Names such as Chippendale, Sheraton, de Lamerie, Wedgwood, Spode, William Morris and Ambrose Heal trip off the tongue without much thought – but how many businesswomen within the spectrum of the applied arts can you rustle up? Probably not many. Maybe, you think, this is because women entrepreneurs were almost unheard of in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. But the truth is rather more complex. ‘In the 18th century it was completely accepted that married women might have a business as well as men. The restriction was that they had to do it through their husband’s company or guild,’ says Dr Amy Erickson, Professor of Feminist History at Cambridge University.
How do we know? Amy’s research into 18th-century trade cards reveals many bearing female names. ‘In the City of London, where we can assess employment via court records,
