This thesis discusses hand-painted decoration on British ceramics in the period 1870 to 1920 in the context of changing economic and social climates and gendered employment and occupation. The original impetus for this research came from analysis of ware produced at the South Wales Pottery in Llanelli sometime in the period 1877 to 1920. As the research expanded and links with other potteries were established, it became evident that varied innovations in hand-painted ceramic decoration were influenced by national, local and gendered responses to a period of transition in Britain.