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The most outstanding figure in the Arts and Crafts movement was the British designer William Morris. Following the socialist ideas raised by the writer and art criticiser John Ruskin, Morris was convinced that the return at the medieval levels of crafts, the rejection to the mechanized production, and the use of good materials would contribute to improve the quality of life, as much of the craftsmen as of those who used their products. Many designers followed the Morris ideas, including Gustav Stickley (with the popular antique stickley furniture) and Charles Rohlfs in the United States. Although the designers developed to styles and characteristic individual designs, all the Arts and Crafts pieces characterized themselves by simple forms, with moderate ornamentation and the emphasis put in revealing the beauty of the materials. It is necessary to look for cabochon stones in silver and jewelry, tail assembled in milano or the oblique joints in the furniture.

Closely allied with the Arts and Crafts was the aesthetic movement that promoted the “art by the art” ideal, in an effort to reform the design, strongly influenced by the simplest forms of the Japanese art. In spite of the socialist philosophy of the movement, the Arts and Crafts pieces are expensive and they were only bought by the more accommodated classes. At the beginning of the 20th century many craftsmen remained without work due to the commercial imitation of their articles.