Wedgewood
Wedgwood is possibly the most famous English pottery manufacturer and has produced china tableware and giftware patterns that are considered amongst England’s finest.
It’s founder, Josiah Wedgwood I, is often referred to as the ‘father of English potters’.
After working for Thomas Whieldon, Josiah started the business in 1759 when relatives leased him premises in Burslem and his new bride Sarah brought a sizeable dowry that enabled him to launch the new venture.
He produced a new type of earthenware in 1765 that so impressed Queen Charlotte that she gave him permission to call it ‘Queen’s Ware’. It went on to sell extremely well across Europe. Wedgwood was an innovator and amongst other things he devised a way to accurately measure kiln temperatures and produced new ware types such as Black Basalt and Jasperware. See Jasperware above.
In 1783, in recognition of his pyrometer for measuring the heat of kilns he was elected a member of the Royal Society.
The main Wedgwood design motifs for most of his pottery were heavily influenced by ancient cultures which were being rediscovered through at the time as the British Empire grew. The mythologies of Egypt, Greece and Rome provided particularly fertile ground for artists imaginations. Wedgwood employed some highly talented artists such as John Flaxman, Lady Elizabeth Templetown, George Stubbs, Emma Crewe and Lay Diana Beauclerk.
Wedgwood experimented with and had increasing success with hard-paste porcelain which attempted to imitate the brilliant whiteness of the wares being imported from China. Known as ‘white gold’ this porcelain was highly sought after by the ruling elites of Europe. The demanding journey and high transport costs meant that imported chinese ware could not keep up with demand, which in turn drove the prices up.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century the race was on to find a clay formula that could reproduce the whiteness and translucence of Chinese porcelain and other potters in The Potteries area of Staffordshire (Spode in particular) started to produce bone china which became an extremely popular alternative to the Chinese product.
Wedgwood introduced their own bone china in 1812 which was not a commercial success to start with, although it went on to become a valuable part of their thriving business.
Wedgwood still operates today producing not only the finest china tableware, but also exquisite pieces of art ware for collectors all over the world