Take it a stage further and what purpose does a craftsman have without a customer to use and enjoy their workmanship.
Victorian England was the first mass consumer society, wealth grew rapidly as did the range and variety of mass produced goods. Arts and Crafts ideals were not well accepted by the general consumer, dull, primitive, shaby looking and often lower quality goods cost much more than the products of the industrial revolution. Arts and Crafts products found a place in the market amongst the upper classes, nouveau-riche and arty sets. Those who enjoyed fine things were discovering that beautiful objects, until then the preserve of the wealthy, were rapidly appearing in the homes of ordinary folk. Gone was their ability to express their style, individuality and modernity as prized and valued possessions were soon copied and available at low prices for all and sundry to purchase. William Morris made an implicit promise in his marketing, that his designs would only be made by craftsmen and the purchasers of his designs would never see his designs on mass produced items. But his own factory did use some machinery and did buy in mass produced plain tiles for decorating and the quality of his tiles rarely came close to equalling the mass produced tiles he despised.
Predictably many designers following the Arts and Crafts movement's lead looked to the middle ages for influence and found there stylised designs of natures abundance. Many designers did not want to limit their work to the eyes of a few, they wanted all the world to share the beauty they saw in their designs. So the aesthetic movement was born, they drew on medieval styles but brought them via modern technology in to the realm of the man in the street.
Traditional styles were not the only palette of arts and crafts artists, to the contrary modern styles were adopted and developed whilst fashioned using 'traditional' materials and techniques.
