HISTORY OF WEDGWOOD
Wedgwood, excellence in design, quality and craftsmanship since 1759.
Josiah Wedgwood, 'The Father of English Potters', was born into a family already noted in the industry. Any one of his many talents could have brought him fame — he was an outstanding scientist, artist and engineer — but his shrewd commercial instinct led him to found his own pottery company in 1759.
Born in 1730 in Burslem Staffordshire, he was the youngest of thirteen children of Thomas and Mary Wedgwood, workers at the local Churchyard Pottery. After serving his apprenticeship as a potter, the grown Josiah was honored by being taken into partnership in 1754 by the renowned Thomas Whieldon of Fenton, the greatest English potter of his time.
By the time he was thirty the industrious Wedgwood had taken what was essentially a cottage industry and brought it into the Industrial Revoultion when he started his own Wedgwood Company in 1759.
In 1765, Wedgwood developed a unique cream-colored earthenware that so pleased England's Queen Charlotte that she gave her permission for his gracious innovation to be dubbed "Queen's Ware". He put fine earthenware within the reach of all and his success was immediate worldwide.
The first ornamental ware to be developed by Wedgwood in 1768 was Black Basalt, an elegant refinement of the crude "Egyptian black" wares of the day. It is still used today for relief plaques, busts, medallions and cameos as well as 'useful wares' for table and vases.
The most famous of all Josiah Wedgwood's innovations, however was this Jasperware, the triumphant outcome of several thousand recorded experiments. This was unglazed vitreous fine stoneware, which could be stained blue, green, lilac, yellow or black to provide a suitable background for white classic-inspired reliefs or portraits. To this day, Jasperware is still recognized around the world as the Wedgwood signature collection.
Josiah Wedgwood died in 1795, a triumphant success. A great social and environmental reformer, he built for his potters a complete village. Etruria. With good housing and a modern factory. He also actively supported the building of the Trent and Mersey Canal to transport his fragile and valuable cargoes faster, more smoothly and at less expense. He created fresh, original designs, many still produced today, and revolutionised the way in which they were made.
The Wedgwood name and heritage lives on. In the 1930s, the fifth Josiah Wedgwood purchased 382 acres in Barleston and a built a new, expansive, modern all-electric Wedgwood factory. Progress and production methods at Barlaston have been matched by far-sighted management and a vigorous design policy. The factory has expanded to four times its original size and has become a showpiece of British industry.
In 1986, the Wedgwood group became and division of WWRD Holding Limited, whose products have garnered eleven Queen's Awards to industry for export achievement. Waterford Wedgwood is now the largest tabletop manufacturer worldwide.
www.wedgwoodmuseum.org.uk
|
© 2010 WWRD
