Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795)

Josiah Wedgwood (July 12, 1730 – January 3, 1795, born Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent) was an English potter, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. He was a member of the Darwin — Wedgwood family, most famously including his grandson, Charles Darwin.

Born the twelfth and youngest child of Thomas Wedgwood III and Mary Wedgwood, Josiah was raised within a family of English Dissenters. He survived a childhood bout of smallpox to serve as an apprentice potter 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.

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 burgeoning early industrial city of Manchester, which was nearby. Inspired, Wedgwood leased the Ivy Works in his home town of Burslem and set to work. 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.

Wedgwood's work was of very high quality (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!"). Wedgwood 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.

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 the early 1770s the Empress Catherine of Russia ordered the Green Frog Service from Wedgwood; it can still be seen in the Hermitage Museum. As a burgeoning industrialist, Wedgwood was a major backer of the Trent and Mersey Canal dug between the River Trent and River Mersey, during which time he became friends with Erasmus Darwin.

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". 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 eventually led to the formulation of his theory of evolution.

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 CE. 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 in 1795.

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.

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. He was also a prominent slavery abolitionist. His home Etruria Hall, built 1768–1771 by Joseph Pickford, was restored as part of the 1986 Stoke-on-Trent Garden Festival is now part of a four-star hotel.

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Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd

of Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. (1947)

The youngest child of the potter Thomas Wedgwood, Josiah came from a family whose members had been potters since the 1600's.

• 1730 Born July 12, 1730, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England.

• 1739 After his father's death in 1739, he worked in the family business at Churchyard Works, Burslem, becoming exceptionally skilful at the potter's wheel.

• 1744 Became an apprentice to his elder brother Thomas. However an attack of smallpox seriously reduced his work (the disease later affected his right leg, which was then amputated); the result of this inactivity, enabled him to read, research, and experiment in his craft as a Master Potter.

• 1752-3 In 1749 Thomas (Josiah's elder brother) refused his proposal for partnership and Josiah formed a brief partnership with John Harrison at Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

• 1754 Wedgwood formed a partnership with Thomas Whieldon of Fenton Low, Stoke-on-Trent, probably the leading potter of his day. This became a fruitful partnership, enabling Wedgwood to become a master of current pottery techniques. He then began what he called his "experiment book," an invaluable source on Staffordshire pottery.

• 1759 After inventing the improved green glaze which is still popular today, Wedgwood finished his partnership with Whieldon and went into business for himself at the Ivy House factory in Burslem.

• 1762 On one of his frequent visits to Liverpool to arrange export of his ware, Wedgwood met the merchant Thomas Bentley. Because the sale of his ware had spread from the British Isles to the Continent, Wedgwood expanded his business to the nearby Brick House (or Bell Works) factory.

• 1765 Queen Charlotte's patronage of Wedgwood's cream-coloured earthenware led the well finished earthenware which Wedgwood produced to be called Queen's ware which, by virtue of its durable material and serviceable forms, became the standard domestic pottery and enjoyed a worldwide market.

• 1768 The merchant Bentley became his partner in the manufacture of decorative items that were primarily unglazed stonewares in various colours, produced and decorated in the popular style of Neoclassicism.
  • Chief among these wares were:
    • black basalts, which by the addition of special painting (using pigments mixed with hot wax, which are burned in as an inlay), could be used to imitate Greek red-figure vases; and
    • jasper, a fine-grained vitreous body resulting from the high firing of paste containing barium sulphate.
• 1771 Wedgwood built a factory called Etruria, for the production of his ornamental vases. Later the manufacture of useful wares was also transferred. (At this site his descendants carried on the business until 1940, when the factory was relocated at Barlaston, near Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire - the Etruria site was used as part of the "National Garden Festival" and Wedgwood's great house can still be seen as it has been incorporated into an hotel.

• 1774 Evidence of the popularity of Wedgwood's creamware is found in the massive service of 952 pieces made for Empress Catherine the Great of Russia.

• 1775 Jasper's introduction was followed by other wares such as: - rosso antico (red porcelain), cane, drab, chocolate, and olive wares.

• 1782 Etruria was the first factory to install a steam-powered engine.

• 1795 After Wedgwood's death in Etruria on January 3, his descendants carried on the business, which still produces many of his designs.

• 1947 Advert in British Industries Fair Catalogue as Exhibiting Member of the British Pottery Manufacturers' Federation of Federation House, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Composite Exhibit. (Pottery and Glassware Section)

Sources of Information

• [1] Wikipedia
• [2] The Potteries Website
• 1947 British Industries Fair Adverts 398 and 399