Historicism and industrial mass production
Factories could make almost anything, and they made everything in every style at once. The world's fairs showed both the triumphs and the problems.
In the nineteenth century production moved from workshops to factories. Steam engines, cast iron and new methods of pressing and stamping made objects cheaper, and a growing middle class wanted what only the rich had owned before. The factories responded by imitating the old styles: Gothic Revival, Renaissance Revival, Rococo Revival and Baroque Revival, often on the same object.
The Great Exhibition in London in 1851, in Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace of iron and glass, displayed products from all over the world. Many visitors were impressed, but critics such as Henry Cole thought British goods overloaded and badly designed. The exhibition led to the founding of the South Kensington Museum, today the Victoria and Albert Museum, and of new schools of design.
At the same time another line emerged: objects whose form came from how they were made. Thonet's chair No. 14, sewing machines, typewriters, tools and workwear were made to be produced, shipped and used. Christopher Dresser was one of the first to call himself a designer for industry.