xxxxxJosiah Wedgwood learnt his
trade in his father's pottery and made a special study of the
ceramic materials, pigments and glazes. He opened his own business
at Burslem, Staffordshire, in 1760, and,
by using a harder version of cream-coloured earthenware, was
soon making a highly popular tableware. Admired by Queen Charlotte
and named "Queen's Ware", it brought him immense sales both at home
and overseas. In 1768 he built a second factory at Etruria in the
"Potteries", where, using jasperware, he specialised in ornamental
pottery in the neo-classical style. In the meantime he also
developed a black stoneware with which he made vases and plaques, a
variety of jewellery, and busts of notable people. He ran his
workplaces with great efficiency, and introduced techniques which
anticipated mass production. He designed new equipment, and he was
the first factory owner to install a steam-powered engine. The
English sculptor John Flaxman was responsible for much of the
classical design work.
JOSIAH WEDGWOOD 1730 - 1795 (G2, G3a,
G3b)
xxxxxJosiah Wedgwood was born in Burslem,
Staffordshire, and, from the age of nine worked in the family pottery.
An ambitious and highly enterprising young man, in 1760
he set up his own business at the Ivy House Factory, and quickly
gained a reputation for the high standard of his workmanship and the
much improved quality of his materials. Inquisitive by nature and with
a scientific turn of mind, he was for ever experimenting with and
developing a whole new range of ceramic materials, pigments and
glazes. Herein was to lie the major reason for his remarkable success.
xxxxxIt was while working at Ivy
House that he produced a much harder version of cream-coloured
earthenware, then available but in a form far too brittle for
practical use. This proved the making of him and his company. This
tableware came to be much admired by Queen Charlotte, and in 1765
she gave permission for it to be known as the "Queen's ware". So
popular did this product become amongst the rising
middle classes that he had to take over Brick House, another factory
nearby, in order to cope with the demand. In the years to come,
Wedgwood was to produce an immense variety of pottery shapes and
designs, but it was this early creamware, tasteful in shape and
decoration and highly durable, which was to be his great money
spinner, attracting as it did huge markets both at home and
overseas. Suffice it to say that in 1775 he produced a 952 dinner
service for Catherine the Great of Russia!
xxxxxIn
1768 he built a new factory near Stoke-on-Trent, at the very
heart of the "Potteries", the country's china and earthenware
industry. Based on his wealth of experience, he furnished it with
ovens, machinery and tools designed to his own specifications.
Initially, this factory was intended for the manufacture of ornamental
pottery in the neo-classical style - particularly vases -
and it was for this reason that he named his new workplace Etruria,
after the region in central
Italy where classical vases had been recently discovered. This new
departure was based on his development of jasperware, so named because
it was hard like the rock. This durable, unglazed porcelain could be
stained in a variety of colours and decorated with white relief
figures and scenes of neo-classical design. Using this material
and technique he made copies of innumerable antique designs, including
the Roman Portland Vase (which had been excavated from a tomb outside
Rome in the early 17th century), notable for white relief decoration
on a dark blue background (illustrated). The
English sculptor John Flaxman was responsible for much of the
classical design work.
xxxxxHe also perfected a black stoneware called
basalt, making a great improvement upon the stained earthenware
hitherto known as "Egyptian black". This enabled him to produce
candlesticks, vases and plaques for interior design, and a wide
variety of jewellery like cameos, bracelets and rings, as well as
life-like busts of notable people, such as past and present
philosophers and writers. Technically speaking, however, it was
probably his fine pearl ware with a bluish tint to its glaze which was
one of his finest achievements in ceramic production.
xxxxxBut Wedgwood was not merely a pottery
designer and manufacturer of remarkable skill. He was also an astute
businessman and an able scientist. His factory at Etruria (illustrated)
was designed "with a view to the strictest economy of labour". As
such, production was on the lines of the future "conveyor belt"
system, in which workers specialised in a particular skill and the
product itself "moved on". And, with the introduction of "transfer
printing" on pottery - a technique purchased by Wedgwood in 1763
- comparatively unskilled artists could be employed, and an
element of mass production could be introduced. And, given his
scientific bent, it is perhaps not surprising that in 1782, Etruria
became the first factory to be installed with a steam-powered
engine, and that, a year later, he was made a fellow of the Royal
Society for his invention of the pyrometer, a device for measuring
high temperatures in his pottery kilns. And other factors also played
a part in Wedgwood's phenomenal success. In 1763, for example, the
Liverpool turnpike road was extended to Burslem, and 1777 saw the
opening of the Trent and Mersey Canal. Such transport improvements
greatly assisted the efficient movement of raw material and the
finished product. It is little wonder that at the time, other pottery
manufacturers - such as Meissen and Sèvres - should feel the
pinch. Many were obliged to imitate the designs coming out of Etruria.
xxxxxAs we shall see, Wedgwood also played an
important part in social reform. In 1787, together with Granville
Sharp and the English cleric Thomas Clarkson, he formed a society for
the abolition of the slave trade. It was this society which, using
William Wilberforce as their spokesman in parliament, succeeded in
persuading the then prime minister, William Pitt, to set up an
investigation into the slave trade. Illustrated here is the society's
seal, designed and made by Wedgwood. It reads: "Am I not a man and a
brother?"
xxxxxFollowing the death of
Wedgwood in 1795, the business continued to thrive, despite growing
competition as time went by. In the early years of the 19th century,
for example, the company supplied a 1,300 piece dinner service to
the White House during the presidency of Theodore
Roosevelt. In 1940, during the Second World
War, Etruria was finally closed down and a modern factory opened at
Barlaston, Staffordshire.
xxxxxWellxworthy of mention is Wedgwood’s able business
partner Thomas Bentley (1730-1780) (illustrated). They met in 1762, and went into
partnership six years later. Bentley worked as the company's London
agent, but he also played an important part in ensuring that the
quality of material and the elegance of design were maintained in all
branches of production. He numbered among his friends the scientists
Benjamin Franklin and Joseph Priestley, and the naturalist Joseph
Banks.
xxxxxIncidentally,
when Wedgwood was in his early teens he lost his right leg as a
result of catching smallpox. This is one of the reasons -
perhaps the major reason - why, unable to take an active part
in the work of the business, he concentrated his efforts on research
and experiments and, as a consequence, jumped so far ahead of his
competitors. ......
xxxxx…… The
famous English naturalist Charles Darwin was the grandson of Josiah
Wedgwood. His mother, Susannah Wedgwood was the daughter of the
pottery designer and manufacturer.
Including:
Sèvres
Porcelain
Acknowledgements
Wedgwood: by the
English portrait painter Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), 18th
century – English Heritage, Downe House, Downe, Kent, England. Etruria: late 18th century print, artist unknown. Seal: Anti-Slavery Medallions can be seen in the
Wedgwood Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, England, and the
British Museum, London. Bentley:
portrait medallion made by Wedgwood.
G3a-1760-1783-G3a-1760-1783-G3a-1760-1783-G3a-1760-1783-G3a-1760-1783-G3a
xxxxxAs noted above, one of the European pottery
manufacturers which was keenly affected by the competition from
Etruria was the French ceramic industry at Sèvres
in south-west Paris. This industry was first established at a
porcelain factory at Vincennes in 1738, but when the king gave it
royal status a new factory was built at Sèvres in 1756, close to the
chateau of its principal patron Madame de Pompadour. By this time, the
soft-paste then used in production had been perfected, some of
the best work being in "biscuit ware", a white marble-like
substance mostly used for figure modelling. As we have seen, François
Boucher was one of a number of contemporary artists brought in to work
on the designs. He produced figures or groups of figures, together
with an abundance of little cupids and nymphs, often nude or scantily
clothed. Also produced were large, presentation vases -
luxuriously gilded - and smaller vessels, generally adorned with
flowers, exotic birds, or pastoral and mythological scenes. As one
might expect, among the wide range of background colours available
were rose Pompadour (Pompadour
pink) and bleu de roi. (King's
blue).
xxxxxThe king took over the factory in 1759, and
two years later the secret of making hard paste porcelain (porcelaine
royale) was discovered, or rather bought. However, it was not
used extensively until the early 1770s, when the required raw material
was found nearer home in the Périogord district. Some of the dinner
services at this time were decorated with birds copied from the book The Natural History of Birds,
the outstanding work by the French naturalist George Buffon. Fashionable too was porcelain in the distinctive
styles of Louis XV and XVI, but with the coming of the French
Revolution the industry was badly hit, and the factory struggled to
survive. However, the 19th century saw a number of technical
innovations, together with the introduction of a better quality hard
paste, and this brought about a marked recovery, led by the Neo-classical
and Egyptian themes of the Napoleonic era.
xxxxxOne of the leading pottery
manufacturers which suffered from Wedgwood competition was the Sèvres works in Paris. This
industry was first established at Vincennes in 1738 and moved to
Sèvres in 1756, by which time the soft-paste used had been
perfected. Biscuit ware was used for figure modelling, together with
vases and vessels decorated with flowers, exotic birds and idyllic
scenes. François Boucher was among the artists providing the
designs. Hard paste was not in general use until the 1770s.Then
porcelain was made in the distinctive styles of Louis XV and XVI,
and bird designs were adopted from The Natural History of Birds, the work by the
naturalist George Buffon. The industry was badly hit by the French
Revolution, but made a remarkable recovery in the 19th century.
Other French factories at this time were at Chantilly, Mennecy and
Limoges. In England, Chelsea, Worcester and Derby were the main
centres, followed by the makes known as Spode and Doulton in the
early 1800s.
xxxxxOther French factories at
this time were located at Chantilly, Mennecy and Limoges -
which became a branch of the Sèvres industry in 1784. Meanwhile in England, Chelsea, Worcester
and Derby were centres of excellence in the porcelain industry. The
Spode factory was established at Stoke-on-Trent in 1770,
and specialised in Chinese designs, but, like Doulton ware, did not
become well known until the 19th century.
xxxxxIncidentally,
you may remember that a work by the 17th century Dutch artist Jacob
Van Ruisdael entitled Le Coup de Soleil
was used by the Sèvres factory around 1836 as a motif on some of its
porcelain. The painting shows a burst of sunlight breaking through
the clouds and illuminating the river below.