Wedgwood, Josiah

From New World Encyclopedia
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Later that decade, his burgeoning business caused him to move from the smaller Ivy Works to the newly-built [[Etruria Works]], which would run for 180 years. The factory was so-named after the [[Etruria]] district of [[Italy]], where black [[porcelain]] dating to [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] times was being excavated. Wedgwood found this porcelain inspiring, and his first major commercial success was its duplication with what he called "Black Basalt." Wedgwood hired a famous artist to work at Etruria, the sculptor [[John Flaxman]], whose wax portraits and other relief figures he translated into jasperware.
 
Later that decade, his burgeoning business caused him to move from the smaller Ivy Works to the newly-built [[Etruria Works]], which would run for 180 years. The factory was so-named after the [[Etruria]] district of [[Italy]], where black [[porcelain]] dating to [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] times was being excavated. Wedgwood found this porcelain inspiring, and his first major commercial success was its duplication with what he called "Black Basalt." Wedgwood hired a famous artist to work at Etruria, the sculptor [[John Flaxman]], whose wax portraits and other relief figures he translated into jasperware.
  
 +
[[Image:Portland Vase by Wedgwood - view 2.jpg|thumb|150px|Black basalt ceramic vase ,c. 1790 (Cleveland Museum of Art)]]
 
Wedgwood’s enormous and diverse accomplishments dominated the European market. His style of wares appealed in particular to the rising European bourgeois class, and factories that produced porcelain and faience suffered severely and many went out of business in competition with him. Those that did survive turned to the useful creamware production to stay in business. Wedgwood's jasperwares were imitated in biscuit porcelain at the factory at [[Sèvres]], and [[Meissen]] produced a glazed version called "Wedgwoodarbeit."
 
Wedgwood’s enormous and diverse accomplishments dominated the European market. His style of wares appealed in particular to the rising European bourgeois class, and factories that produced porcelain and faience suffered severely and many went out of business in competition with him. Those that did survive turned to the useful creamware production to stay in business. Wedgwood's jasperwares were imitated in biscuit porcelain at the factory at [[Sèvres]], and [[Meissen]] produced a glazed version called "Wedgwoodarbeit."
  
[[Image:Portland Vase by Wedgwood - view 2.jpg|thumb|180px|Black basalt ceramic vase ,c. 1790 (Cleveland Museum of Art)]]
 
 
Not long after the new works opened, continuing trouble with his smallpox-afflicted knee made necessary the [[amputation]] of his right leg. In 1780, his long-time business partner [[Thomas Bentley]] died, and Wedgwood turned to Darwin for help in running the business. As a result of the close association that grew up between the Wedgwood and Darwin families, Josiah's eldest daughter would later marry Erasmus' son. One of the children of that marriage, [[Charles Darwin]], would also marry a Wedgwood — [[Emma Wedgwood|Emma]], Josiah's granddaughter. Essentially, this double-barreled inheritance of Josiah's money permitted Charles Darwin the life of leisure that allowed him the time to formulate his theory of evolution.  
 
Not long after the new works opened, continuing trouble with his smallpox-afflicted knee made necessary the [[amputation]] of his right leg. In 1780, his long-time business partner [[Thomas Bentley]] died, and Wedgwood turned to Darwin for help in running the business. As a result of the close association that grew up between the Wedgwood and Darwin families, Josiah's eldest daughter would later marry Erasmus' son. One of the children of that marriage, [[Charles Darwin]], would also marry a Wedgwood — [[Emma Wedgwood|Emma]], Josiah's granddaughter. Essentially, this double-barreled inheritance of Josiah's money permitted Charles Darwin the life of leisure that allowed him the time to formulate his theory of evolution.  
  

Revision as of 18:22, 19 November 2008

Josiah Wedgwood

Josiah Wedgwood (July 12, 1730 - January 3, 1795, born Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent) was an English pottery designer and manufacturer, outstanding in his scientific approach to pottery making and known for his exhaustive researches into materials, logical deployment of labor, and sense of business organization. He apprenticed with Thomas Whieldon of Fenton Low, Staffordshire, probably the leading potter of his day.

He is credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. He perfected a cream-colored earthenware that, with the sanction of Queen Charlotte in 1765, was called Queen’s ware. He also invented Jasperware and black basalt ware in imitation of Greek red-figure vases. He created the pyrometer (a device for measuring high temperatures-invaluable for gauging oven heats for firings) which earned him commendation as a fellow of the Royal Society.

He worked toward efficient factory organization, and improving transportation of raw materials and finished wares by canals, such as the Grand Trunk Canal.

He was a member of the Darwin-Wedgwood family, his daughter Susannah, married John Darwin, their son was Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution.

Biography

Early life

Jasperware cameo of Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1775)

Born the thirteenth and youngest child of Thomas Wedgwood and Mary Wedgwood (née Stringer; d. 1766), Josiah was raised within a family of English Dissenters. After his father's death, he began to train on the potter's wheel for which he showed much talent. He survived a childhood bout of smallpox to serve as an apprentice potter (1744) under his eldest brother Thomas Wedgwood IV. Smallpox left Josiah with a permanently weakened knee, which made him unable to work the foot pedal of a potter's wheel. As a result, he concentrated from an early age on designing pottery rather than making it. His brother Thomas refused to let him become a partner in his business so Josiah worked at a small pottery run by John Harrison.

In his early twenties, Wedgwood began working with the most renowned English pottery-maker of his day, Thomas Whieldon. There he began experimenting with a wide variety of pottery techniques, an experimentation that coincided with the nearby burgeoning early industrial city of Manchester. Wedgwood made many models himself, and also prepared clay mixes. He became a master of current pottery techniques and then began his “experiment book,” an invaluable source on Staffordshire pottery. Wedgwood then leased the Ivy Works in his home town of Burslem and set to work there. Over the course of the next decade, his experimentation (and a considerable injection of capital from his marriage to a richly endowed distant cousin, Sarah Wedgwood) transformed the sleepy artisan works into the first true pottery factory.

Marriage and children

Etruria Hall, the family home, built 1768–1771 by Joseph Pickford. It was restored as part of the 1986 Stoke-on-Trent Garden Festival and is now part of a four-star hotel.

Wedgwood married Sarah Wedgwood (a third cousin)and had seven children:

  • Susannah Wedgwood (1765–1817) (married Robert Darwin, parents of the English naturalist Charles Darwin)
  • John Wedgwood (1766–1844)
  • Josiah Wedgwood II (1769–1843)
  • Thomas Wedgwood (1771–1805) (no children)
  • Catherine Wedgwood (1774–1823) (no children)
  • Sarah Wedgwood (1776–1856) (no children)
  • Mary Anne Wedgwood

Work

Dessert dishes, 1760-70, creamware design, lead glazed earthenware with painted decoration

Wedgwood's work was of very high quality. and when visiting his workshop, if he saw an offending vessel that failed to meet with his standards, he would smash it with his stick, exclaiming, "This will not do for Josiah Wedgwood!" He was also keenly interested in the scientific advances of his day and it was this interest that underpinned his adoption of its approach and methods to revolutionize the quality of his pottery. His unique glazes began to distinguish Josiah's wares from anything else on the market.

His fortune was first made in the 1760s with the cream-colored earthenware (in the popular Neoclassical style) for the table, known as 'useful ware’ which always remained the bedrock of his business. It filled a long-felt need for good tableware that the middle class could afford, and it established a two century standard for variants of cream-colored domestic ware.

By 1763 he was receiving orders from the highest levels of the British nobility, including Queen Charlotte. Wedgwood convinced her to let him name the line of pottery she purchased, "Queen's Ware," and trumpeted the royal association in his paperwork and stationery. In 1774 the Empress Catherine of Russia ordered the Green Frog Service from Wedgwood; it can still be seen in the Hermitage Museum.[1] An even earlier commission from Catherine was the Husk Service (1770), now on exhibit in Peterhof. Overall there was a sizable service of 952 pieces made in 1774 for the empress.

Blue and cream Jasperware plate

The invention in Liverpool in 1755 of transfer printing on pottery by John Sadler and Guy Green allowed Wedgwood to purchase the right to use the technique in 1763, which in turn enabled the decoration of wares to be done by comparatively unskilled workers. But the more elaborate and costly Wedgwood pieces were decorated by hand.

He is most famous for Jasperware, which is a white slightly translucent unglazed stoneware that could take on a tint of various colors. He first used blue and green, and later followed with lilac and yellow. The designs were often inspired by cameo carvings. Ornamental appliques in white (made separately in molds) were applied to the piece. A dynamic contrast of white on a colored background imitated the antique cameos of hardstone and glass popular in Europe, England and America. Other new wares followed the jasper collection: rosso antico (red porcelain), cane, drab, chocolate, and olive wares—created by adding coloring oxides. Wedgwood explored every kind of shape and function in a careful scientific manner which maintained his high standard of pottery.

As a burgeoning industrialist, Wedgwood was a major backer of the Trent and Mersey Canal dug between the River Trent and River Mersey in an effort to improve the transportation of his wares, during which time he became friends with Erasmus Darwin.

Classic Wedgwood plate with design
Wedgwood trademark on back of plate

Later that decade, his burgeoning business caused him to move from the smaller Ivy Works to the newly-built Etruria Works, which would run for 180 years. The factory was so-named after the Etruria district of Italy, where black porcelain dating to Etruscan times was being excavated. Wedgwood found this porcelain inspiring, and his first major commercial success was its duplication with what he called "Black Basalt." Wedgwood hired a famous artist to work at Etruria, the sculptor John Flaxman, whose wax portraits and other relief figures he translated into jasperware.

Black basalt ceramic vase ,c. 1790 (Cleveland Museum of Art)

Wedgwood’s enormous and diverse accomplishments dominated the European market. His style of wares appealed in particular to the rising European bourgeois class, and factories that produced porcelain and faience suffered severely and many went out of business in competition with him. Those that did survive turned to the useful creamware production to stay in business. Wedgwood's jasperwares were imitated in biscuit porcelain at the factory at Sèvres, and Meissen produced a glazed version called "Wedgwoodarbeit."

Not long after the new works opened, continuing trouble with his smallpox-afflicted knee made necessary the amputation of his right leg. In 1780, his long-time business partner Thomas Bentley died, and Wedgwood turned to Darwin for help in running the business. As a result of the close association that grew up between the Wedgwood and Darwin families, Josiah's eldest daughter would later marry Erasmus' son. One of the children of that marriage, Charles Darwin, would also marry a Wedgwood — Emma, Josiah's granddaughter. Essentially, this double-barreled inheritance of Josiah's money permitted Charles Darwin the life of leisure that allowed him the time to formulate his theory of evolution.

Erasmus Darwin encouraged him to invest in steam-powered engines, and in 1782 Etruria was the first factory to install such an engine.

French style urn of Wedgwood ceramic

In the latter part of his life, Wedgwood's obsession was to duplicate the Portland Vase, a blue and white glass vase dating to the first century B.C.E. For three years he worked on the project, eventually producing what he considered a satisfactory copy in 1789. After passing on his company to his sons, Wedgwood died at home, probably of cancer of the jaw, in 1795. He was buried three days later in the parish church of Stoke-on-Trent. Seven years later a marble memorial tablet commissioned by his sons was installed there.

He belonged to the fourth generation of a family of potters whose traditional occupation continued through another five generations. Wedgwood's company is still a famous name in pottery today (as part of Waterford Wedgwood; see Waterford Crystal), and "Wedgwood China" is the commonly used term for his Jasperware, the blue (or sometimes green) china with overlaid white decoration, still common throughout the world.

Anti-slavery image

He was an active member of the Lunar Society and is remembered on the Moonstones in Birmingham. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1783 for the development of a pyrometer.

He was also a prominent slavery abolitionist. He mass produced cameos depicting the seal for the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade and had them widely distributed, which thereby became a popular and celebrated image. The actual design of the cameo was probably done by either William Hackwood or Henry Webber who were modelers in his factory.[1]

See also

  • Pottery
  • Ceramic (art)
  • Porcelain
  • Waterford Crystal
  • Jasperware
  • Staffordshire pottery
  • Darwin-Wedgwood family

Notes

  1. "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" pbs.org Retrieved November 18, 2008.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Burton, William. Josiah Wedgwood and His Pottery 1922.
  • Church, Sir Arthur H. Josiah Wedgwood, Master Potter 1903.
  • Dolan, Brian. Wedgwood: The First Tycoon, Viking Adult, 2004. ISBN 0670033464
  • Honey, William B. Wedgwood Ware, 1948.
  • Mankowitz, Wolf and Reginald G. Hagger, The Concise Encyclopedia of English Pottery and Porcelain, 1957.
  • Mankowitz, Wolf. Wedgwood, 1953.

External links

Credits

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