Peter and Wendy Catharine were the first overseas donors to Made in England. They live in the US, and contacted us when they heard about the project, donating an enormous amount of aesthetic tableware – the fashionable style of the 1870s-1890s. Some of the material they acquired was broken when it arrived, and they were kind enough to give it to us.



They are chiefly interested in industrial ceramics of the period, which are almost post-modern in their use of a range of motifs and styles, put together in surprising and lively combinations.

The Aesthetic Movement has an influence on fashion even to this day. The combination of bare floors, white walls, rugs and prints -- all trademarks of modernism -- began at this time in imitation of Japanese style. It is claimed that E.W.Godwin took his fascination with it as far as making his wife wear a kimono! Peter doesn’t go quite this far.