Industrial design is the discipline of designing objects for mass production by machine, balancing appearance, function, cost and the practicalities of manufacture. In the antiques and collecting world, the term also describes the well-designed factory-made lamps, furniture, metalwork, ceramics and appliances of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The Industrial Revolution made it possible to produce goods in vast quantities, but early manufactured wares were often criticised for poor design. Reformers responded by trying to raise standards, and the Victorian designer Christopher Dresser is often described as one of the first independent industrial designers, producing metalwork, glass and ceramics for numerous manufacturers. In the early twentieth century, Peter Behrens designed buildings, products and graphics for the German company AEG, and the Bauhaus school promoted functional design suited to industrial production. Between the wars, designers in Britain, Europe and the United States applied streamlined and modernist ideas to everything from radios to furniture. Collectable examples include tubular steel chairs, the Anglepoise lamp, factory and workshop lighting, enamelled signs and early plastics. Collectors look for designer attribution, original finishes and manufacturer's marks. Industrial pieces now sit comfortably alongside older antiques in loft apartments, kitchens and contemporary country interiors.
