Copper & Brass Work In The Arts & Crafts Guilds And Schools

The technological upheaval of the Industrial Revolution had transformed Victorian Britain from a largely agrarian and rural society into a country with many urban conurbations and workers often enduring terrible conditions and mindless repetitive work. From the 1850’s John Ruskin had championed the plight of the worker and denounced British society as being based on a greed that created misery in inverse proportion. He advocated raising the lot of the working class and thus society in general through education and development of the individual. He greatly admired medieval society, which he believed was based on craft, artisanship, dignity in labour and the freedom to express one’s individuality. In 1871 in an ambitious attempt to bring about social reform and the destruction of industrialism Ruskin helped establish the Guild of St. George. The aim was to create a society based on medieval feudalism with craftsmanship and quality of life at the core. With a donation of