Wedgwood

Wedgwood has been an international company for over two centuries. Founded in 1759 by Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795), who is remembered as ‘the Father of English Potters’. He was born in Burslem, Staffordshire in the heart of the English potteries. He served his apprenticeship as a potter before setting up his own business in 1759.

By 1766 he had prospered sufficiently to build a new factory, which he named Etruria. Josiah was to sow the first seeds of the innovative spirit that continues to be an integral part of Wedgwood. During his lifetime he invented and produced what remain today three of Wedgwood’s most famous ceramic bodies:

• Queen’s Ware (1762)
• Black Basalt (1768)
• Jasper (1774)
  

In the 19th century important progress was made at the Wedgwood factory in the use of new machinery, the introduction of the first coloured earthenware bodies and, most importantly, the manufacture of bone china. Wedgwood bone china tableware was to grace the tables of many illustrious homes throughout the world including the dinner service that President Theodore Roosevelt ordered for the White House.

During the 1930’s Wedgwood’s success continued and in order to increase efficiency the 5th Josiah Wedgwood decided to build a new factory. A country estate near the village of Barlaston was purchased and a new, modern factory was built. Production started in the 1940’s and has continued at the site ever since. Here Wedgwood continues its living tradition of progress in design, in production methods and in the skills of its many craftspeople. In 2000 a modern visitor centre was added to the complex to cater for the huge interest in Wedgwood.

Wedgwood now employs more than 2,000 people and distributes to 90 countries throughout the world all the while holding high a reputation as purveyors of luxury goods. Today as well as being able to draw from an enviable treasure trove of pattern and design archives the collaboration with international designers has expanded their design credentials even further. Vera Wang, Jasper Conran, Barbara Barry and Martha Stewart have all been fitting partners for Wedgwood.

After a short partnership with Thomas Whieldon, Josiah opened for business at Ivy House in 1759, a humble start to 250 years of ceramic innovation and pioneering spirit. It was there that he developed the wildly popular cream coloured earthenware that became known as Queen's Ware, in honour of its patron Queen Charlotte. This marked the beginning of Wedgwood's ongoing relationship with many illustrious patrons. Indeed Wedgwood has been laid on many a grand table, to name a few: the Empress Catherine of Russia, President Theodore Roosevelt and Queen Elizabeth II.

Josiah quickly moved into larger premises in 1764 and then in 1769 (the same year that he made a business partner of Thomas Bentley) moved into the newly built Etruria works. This became home to Wedgwood for the next 180 years. And it was here at Etruria that he enjoyed his great creative triumphs, Black Basalt, Jasper, the Portland Vase. His maverick business and marketing genius coupled with his finely tuned aesthetic values sealed the company's success. Josiah courted patrons and understood fashion and his ceramics became almost ridiculously popular. There was even reported "...a violent vase madness breaking out among the Irish".

After Josiah's death in 1795, the Wedgwood factory continued to pioneer feats of ceramic innovation. Highlights included the introduction of bone china, Daisy Makeig-Jones' Fairyland Lustre, the sculptural ceramics of John Skeaping and the marvelous illustrations of Eric Ravilious. Towards the end of the 1930's Wedgwood had outgrown the Etruria factory and they resettled in 1938, making a home at the new Barlaston factory just south of Stoke-on-Trent where Josiah the 5th laid the foundation stone.

By 1950 Wedgwood was fully operational in a state of the art factory and firmly set on a clear path of growth. And grow it did. In the decades that followed Wedgwood spread across international markets particularly in America and Japan acquiring other great pottery brands along the way. Then in 1986, the Wedgwood group merged with Waterford Crystal to form the Waterford Wedgwood Group.

Josiah Wedgwood (1730 - 1795)
Josiah Wedgwood the 1st was the 12th and youngest child of Thomas and Mary Wedgwood of the Churchyard Works in Burslem. From humble beginnings and overcoming frequent bouts of ill health, including smallpox at the age of 12, he ultimately became a renowned and successful businessman whose name is revered worldwide.

It is well known that he perfected a number of ceramic bodies and developed the unique Jasper ware, which is now synonymous with his name. Equally famous is his outstanding achievement of recreating the cameo-glass Portland vase in this celebrated ware. The outline of this vase has become the symbol of Wedgwood around the world and is today incorporated into the company logo.

Josiah began his education at the age of six, walking seven miles a day to attend school at Newcastle-under-Lyme, but three years later his father died and he was apprenticed to his eldest brother at the Churchyard Pottery to learn ‘the Art, Mistery, Occupation or Imployment of Throwing and Handleing’. Then disaster struck in 1742 when Josiah fell victim to the smallpox epidemic that had reached Burslem. Confined to his bed for many months, the boy spent his time reading avidly to improve his education. The serious disease had left him with a permanently weakened right knee so that he could not operate the foot pedal on the wheel. Instead Josiah learned other pottery skills such as modeling.

At the end of his apprenticeship he went on to have a business relationship with two potters John Harrison and Thomas Alders of Stoke. In 1754 Josiah was taken into junior partnership with the finest English potter of the time Thomas Whieldon. Here he was encouraged to experiment with glazes, bodies, colours and shapes and from 1759 he began keeping his detailed Experiment Books. Having been given such freedom to experiment as well as opportunities to visit the bustling industrial city of Birmingham, Josiah began dreaming of having his own business. In 1759 his chance came when two relatives, Thomas and John Wedgwood, agreed to lease him the Ivy House works in Burslem the ‘mother town’ of the Potteries. And so it was that on May Day Wedgwood company came into being.

In 1762, on one of his many visits to Liverpool, Josiah met Thomas Bentley with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. Bentley’s taste, knowledge of the arts and social contacts were of inestimable value to Wedgwood and his influence was paramount in the success of the firm during their later partnership. In January 1764, Josiah married Sarah Wedgwood a distant cousin and the other important influence in Josiah’s life. Sarah (or ‘Sally’ as she was known) was the daughter of a prosperous cheese merchant. There is no doubt that it was a marriage of love. Wedgwood described their relationship to Bentley as ‘two married lovers, happy as this world can make them’.

The following year saw the birth of Susannah (also known as Sukey the Wedgwoods’ first child “so like her father!” exclaimed Josiah. Of the eight children of the marriage the eldest, Susannah, became the mother of the naturalist, Charles Darwin FRS, author of ‘The Origin of Species’ and John, the eldest son, was a co-founder of the Royal Horticultural Society while another son Thomas became famous after his death as one of the inventors of photography.

The year 1764 also saw Josiah securing the first of many important patrons in the shape of Sir William Meredith, MP for Liverpool. In 1765 he sought a commission from Her Majesty Queen Charlotte and provided a tea and coffee service in his newly evolved earthenware body, thus gaining Royal assent for the name Queen’s Ware – a name we still use today. Queen Charlotte graciously allowed Wedgwood to style himself as ‘Potter to Her Majesty’.

The year of 1765 was a busy one indeed for Josiah for he also threw his energies into promoting a canal to join the Trent and Mersey rivers. Also known as the Grand Navigation, the canal took eleven years (from 1766 to 1777) to complete. Wedgwood not only traveled widely to gain support for the venture but also corresponded with Erasmus Darwin on the subject. Celebrated engineer James Brindley worked on the venture before his death due to diabetes in 1772. Josiah’s energy was a vital factor in the completion of the canal that opened up the continental trade through Liverpool and reduced transport costs from 10d to 1½d per ton-mile.

During the mid 1760’s a strong business relationship was being established between Wedgwood and Bentley who were already the closest of friends. Bentley, a Liverpool merchant, was selling Josiah's wares, particularly Queen's Ware. After an enthusiastic courtship on Wedgwood's side, the partnership documents were eventually signed on 10th August 1769. Despite the success of his business, Josiah somehow found time during this period to pursue his experiments, discuss scientific, political and philosophical issues with the many friends he had made on his own account and through Bentley and to enjoy his life at home with Sally and the children. All did not run completely smoothly, however. At the end of May 1768 the decision to amputate Josiah’s leg was taken and this was done midway between the knee and hip. Wedgwood endured the pain of an operation without anaesthetics remarkably well and made a swift recovery.

In 1766, Wedgwood had purchased the Ridgehouse estate in Staffordshire where his new factory, Etruria, was to be built as well as a Georgian mansion, Etruria Hall, for himself and his family. The opening of Etruria on 13th June 1769 was celebrated with the throwing of the now famous First Day’s Vases. Aware of the benefits of education, Wedgwood decided that his children should be educated. French, Latin, 'Writing and Accounts', drawing, English, exercise - all these and more were included in Josiah's instructions to the teachers he employed. In addition each child had a plot of land in order that they could grow crops.

The years of the partnership with Bentley were probably Josiah's happiest and most prosperous. The two men complemented each other perfectly - the inventive, mercurial, ambitious and tireless Wedgwood tempered by the sensible and educated Bentley with his entrepreneurial ability. Along with his previous work to develop the Black Basalt body, Wedgwood developed the famous Jasper ware whilst at Etruria. In 1774 they received a major commission for the ‘frog’ service supplied to Empress Catherine II of Russia.

In November 1780, Bentley died, aged 50. It was a bitter blow for Wedgwood. Josiah Wedgwood had lost his closest friend and he turned to Thomas Byerley, a nephew whom he had taken into the business as a young lad in 1775 and who, after an extremely reckless adolescence, was maturing into a useful businessman, though no match for Bentley. As a personal confidant he chose Darwin, but this eccentric genius could never replace Bentley either.

Life had to go on and Josiah became engrossed in the invention of the pyrometer, a device for measuring higher degrees of heat in the kilns. The paper was communicated by Josiah to the President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks. It was read to the Society at the meeting on the 9th May 1782. As a result, Josiah was elected to a Fellowship in January 1783.

Despite missing Bentley's flair, the business prospered though there were to be no more innovations of the stature of Queen's Ware, Black Basalt and Jasper. But one last major ceramic achievement laid ahead - the Portland Vase. Creating a facsimile of this 25BC cameo glass vase, originally known as the Barberini, in Jasper was a daunting challenge and as such it enthused Wedgwood. Although he first started work on the Portland Vase in 1786, the first copy that met Josiah's standards of perfection was produced in September 1789.

In 1790, Wedgwood took his sons Jos, Tom and John and Tom Byerley into partnership, although Tom and John left in 1793.

At the end of 1794 Josiah was diagnosed with 'mortification of the mouth' by Erasmus Darwin, having believed initially that he was suffering from nothing but a decayed stump of a tooth. His illness came on quickly and having gone into a coma, he died on the 3rd January 1795. Today Josiah Wedgwood is remembered today as the 'Father of English Potters'.

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