Lives of the Great Makers celebrates the aesthetic flair, design skills, and technical ingenuity that define exceptional craftspeople whose pioneering masterpieces have, over the centuries, changed the nature and direction of the decorative arts. Featuring biographies of notable European and North American makers--ranging from furniture makers such as Thomas Chippendale, designer and entrepreneur Louis Comfort Tiffany, and woodcarvers such as Grinling Gibbons to textile artists including Gunta Stölzl, silversmiths such as Paul Storr, and ceramicists such as Lucie Rie--this richly illustrated book also includes remarkable pieces by glassmakers and engravers, enamellists, jewellers, and others who represent the very pinnacle of their craft.

Written by curatorial experts at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the featured lives of some forty women and men from the past 500 years explore how their work was shaped by patronage, trade, migration, war, empire, and the evolution of ideas. Also included are brief introductions to individual periods of history that set the lives in their broader cultural context. This uplifting and fascinating book helps to define the enduring appeal of the objects that surround us and that represent some of the highest achievements of human creativity.

This fascinating, richly illustrated anthology of the lives and careers of some of the most accomplished craftspeople represented in the V&A's collection celebrates the pinnacle of creative accomplishment. Their pioneering designs, techniques, and aesthetic flair resulted in masterpieces that changed the nature and direction of the decorative arts forever. Arranged chronologically from the Renaissance to today, this book contextualizes the makers' biographies through thematic introductions to the history of the decorative arts.

The book features forty illustrated biographies, ranging from furniture-makers such as Thomas Chippendale to wood-carvers such as Grinling Gibbons, and from textile artists including Gunta Stölzl to ceramicists such as Lucie Rie, alongside goldsmiths, enamelists, and many more. It also explores less familiar names who made a significant contribution to their field, brought together by their extraordinary skill and innovative use of technology and materials. While maintaining a focus on makers in Europe and North America, the book also surveys a range of international influences. This volume also explores important moments in the history of the decorative arts, ranging from early modern craft and industrialization through to the Arts and Crafts Movement, and from modernism to the postwar craft revival and beyond. This beautiful, expertly written book will appeal to anyone interested in visual culture.