions from contemporary practitioners such as Grayson Perry and Edmund de Waal. Tracing Britaina??s development from an unsophisticated importer of luxury goods during the Renaissance to one of the leading worldwide exporters of decorative arts by the end of the 19th century, it also looks at the social and cultural contexts in which particular crafts meet both functional and aesthetic demands.