Fe SEE Sa SS a A eee YS ee ce se ee eee [rrsrss — ea aS Pare i im ST re Serres Serscts treet ites T tenvess 07H byes Ponto) Eg t@tlaagpnts cette Eat srr ce CrESEr= |) CERNE! CEST vireo st Ce OI SEe eliedtgT + | Beas PORTFOLIO MONOGRAPHS ON ARTISTIC SUBJECTS 3 EDITED BY P. G. HAMERTON i PUBLISHED MONTHLY 4 Whee ees es ———— March, 1894 Josiah = | , Wedgwood | by 1) eg PROFESSOR CHURCH a Lonnon: SEELEY AND CO., LIMITED, ESSEX STREET, STRAND ! iq Sold by 1 i Paris: Liprarrte Garicnani, 225 Rug pe Rivor. Berti: A. Asner & Co, 13 Unter pen Linpen |; New York :.Macminian & Co. ! Price Half-a-crown THE PORTFOLIO. OLD WEDGWOOD, - Mr. RATHBONE, having for the past twenty yea given his chief attention to this beautiful English art, has a thoroug knowledge of every variety of decorative work produced t Wedgwood and Wedgewood and Bentley during the early, midd and best periods from 1762-1795. Collectors and amateu interested are invited, and always welcome, to inspect his collectio which usually includes some of the finest known examples. 20 ALFRED PLACE WEST, SouTH KENSINGTON, (Near Musennes. and Railway Stations), LONDON, S.W. IN COURSE OF PUBLICATION. AT E GH EM I ST RY To be completed in ee ae 1 and 2.are a * The MASTERPIECES of old WEDGWOC PAINTS & PAINTING No eS ; CONSISTING OF REPRESENTATIONS OF BY Sivty of the Finest Specimens of th i: tt A ee OU RCH, : oe a oe ; in Public and Private Collections in Englan ERQEESIOR 2OR designed and produced in Chromo by Messrs. Part ; ‘ & Co. of Paris, with descriptive text by F. RAT Chemistry in the Royal Academy of Arts. BONE, the well-known expert of Wedgwood ware. This grand work will be published in 8 Parts at One Guin each. It is hoped that the work will be completed by t end of 1894. PRICE 5/- Purchasers bind themselves to take the complete wa for £8 8s. SEELEY AND CO., LimirTep, Essex STREET, STRAND. BERNARD QUARITCH, 15 Piccadilly, Londo Second Edition. Crown Svo, eloth. LIFE OF ALBERT DURER. By Mrs. CHARLES HEATON. Ne Edition. With Portrait and Sixteen Illustrations. Cloth, ros. 6d. “Tn its present form Mrs. Heaton’s work deserves high commendation.”— Guardian. EARLY FLEMISH ARTISTS, and their Predecessors on th Lower Rhine. By W. M. CONWAY. With Twenty-nine Illustrations. Clo Price 75. 6d. “An altogether admirable work.” — Graphic. MICHAEL ANGELO, LIONARDO DA_ VINCI, AN RAPHAEL. By CHARLES CLEMENT. With Eight [Illustrations ¢ Copper. Second Edition. Price ros. 6d. ; ‘Of intrinsic and permanent worth.”— Saturday Review. THOMAS AND PAUL SANDBY, Royal Academicians: The Lives and Works. By WILLIAM SANDBY, With Five Portraits on Cop, and Twelve other Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d. _ “Will be read with interest and pleasure by all who are attracted to the history of Art in England . His work enjoys the advantage of being admirably illustrated.” Saturday Review. SEELEY AND CO., Limirep, Essex STREET, STRAND. SEs peer ases oo SS LOSE ESET aye /) mya) He & Dovtland- ae ; Srnec ean ere eedeeneel ee cere ioe rc aeeSeEaaSS TE RU FO — ET t ps : JOSIAH WEDGWOOD MASTER-POTTER By A. H. CHURCH, F.RS. Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Academy of Arts Author of “ English Earthenware,’ 8c. LD 2 z =) WS y = a Nee Ze & ye i & y DP SE =) Q) ei 3 sp S ’ al CG Weegee coy _ i ° fo Fe diteo ete Ee Gc: -HAMERTON | LONDON SEELEY AND CO. LIMITED, ESSEX STREET, STRAND NEW YORK, MACMILLAN AND CO 1894 CDT E25 SS SDEAEE PE I PRI SNIY PS E ZE OWS IS a =a = ad E ! F | f rotons Steves EEEsT Es Suseees brat EFOET bia head: { waicabsbea TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER | HIS PRECURSORS Elers of Bradwell; John and Thomas Astbury ; Ralph Shaw; Thomas and John Wedgwood ; Enoch Booth and Ralph Daniell as) 908 oan . pages 7—10 CHAPTER II HIS EARLY YEARS Birth, Education, Traditions of Childhood ; Apprenticeship ; Partnerships with John Harrison and Thomas Whieldon : PLS ag : » pages 1I—15 CHAPTER III AS MASTER-POTTER The Ivy House Works ; Increase of Business ; Division of Labour Introduced Finish versus Vitality ; Public Spirit and Cemowsisy 2 o se 2 a . pages 16—19 CEHAP TEN Re LY; HIS CERAMIC IMPROVEMENTS Queen’s Ware; Black Basalt Ware and Encaustic Painting; White Semi- Porcelain ; Agate and Marbled Wares g WenmasCottia, Be... 4 . pages 20—31 CHAPTER V HIS INVENTION OF THE “JASPER” BODY Novelty of its Composition ; Peculiar Properties ; Range of Colour; Solid Jasper and Jasper-Dip eee: » pages 32-3 un CHAPTER VI THE BARBERINI OR PORTLAND VASE Modelled from the Original by Henry Webber ; Discovery of the Vase, its Date, Decoration and Material ; Variations in and Prices realised by Wedgwood’s CODES. Se eter acter rea pea a ay ee a + + + 5 a ss . pages 36-—39 Ey Pe TPES EIS EEL SESE TEL reese SiGt =o Rmatsemtinraceo ce TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER VII HIS CAMEOS, MEDALLIONS AND PLAQUES Early Trials in Colour; Cameos and Intaglios in Semi-Porcelain and Black Basalt ; Cameos oa Medallions in the ee range. 8 cone and Tablets ; Important lapenimplles 5 « bd 2 . + pages 40—53 CHAPTER VIII HIS PORTRAIT CAMEOS AND MEDALLIONS Historical Series ; Heads of “Illustrious Modern Personages” ; Identification ot the Subjects ; Unusually Large Cameos; Variety in Subject and Treat- ment ; Models by Flaxman, Hackwood and others. . . . . . . . pages 54—61 CHAPTER IX VASES IN THE JASPER BODY Not made before 1781 ; Period of Perfection ; Decadence ; Designs of Vases and Pedestals ; Wedgwood’s Letter of 1786 to Sir W. Hamilton ; Prices of Fine Examples ; Conventional Ornaments . ....... . - « pages 62—67 CHAPTER X MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTIONS IN JASPER Chessmen ; Match-pots, Pedestals and Drums ; Pipe-bowls and Hookahs ; Tea and Coffee Sets; Salt-cellars; Bulb-stands and Flower-pots; Lamps and Candlesticks ; Bell-pulls, Scent-bottles , . .-...... . « » pages 68—76 CHAPTER XI TAGs Pa Re en YaIE CAC RIS) The Brick-House Works; Marriage; Partnership with Thomas Wedgwood ; Purchase of the Site of “Etruria” ; Grand Trunk Canal ; London Show- Room; A Surgical Operation ; Partnership with Thomas Bentley ; Etruria, the Village, Works, and Hall; Scientific Labours; Death . . . . . pages 77—87 CHAPTER XII POSITION AS AN ART-POTTER A Pervading Style ; Merits and Defects ; Sources of his Designs ; Artists Em- ployed—James Tassie, John Flaxman ; Imitators and Successors . . pages 88—96 CHAPTER XIII COLLECTIONS AND COLLECTORS Provincial Museums ; Public Collections in London ; Formation and Dispersal of Private Collections ; Criteria of Quality and Date; Marks. . . pages 97—103 Rnawaewnmen INGHS 5 «ow ¢ 6 6 6 $$ @ oo 6 » & 6 a b #8 e /NAEP 104 PLATES PAGE 1. Portland Vase ; white on dark slate-colour, solid jasper (J.L.P.) . Frontispiece Il. Plaque, Sacrifice of Iphigenia ; white and green aspen (MER G:)a a TC II. Two Medallions, A Zephyr blue and white jasper ; A Monumental Group, blackeandaywiitesjaspeml (Avie ©.) ian ane i ar - 46 IV. Medallion, Portrait of Flaxman ; terra-cotta (S.K.M.) . Re ue ee | OE - Josiah Wedgwood. From the engraving by S. W. Reynolds, after the portrait lay Shee Josnme Revmeillls (BIW) o os 56 o 5 6 6 «6 8 4 wc ee se 13 . Chestnut-Basket ; cream-coloured ware (M.P.G.) . . eae ae 2 Dessert-Dish ; tinted white ware (S.K.M.). . . . OR ee Oe gine : 24 Mug, silver mounts ; black basalt ware (S.K.M.) . . . : ee » AG = emis s inline lorie wane (MIP) 6 2 cs oc 6 oe oe oe AG Vase ; cream ware coloured in imitation of granite (M.P.G.) ..... . . 30 . Teapot ; chocolate, terra-cotta, white reliefs (S.K.M.). ........, 31 . Medallion, Head of Medusa ; blue and white jasper, laminated ground GL. P) 42 . Plaque, Sacrifice to Hymen ; black and white jasper (SERS eas ee 45 . Plaque, Treaty between France and England ; blue and white jasper elisa), G7 . Medallion, Bacchanalian Boys ; black and white jasper (S.K.M.) . ae 48 - Medallion, Achilles with the Body of Hector ; green, black and white jasper LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT Ap Tae ere Nui ae Ea a cele ey. 49 JLMSI OU JUL ILI STIR AI HOINS 13. Plaque, Marriage of Cupid and Psyche ; blue and white jasper (B.M.) or os 14. Medallion, Sir F. W. Herschel ; blue and white jasper (M.P.G.) . ae 50 15. Medallion, Dr. Johnson ; blue and white jasper (J.L.P.) . 2 2 2 2 1 2. . 57 16. Medallion, E. Bourne ; blue and white jasper (J.L.P.). . . a ee oy eS 17. Medallion, King of the Two Sicilies ; blue and white jasper (J.L.P.) . sO 18. Medallion, Catherine II. of Russia ; dark green and white jasper (J.L.P.) . . 60 19. Vase, Apollo and the Muses ; blue and white jasper (M.P.G.). . . . . . 65 20, 21. Pedestal, Blind Man’s Buff; green and white jasper (S.K.M.) . . . . FGh Fi 22. Bowl, Ivy,festoons and pendant Cameos; white, green and lilac jasper (M.P.G.) 72 23. Sugar-bason and Cover, Vine pattern ; pale olive and lilac (S.K.M.) . . . . 72 24. Saucer, festoons and cameos ; white, green and lilac jasper (S.K.M.) . . | . 73 25. Flowerpot and Saucer, reliefs of fern-leaves ; cane-colour, terra cotta (S.K.M.) 74 26, 27. Pair of Candlesticks, Children and Trees ; white and blue jasper lbs) =) 8 2) 28. Statuette, Seated Figure, in right hand a syrinx ; terra-cotta (S.K.M.). . . . 95 The examples from which the above illustrations are taken are in the following collections :— Mr. J. Lumsden Propert (J.L.P.) British Museum (B.M.) South Kensington Museum (S.K.M.) Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street (M.P.G.) Mr. A. H. Church (A.H.C.) Ofeas Werre rer ee oes [ senaees ova Pesnc SPRRTON EEETT Ts Suctnes COiY PFONTCTY 7 RSEOMURRMESS CenrtTet Save YO ICC” CTESREEI TDC) SONERTETETW Cheese eee tee BA eo JOSIAH WEDGWOOD CHAPTER 1 HIS PRECURSORS Elers of Bradwell; Fohn and Thomas Astbury; Ralph Shaw; Thomas ana Fobn Wedgwood; Enoch Booth, and Ralph Daniel. Durine the last quarter of the seventeenth century two potters of exceptional skill and marked individuality were at work in England. The earlier of these artists in clay was John Dwight of Fulham, a sketch of whose life and labours was given in the Porsfolio for 1893. Dwight, whose artistic productions probably date from the year 1671, exercised no recognisable influence upon the other potters of his day. It was otherwise with the later ceramist, the Dutchman, John Philip Elers of Bradwell Wood and Dimsdale, near Burslem. He, with his brother David, came over from Amsterdam soon after the Revolution of 1688. As early as the year 1692 or 1693 his manufacture had attained a high degree of perfection; at this time he had a warehouse for the sale of his goods in the Poultry in London. Although his undertaking did not prove a commercial success and his own potworks was abandoned about the year 1710, Elers really initiated a complete change in the methods and style of Staffordshire earthenware. It is scarcely to be contested that he introduced into the district the process of glazing with salt, and thus founded a special local industry which for seventy years formed a considerable factor in the prosperity of «The -Potteries.” He perfected if he did not introduce the process STS I8 27S ESEREE TITY DPS Oe TSO SLE DEL FSFE (2 POETS VT DEEET ESSENCES TSE POPE WT CEE SED POSEY FOES SS HS EMUESES CT EE IORES OTTO EEE ee cect | Seah Sept oer Oyo tes Vo -oonron once = Tasene) Stpe Ss ERETTTY tuvenss Cry CFONEOTS (7 SERETUMRGRES DasTates Sut Trost CinsbarantoT 7 EpNSRTCTESY Chere ant twat al 8 FOSIAH WEDGWOOD of washing, levigating, and otherwise preparing clays, and thus effected a marked improvement in the fineness, durability, solidity and general physical properties of the “bodies” or “pastes” of which they formed the chief constituent. But Elers did more than this, for a third innovation in the English practice of potting may be reasonably attributed to him. He used the lathe so as to turn his pieces into forms far thinner and more uniformly exact in shape than any which the wheel or the whirler could produce. The advent of J. P. Elers had in the end a most marked effect, though not one immediately perceptible, upon the subsequent productions of ‘The Potteries.” It started the more intelligent and enterprising of the native master-potters upon new lines,—lines which, though they then included something of a foreign element, soon acquired a thoroughly English character. There is, indeed, an immense interval and contrast between the grand, massive, picturesque and quaint, yet clumsy, coarse and cumbrous platters, tygs and posset-pots of the latter half of the seventeenth century, on the one hand, and, on the other, the dainty, sharply-turned tea-sets of fine red stoneware made by Elers, which not even Wedgwood himself, with all the appliances of sixty years later, could rival, at least in this material. Elers’ ornaments, when he added them to his vessels, were sharp in execution, graceful in design, and in thorough keeping with the fine texture of his ware. They were impressed, upon lumps of clay stuck on to the turned pieces of ware, by means of brass moulds or stamps sharply cut or engraved with intaglio designs, A may-blossom, a bird, an interlacement of curves, a cross formed of fleur-de-lis, figured amongst his favourite devices, the superfluous clay being scraped off from the edges of the reliefs by means of a small tool. Elers and his proceedings were at first regarded with jealousy, but soon received the homage of imitation. A potter, John Astbury by name, obtained admission to Elers’ factory; by feigning idiocy he secured employment therein in some humble capacity until he had learnt their secret methods of procedure. Then he modified and extended the processes which he had surreptitiously acquired, and so was able to make a large variety of cheap and curious wares. Never quite equal in fineness of body and sharpness of ornament to the productions of Elers, the pieces eee eenres one rneeebiiiennsnaynnceseen ttt is -onaresizi-or de NSdeseSuen oe snashen outs nl MRAETTaN sae) MELEE : = JOSIAH WEDGWOOD 9 turned out by John Astbury are not mere imitations. For the paste of his ware he used various clays, which acquired in the kiln a red, fawn, buff, orange, or chocolate hue—some of these colours being developed by the glaze employed. Generally, his ornaments were applied in Devon or pipe clay and stamped. They consisted of foliage and flowers; crowns, harps, shells, stags, lions, birds, and heraldic ornaments. For the inside of his tea-pots he often used a wash of white clay, and he was continually making experiments in the mixing and tempering of clays. Thus it happened that about the year 1720 he was led to introduce a due proportion of silica, in the form of ground flint,! into the body of his ware, in order to secure a higher degree of refractoriness in the fire, as well as less shrinkage. To his son, Thomas Astbury, who commenced business in 1723 at Shelton, may be attributed further improvements in earthenware bodies. He it was who first produced the “cream-colour,” which afterwards, as perfected by Josiah Wedgwood, displaced almost all other materials for useful table ware. To these potters, Elers and Astbury, due credit must be given. They were the forerunners of Wedgwood, who in a long letter to his partner Bentley, in the year 1777, clearly defined and honourably acknowledged the indebtedness of the potters of his day to the improved processes introduced by the foreign artist. Elers and his immediate successors inaugurated an era of experimental inquiry ; but the great potter, whose chief labours in the ceramic art I shall endeavour to describe in the present paper, accomplished a greater and more complete task. Under happier circumstances than those of his predecessors, with a keener sense of what was beautiful and appropriate, with more untiring industry and greater commercial aptitude, aided moreover by accomplished advisers, Wedgwood became the chief agent in the trans- formation of an entire manufacture. The year 1760, when he may be regarded as having become thoroughly established as a master-potter, marks the boundary between that which is crude and archaic and that which is refined and modern. As to what were the losses involved in the change wrought by Wedgwood something will be said later on in this essay ; there can be no doubt that the gains were great. ' This discovery was attributed by Wedgwood to Heath a potter, of Shelton. : i i oh . > TBRRWENEat Brey apr bet Bc CE! crate) ones ouanes bets Ebsvt? | epevecs Coa EPPS ROT? W EMESOMRMRSOS Eon tes Rav YS IVEICYaBSiSIzO Ur) SDNORT ELESW Ceres satin eT FOSIAH WEDGWOOD Although the year 1760 has been named as a critical date in the history of Staffordshire earthenware, it must not be supposed that the inception of many improvements and changes had not occurred earlier, nor, on the other hand, that the older methods did not linger on, especially in the minor potworks, to the very close of the eighteenth century. Then, too, it should be remembered that many local potters besides those previously named contributed important elements to the final result. During the forty years 1720-1760 numerous patents for ceramic improvements were taken out, and unpatented inventions made or utilised. Amongst the more important of these may be named the slip-kiln, used first by Ralph Shaw ; the fixing of the proportions in which various clays should be mixed, by Thomas and John Wedgwood ; the introduction of liquid glazes or dips, by Enoch Booth ; and the em- ployment of plaster of Paris for moulds, by Ralph Daniel. It would, however, be tedious, were it possible, to present a résumé of the various methods and materials contributed by Wedgwood’s immediate prede- cessors to the art of potting. That he availed himself of many of them, as well as improved and added to them, is certain. reer aceeete a ieaerrererie tt ieratcteeeds tenet unter ae CIBUAIP INEGI iil HIS EARLY YEARS Birth; Education; Traditions of Childhood ; Apprenticeship ; Partnerships with Fobn Harrison and Thomas Whieldon. Josian, the thirteenth and youngest child of Thomas and Mary Wedgwood, was baptised in the parish church of Burslem, Staffordshire, on the 12th of July, 1730 (old style). He came of a race of potters who for several generations had been exercising their ancient and useful craft in the district of “The Potteries.” His parents were neither poor nor rich ; many of his relatives were in prosperous circumstances ; some might be called comparatively wealthy, and occupied important and honourable positions. The boy went first to a dame’s school ; afterwards, when about seven years old, he attended as a day-scholar a school kept by one Blunt, in a large half-timbered house situated in the market-place of the neigh- bouring town of Newcastle-under-Lyme. This schoolmaster appears to have been a man of more than ordinary acquirements, not un- acquainted with the elements of natural science. The biographer of Wedgwood, the late Miss Meteyard, tells us, I know not on what authority, that the young Josiah was an adept in the art of cutting out with scissors designs in paper. These represented “an army at combat, a fleet at sea, a house and garden, or a whole potworks and the shapes of the ware made in it. These cuttings when wetted were stuck along the whole length of the sloping desks, to the exquisite delight of the scholars, but often to the great wrath of the severe pedagogue.” It is to be hoped that this tale is true, and that we have here a significant indi- cation and presage of the artistic capacity which reached so high a degree of development in subsequent years. Another tradition recorded by the same writer points in a similar direction. For it seems that the boy in i <6 ee EL eT Soe one OO Eceere: Cntewes Chet OOSWese st) GEMOMMMOETCE Se SnET™. 0s Snont|CaROaSEbOs Cr” EDOMN SEESW Stuer ac cane Tow enEa 12 FOSIAH WEDGWOOD very early years—he must have been at the time under nine—began to collect curious and beautiful things, commencing a kind of small museum in one of his father’s work-sheds, and loading its shelves with fossils and minerals from the neighbourhood. This tradition is the more reasonable since we know that in after-life Wedgwood became an ardent collector of shells, both recent and fossil, as well as of other objects of natural history. In the summer of 1739, before he had quite completed his ninth year, Josiah Wedgwood lost his father, who died, after a short illness, at the age of fifty-two. At this early age Josiah Wedgwood was removed from school and began the work of a practical potter in the factory of his eldest brother Thomas, to whom the patrimony of his father had been bequeathed. Here his nicety of eye and dexterity of hand served him in good stead, so that he soon became an expert “ thrower” on the wheel. After the lapse of about two years he was attacked by small-pox, which assumed a virulent form, and greatly enfeebled him for some time, more particularly affecting his right knee. However, when Josiah was in his fifteenth year he was bound apprentice to his brother Thomas for a term of five years, dating from the eleventh of November, 1744. Unfor- tunately, as it seemed at the time, he was soon compelled by the return of the weakness in his right knee to abandon the thrower’s bench and to turn his attention in other directions. This necessary change in the character of Josiah’s employment may not have been without its advan- tages, and probably gave the youthful potter a wider insight into the practical requirements of his craft, and familiarised him with the various separate departments of the works. At this time he was engaged in “‘ moulding,” and in the making, by the association of variously-coloured clays, of imitations of banded and streaked agate, in the form of knife- hafts and snuff-boxes ; these were afterwards mounted by the cutlers and hardwaremen of Sheffield and Birmingham. ‘Towards the close of his apprenticeship Josiah seems to have developed a strong tendency to original experiment. In this direction he met with no sympathy from his master and eldest brother, who refused his proposal, when the term of his indentures was over, to take him into partnership. Josiah then agreed to a proposal made by John Harrison, a tradesman of Newcastle, who, though apparently ignorant of the potter’s craft, had invested money in the factory of Thomas Alders, of Cliff Bank, near Stoke. Thus it pias SLL aegl Se Wester OP Fig. 1.—Fosiah Wedgwood. From the Engraving by 8. W. Reynolds, after Sir Foshua Reynolds. oo SSE TS a —E —— = ST age ren treetops pean rere eae ae sae eae aN a a —_ _—— — ——————— TT PEEP BON I ST TT ESI JOSIAH WEDGWOOD ig came to pass that a partnership was formed, of which Josiah Wedgwood, Thomas Alders, and John Harrison were the three members. This arrangement did not last long, nor was it wholly satisfactory. It could scarcely have been expected that these three men would have worked well together. One of them had nothing but a pecuniary interest in the potworks; the nominal chief seems to have been endowed with very ordinary skill and intelligence in his craft; while the junior partner was an enthusiastic innovator, full of schemes for the improvement of the potter’s art, and at the same time greatly in advance of his local con- temporaries in mental acquirement and artistic perception. Wedgwood at this time (1751 or 1752) had. but just attained his majority, yet he soon introduced many improvements into the humble pottery of which he had taken charge. The outturn of the works increased; the clouded, mottled, and tortoiseshell wares, as well as the salt-glazed white ware, which together constituted the staple of its productions, attained a greater degree of excellence and were more highly appreciated by buyers. But Wedgwood found himself thwarted in many directions, and was not allowed to share his due proportion of the increased profits. His generous spirit, so conspicuous in after life under more happy circum- stances, was galled by the limitations imposed upon him by the greed and. narrowness of view which characterised his co-partners. Fortunately he was soon enabled to escape from his thraldom, a new partnership being offered to him by a worthy master-potter, Thomas Whieldon, of Fenton, who had risen from small beginnings to a position of considerable im- portance. With him Wedgwood worked for a few years (probably six), and then, about the year 1758, determined to establish himself in business, for there is a memorandum of agreement still extant, dated December 30, 1758, by which Wedgwood engaged the services for five years of one of his relatives, a second cousin, Thomas Wedgwood, then living in Worcester, and practising there as a journeyman potter. There is no doubt that much of the merit of Thomas Whieldon’s productions in agate, tortoiseshell, and other wares is to be attributed to his partner. There is a particularly rich green glaze which Josiah Wedgwood has the credit of inventing, or greatly improving, at this time, and which is frequently found upon dessert services and other pieces which have been assigned with good reason to the factory of Whieldon. =o 2 SEETHER ESPEN SHS ECAD ES EPSET TT SEER CTETREDS EY PTS oA ES EST BSUS OEE MAY OURS BUREN TET SESE og SEE as 2 micabei toils dials cibiuorenesbatilbctbinial acaba dd eek Seo ott cebeb natal atclle Tie Ube mee lla i iat ik Reds ae CHAPTER III AS MASTER-POTTER The Ivy House Works ; Increase of Business: Division of Labour Introduced ; Finish versus Vitality ; Public Spirit and Generosity In the year 1759, at the age of twenty-nine, Josiah Wedgwood was working entirely on his own account as a master-potter. He had already achieved a local reputation, but none of his contemporaries could have then anticipated the wide renown which he was afterwards to acquire. His capital was extremely small ; but he knew his strength, and ventured to take on lease a portion of the premises belonging to his distant cousins, John and Thomas Wedgwood, of the Big House, Burslem. These potters were advanced in years, and having accumulated a sufficient fortune, were at this time partially retiring from business. The rent he agreed to pay was no more than £10 yearly, but the factory he acquired would probably be regarded as having at the present day an annual value of ten times that sum. It included a cottage, two kilns, and a sufficient number of workrooms and covered sheds. It was known as Ivy House Works. In these modest premises, which soon became wholly inadequate to his rapidly-extending manufacturing and business requirements, Wedgwood, in spite of the weakness occasioned by a recent illness, set actively to work, restricting his labours at first to the production of small ornamental articles, similar, no doubt, to those which he had made when in partnership with Whieldon. Here an arrangement which he had made with that potter, at the outset of their association, stood him in good stead; for he had expressly reserved to himself the right of keeping secret all the improvements which he might effect during the term of partnership. He began with a very small staff of workmen, EOIN 8 Ir FOSIAH WEDGWOOD 7) but these were chosen with discretion, and so trained in habits of order and observation as to be capable of realising in some measure, as time went on, the ideals of their master. But Wedgwood himself was not merely the guiding spirit of his factory, but the best and most skilful workman in the place. At first he made most of his own models and moulds, prepared his own mixtures of clays, superintended the firing of his kilns, and acted as clerk and warehouseman as well. His reputation rapidly advanced among his neighbours, and he was frequently called upon to exercise his ingenuity in making matches to replace broken pieces belonging to services of foreign origin. Orders came in from a more widely extended area, while Wedgwood himself started new lines of manufacture which speedily attracted attention and acquired a certain degree of importance. At this time the potters of Staffordshire impressed no signature or other distinctive mark upon their wares ; Wedgwood as yet had not adopted the useful practice, so that we have to depend, for our knowledge of the kinds of work which he was pro- ducing at the Ivy House Works, upon uncertain traditions and the far from precise recollections of old workmen, although the manuscript memoranda of the great potter himself do afford some indications of the directions in which his activity was then employed. It is stated by Miss Meteyard that Wedgwood in these early days added the manufac- ture of white stoneware to his other labours, and that of this body he produced relief-tiles for fireplaces: it would be of extreme interest to recover a few examples of a kind of ware which no collectors of the present day associate with the name of Wedgwood. In a year or two the works were enlarged and more journeymen engaged, while the modern system of the division of labour was gradually introduced, so that each workman was no longer everything by turns and nothing for long. This distinction and distribution of work avoided the waste of time inseparable from the old-fashioned methods prevalent in potworks. The constant change from one kind of occupation to another and from one part of the factory to another,—from mixing shed to slip kiln, to thrower’s bench, to moulder’s shop, to firing oven, and back again, had indeed many drawbacks. It was impossible for any one man to acquire equal facility in the varied kinds of manipulation demanded in the different departments of the works. And there was B ———— ———— — — rs as ——— = EN Canes een SDE SNOUSNORAD GREE. LSED TIDUS (ETSOEEDIE UBT PELSUSSTSSFOTSEERIE PYOSSEL! Ot nod USESTUSEIUY SEISEDOE: OU EAP ONNUE URC S SBOUTEEEIFOT SITSEIET ISP CRELE TUTE Ta 10 TERIEE Tite 18 FOSIAH WEDGWOOD waste of material and injury to the plant, as well as loss of time, involved in these constantly recurring changes of occupation. Wedgwood thoroughly understood the impossibility of conducting a large and rapidly growing business upon the old lines. His was an orderly mind; he could not tolerate the dirt, disorder, and slovenliness which were the common characteristics of the workers in clay. It is mot to be denied that the methodic revolution which he effected in the technique of his pottery resulted in the loss of certain elements of value. The quaintness, the naiveté, the picturesqueness of the rough processes and products of the older days disappeared. Individuality was lost. The workmen became parts of a well-ordered and accurately-adjusted machine. The marks of human handiwork became unrecognisable. A tendency to aim at mechanical perfection and mere finish was developed at the expense of higher qualities. But it should not be forgotten that the vast majority of the objects turned out from Wedgwood’s factory belonged to the class which he designated “useful ware.” For their safe carriage by land and by water, and for their complete adaptation to their intended uses, perfect regularity in form and substance were most desirable qualities. Dozens of his plates can be piled up without exerting unequal pressure upon one another, so exactly do they correspond in size and shape ; their rims, too, have precisely the right contour. The lids of his jugs and tea-pots fit perfectly ; his handles can be really held, his spouts pour. Thus, while in the domain of fine art mechanical perfection often proves incompatible with vitality of expression, it is otherwise in the case of work which lacks its full measure of utility if it be not wrought with careful finish. Improvements in kilns, and in the minor mechanical appliances needed in order to carry into practice his ceramic ideals, now occupied much of Wedgwood’s time. Sketching patterns and making models also engaged his attention, but he was also busy in endeavouring to bring to perfection the cream-coloured body or paste which very soon was to become familiar and famous under the name of Queen’s Ware. Of this, the most widely-known and most abundant product of Wedgwood’s skill, some- thing more will have to be said later on in the present essay. In the course of 1760, less than two years after Wedgwood had begun his labours at the Ivy House Works, we meet with a proof not only of his increasing financial prosperity but also of that public spirit and eee seen enenteereeeeietr eee heen tear teeta eter aceeeeeneeeeen tans are Spr prpssh Bt te cna pe = = - * ~ FOSTIAH WEDGWOOD 19 generosity which distinguished his later years. For at this time he con- tributed the sum of ten pounds towards the establishment of a second Free School in Burslem, most of the smaller master-potters giving but half this amount. Very shortly afterwards Wedgwood’s attention was directed to another matter of local interest. The condition of the roads in his neigh- bourhood was most deplorable, while such means of communication between the towns and villages of the Potteries and the larger centres of popula- tion as existed were circuitous, badly planned, and wholly inadequate in number. Wedgwood never lost sight of the importance of securing easy communication and rapid transit of raw materials and of goods by land and by water between the chief places of production and of distribution. f | . COSUNP ICR IY HIS CERAMIC IMPROVEMENTS Oueen’s Ware; Black Basalt Ware and Encaustic Painting ; White Semiporcelain; Agate & g & and Marbled Wares; Terra Cotta, Sc. In the preceding chapter an outline has been traced of the work accomplished or begun by Wedgwood during the first three years of his occupation of the Ivy House Works (1759-1761). One of the most troublesome, and yet, in the end, most successful of these labours, in- cluded a long series of experiments made with the object of improving the common cream-coloured earthenware of the district. The body of this ware had been modified from time to time by several potters, and had been made finer in texture as well as brighter in appearance by the alterations which had been introduced in the preparation of the raw materials, and in the selection of the silicious and argillaceous substances which were its components. When this improved body was glazed with salt, in the manner employed for true stoneware, it was still somewhat of a greyish or dull pale yellow ; and when the common lead glaze was employed it developed a still darker and less satis- factory hue. The experiments of Wedgwood were begun in the early part of 1759, while he was still in partnership with Whieldon, but were pushed much further during the year 1761. He employed both ground flint and pipeclay in association with compounds of lead in the glaze, and thus got a mixture which, having several properties in common with the body to which it was applied, was less liable than the common lead glaze then in use, to become crazed, that is, irregularly fissured on being fired in the kiln. The body itself was likewise im- proved and made of purer materials, and thus admitted of being delicately tinted in a number of hues varying from a cream to a saffron colour. Se ee Ee Reet Te esate Se uesve Eisen csv Coes CF UVErs 17 CEMEOMONGRETS Co oreses BINT Vo ont SIRSESIOIS Xn EDUERTETSTY Corea mentors — Be NE at FOSIAH WEDGWOOD 21 It was not however until some years subsequent to the period of Wedgwood’s career of which I am now writing that the final improve- ments in cream-ware were effected. They may be referred to a date shortly subsequent to the year 1768, when the attention of the Staffordshire potters was forcibly directed to the true Kaolin or China clay of Cornwall and to the felspathic mixture known as China-stone ae mee ies eertre ree ¥ or Cornish stone, both these materials being named and their employ- ment in the manufacture of porcelain claimed in the patent granted to William Cookworthy of Plymouth in that year. This conclusion is founded partly on the evidence of Wedgwood’s own note-books and partly on a memorandum by Enoch Wood, which is published in full in my English Earthenware, p. 82. Still even in 1761 Wedgwood’s cream-colour ware had attained a decided superiority in colour and in smoothness of glaze over the corresponding fabric made by his local competitors, while the forms which he introduced were far more varied and elegant. In these productions the good taste, the sense of fitness and the keen power of observation which distinguished Wedgwood. found their appropriate expression. One can trace the motives of much of his work, both as to form and decoration, in the collections of various Sa i: PULLSETTIT ws TESLA USMY kinds which he was amassing, and in his constant intercourse with the metal-workers of Sheffield and of Birmingham. To the former source he was indebted for the designs derived from objects of natural history, particularly shells and plants; to the latter source he owed many shapes and methods of decorative treatment which were in use for silver-plated ware. ‘There is a cream-colour centre-piece or compotier for the dessert table, preserved in the Jermyn Street Museum, which affords an apt illustration of the metal-work designs which Wedgwood adapted to his reproductions in a different material. Such adaptations may not be wholly justifiable from an artistic standpoint, but they had the merit of introducing the elements of lightness and elegance into a manufacture which had hitherto been often marked by a tendency to heaviness and clumsiness. A more legitimate loan from the processes of the silver- smith was the introduction of diapers and other conventional designs in pierced and perforated work. This style of ornamentation was sub- sequently pushed to its extreme permissible limit by some Leeds potters, Messrs. Hartley, Greens and Co., who became the most successful ht et rie apmtee spirabapebatacch cpt ene enn enn tans nsats En ere et Eo EPRDT Tay RDU Recan os SEtOTEN Sat On) ESET FIRSDe nT ot) SeEnT na Cfo De) JOSIAH WEDGWOOD imitators of Wedgwood’s cream-ware, about the year 1783 or perhaps somewhat earlier. Of a bolder design and more free in treatment is the beautiful chestnut basket from the Jermyn Street Collection which is represented in Fig. 2. Another change for the better effected by Wedgwood consisted in the greater sobriety of the enamel colours with which his cream-ware was decorated when not left entirely plain. Tt should be mentioned here that he did not disdain taking advantage Fig. 2.—Chestnut Basket ; cream-coloured ware. of hints as to models and ornamentation afforded by oriental and Dresden porcelain and by the productions of Chelsea and Bow, nor was he free from indebtedness to the Dutch faience made in such large quantities during the eighteenth century. Wedgwood’s earlier works in cream-ware were occasionally enriched with gold, but until the year 1765 this metal was not burnt into the glaze but simply attached by means of japanner’s oil-size. Later on true gilding was more generally and more freely introduced, especially on what may be called armorial services. pe on teo De pen e ssa pe FOSIAH WEDGWOOD 23 Towards the close of Wedgwood’s career the love for extremely rich and showy decoration had increased, and the factory at Etruria possessed the means of gratifying it. Still even then there was a certain measure of restraint shown in the painting executed under Wedgwood’s super- intendence,—a restraint not exhibited by the contemporary work produced in the china factory at Worcester. In connection with cream-ware, or rather Queen’s Ware, for so this product came to be called in 1763, after Wedgwood had been appointed Potter to Queen Charlotte, a similar but nearly white fabric should be named. It was called Pearl Ware. Its production was very limited in amount, and was in part the natural result of greater purity in the materials used. The period to which it may be assigned is a late one in the life of the potter. It was used occasionally, amongst other pur- poses, for those delicately tinted shell dessert-services (see Fig. 3) in which a general yellowish ground would have impaired the purity of the superposed colours. The writer possesses an exquisitely turned goblet of this Pearl Ware, the exterior being veined with gold lustre and gold pink produced by means of Purple of Cassius. Both Queen’s Ware and Pearl Ware were employed in the making of statuettes and busts: of these a few specimens will be found in the South Kensington Museum and in other collections. They rarely bear the stamp of Wedgwood’s name, but have been identified by means of the few examples which have fortunately been so marked. ‘There is for instance a symbolical bust of ‘“ Sadness” in the Jermyn Street Museum which is thus authenticated; it is no less than twenty-two inches in height. The large figure of “ Fortitude” at South Kensington is not signed, but a duplicate in private hands is. Black basalt ware is another famous product of Wedgwood’s kilns : in a cruder form it had long been made in the Staffordshire potteries, and was often called “ Egyptian Black.” It owes its colour chiefly to iron. The developed fabric as produced by Wedgwood was richer in hue, finer in grain, and smoother in surface than that made before his time, or sub- sequently turned out by his local successors and imitators. Its density was high (2:9); it took a fine polish on the lapidary’s wheel, and forms an excellent touchstone for gold. Some of the black basalt produced at the Leeds Pottery was, however, almost if not quite equal to that of Wedgwood. He employed it extensively for large relief-plaques, vases, <5 STETE ESERES TOTES Tn EO UNUSED SEEM ZS EEOCAP STPRETDIS VET (REET ENT SUTECREIS HS PYEEID vi 521 HEP TOUEETY BEEIDUEE! FUUTM OBES THE MURLEIDTN Ieee EY 24 FOSIAH WEDGWOOD life-size busts, and medallion-portraits of ‘illustrious Ancients and Moderns.” With his seals (frequently wheel-polished on the shanks), and his small intaglios in black basalt, collectors are familiar. This ware also furnished the ground on which the majority of his so-called “ en- caustic” paintings were executed. These were intended to reproduce the effects of the work on Greek and Etruscan painted vases and other vessels, ‘The enamel colours used were so constituted as to yield a matt or nearly dead surface, while the black background was either dull or had the half-lustre of Nolan ware. Unfortunately the timid touch of Wedg- wood’s enamellers was not competent to realise the associated strength and Fig. 3.— Dessert Dish; tinted white ware. beauty of the original classical conceptions which they were engaged in reproducing. And it is necessary to confess that Wedgwood’s encaustic paintings on vases and plaques have generally a depressing effect upon those who really appreciate the supreme excellence of the antique art which was supposed to have inspired them. However mechanically perfect, the imitations were artistically defective. The originals which Wedgwood copied were moreover for the most part not happily chosen. His largest work of this class is a reproduction from a Greek vase of the period of decadence preserved in the British Museum. His copy of this JOSIAH WEDGWOOD 25 immense vase or crater, in the Jermyn Street Collection, is no less than thirty-three inches high and eighteen inches in diameter. The rare bronzed ware made by Wedgwood appears to have been black basalt dusted over, sometimes before and sometimes after firing, with a metallic bronze powder. Wedgwood’s work in plain black was, however, far more satisfactory in effect than any which had been enriched by subsequent treatment in the way of enamelling or coating with metallic preparations. Witness the fine series of busts, about twenty inches in height, in the South Kensington Museum, which represent Zeno, Cicero, Cato, Seneca, Bacon, Barneveldt, Ben Jonson, and Grotius. There also exist several statuettes from the antique, and many fine vases, plain or with figures and ornaments in relief. The basalt vases made between 1769 and 1780 were usually rather simply decorated with vertical shallow flutings and strap-work, and with festoons of drapery, flowers or husks : their handles sprang from masks, goats’ heads, satyrs, &c. During the whole of the partnership between Josiah Wedgwood and Thomas Bentley this class of vases was made in large numbers. But about the year 1776 bas-reliefs of figures were first applied to these vases, amongst the first so used in that year being the Dancing Hours designed by Flaxman. Another vase which this sculptor modelled about the same time is a two-handled drinking vessel covered with high reliefs—masks of Minerva, Cupids with musical instruments, and festoons of foliage ; a copy is preserved at South Kensington. The well-known large ewers for water and wine were also the work of Flaxman. A fine mug of this ware is shown in Fig. 4. Wedgwood was not far wrong in writing, as he did in 1779, in the fifth edition of his Catalogue, of his suites of five vases for chimney-pieces, ‘We have reason to conclude that there are not any vases of porcelain, marble, or bronze, either ancient or modern, so highly finished and sharp in their ornaments as these black vases.” I have omitted to state that many objects of practical and domestic utility were made in this black ware. Amongst these, inkstands in great variety are found, as well as salt-cellars, flower-pots, and candlesticks. The large lamp in the Jermyn Street Museum (Fig. 5) could hardly be employed otherwise than as an ornament, but it is an excellent example of black basalt ware : the design and modelling are good, and the material of fine quality though it has suffered in places from over-firing. —— " ssc eed ti iesattanen Gees eeeted Peceaaeeeesaaeeeanaeey aaea ieaemeemereseetaaaT een 26 FOSTIAH WEDGWOOD Full justice cannot be done to the artistic effect of specimens in black basalt unless they are seen against a suitably coloured background. Wedgwood himself appreciated the difficulty of showing them properly, and wrote to his partner Bentley recommending the employment of some Fig. 4.—Mug, silver mounts; black basalt ware. yellow material in order to bring out the tone and hue of the vases exhibited in the show-room. This recommendation is thoroughly justi- | fied by the experience of the modern collector. Yellow textile fabrics and even yellow papers strikingly enhance the beauty of this black Be SE ee SSE SES Fens nena Gods vn bars WME MESWVRRGEST SSS SST aes) ESTES? TSTU Nise o sn 1 Sas OOS Seis ene neeE ST z 4 tonetist Sahgapage aesencae scaesicaca i f { i a i < RS } S 8 ! any s < S : Ss | ne j x Ss t. 5.—Lamp Fig SERA FES TFET SEP RERIGRY SEES SSRSEEY SER FRESH VESTER PRO UORT UY PA tlcceen es asve ts fot dvr oct roPobsn 21) SOEs cons icirs —oat oe ee pS OO Nant orNESE ST 2 Se FOSIAH WEDGWOOD 29 material. In the same way it will be found that, in framing plaques and portrait cameos of basalt for the purpose of mounting them in articles of furniture, slightly polished satin wood forms an effective bordering. Wedgwood made tea and coffee sets in black basalt ware, the pieces being fluted or decorated with reliefs of figures in the same material. Occasionally he used simple enamelled designs upon the edges of his cups, saucers, milk jugs, and trays, more rarely he introduced conventional patterns in burnished silver or gold. A kind of white semi-porcelain was made at an early period by Wedgwood. He used it at first for the plinths of his marbled and variegated vases,—afterwards, in an improved form, for some of his por- trait medallions and plaques. It differed from the white jasper which I shall presently describe, in its slightly straw-coloured or greyish yellow hue, in its waxen smooth surface, and in its marked degree of trans- lucency. It did not contain the compounds of baryta which formed characteristic, and indeed essential, constituents of the true jasper body, a subsequent invention. A tendency to warp and crack in firing reduced its usefulness as a ceramic paste. Variegated ware as made by Wedgwood was of two kinds. One of these, which may be distinguished as “solid” agate ware, was coloured throughout its entire substance by means of the association in bands, twists, stripes, and waves, of clays of different hues. It had been brought toa high state of perfection, possibly by our potter himself during his partnership with Whieldon, but it can scarcely be considered a distinctive product of Wedgwood’s independent labours. But in his hands it was far more largely used for purely ornamental pieces, such as vases, than heretofore, while at the same time he produced by means of this material several characteristic imitations of definite kinds of natural agate and marble. The other kind of variegated ware made by Wedgwood was coloured on the surface only, the body being of common cream-coloured earthenware (see Fig. 6). The mottled and veined colouring was picturesquely irregular and varied much in hue. The handles, rims, and occasionally, the plinths, of vases in this ware often showed the natural colour of the cream-ware body, or were covered with oil- gilding. Amongst the natural materials imitated were these—granite, speckled with red, grey, white, and black ; serpentine, with mottlings of Py Sito wasemumaniconi ee ee 30 FOSIAH WEDGWOOD green, grey, and yellow; antique yellow, saffron veined with black ; also, Egyptian pebble, jasper, porphyry, and several kinds of agate. Under the designations, Rosso antico, cane-colour, and bamboo, Fig. 6.—V ase; cream ware coloured in imitation of granite. Wedgwood included a number of bodies which would now be called serra cotta. They had a dead, dry surface, and so dif- fered from the black ba- salt as to be distinctly por- ous. ‘They varied much in hue, but their names afford a good indication of the range of colour which they present. Two varieties of these terra cottas were sometimes as- sociated in the same piece, the body being in one colour, the reliefs in another. Moreover these bodies were sometimes used in conjunction with the black basalt : some- times they were decorated with reliefs in white paste. The red terra cotta was occasionally made of a pale tint ; a chocolate hue is also known (see Fig. 7). Red reliefs on black basalt, white on chocolate, pur- plish black on white, and dull sage green on cane- colour, afforded satisfactory contrasts or harmonies. Some of these terra cotta pastes, such as the white and green above named, were eee eee eee eareaeet teens ntceeenieeenerseeteee ———————————O eS... FOSIAH WEDGWOOD Bir probably of later introduction than the others. I may repeat here, what I have mentioned in a previous chapter, that Wedgwood’s red terra cotta never equalled in fineness of texture and beauty of hue the red ware made long before his day by Elers of Bradwell, nor that darker and still denser product invented very early in the eighteenth century by Bsttger at Dresden. Wedgwood’s “ jasper” body is of so remarkable a character—is so distinctly an original invention of his own—that it demands separate dis- Fig. 7.—Teapot ; chocolate terra-cotta,-white reliefs. cussion. The five succeeding chapters (V. to IX.) will be devoted to its consideration. This treatment involves, I am aware, a break in the chronological sequence which has hitherto been recognized, at least in some measure, as a guiding principle in tracing the progressive development of Wedgwood’s life-work. But when the jasper body has been considered from various points of view, the thread of the narra- tive will be resumed. STF TET: SEESEAES Perey Seroen Oe OEE i A sca S7 Sas J 6 Pa SPEEA Gta Ss Raby ues er FHS PARES Sedu CHESS ES Ssecaes SSA EAE Setanta teats eee a PRON eset rete ters ceiee carta CLUE AER: HIS INVENTION OF THE “FASPER” BODY [ts Characteristic Components ; Compounds of Baryta; Range of Colour; Solid Fasper and Fasper-Dip. Ir was Josiah Wedgwood’s appreciation of antique gems cut in onyx and niccolo that led him to invent the most original and the most beautiful of all the ceramic materials with which he worked. This was the jasper-body or jasper-paste. Though it may be roughly described, when in its simplest form, as opaque and white, its opacity and its whiteness were susceptible of considerable variation. Sometimes it has the deadness of chalk, but the finer varieties possess the delicate hue and faint translucency of ivory or vellum. Wedgwood and _ his artists took advantage of this translucent character of the white jasper, as it allowed the colour of the ground to appear in a slight degree through the thinner parts of the cameo reliefs and thus suggested, as in some draperies, the idea of a fine and light texture. On the other hand, there were many subjects and styles of treatment where any marked degree of translucency in the material used for the reliefs was of decided disadvantage; here the more opaque varieties of the jasper-body were preferred. The smoothness of surface which this ware, as made by Josiah Wedgwood, almost invariably possessed, is delightful at once to the senses of touch and sight, and, moreover, it affords one of the best criteria for distinguishing old work from new. It was caused chiefly by the extreme fineness to which the components of the jasper-body were reduced, but the exact adjust- ment of the temperature of firing the ware to its composition doubt- less influenced the result. The modern jasper-body is granular— 7 1 } tas ‘ if } Serre ee Senet eLeeeiNaREEP SETS St radabnrs St Se En! Tia fuss rst os en nas eee a VO ee optecant Unto) enn ee ino pregeneee : — = 5 FOSIAH WEDGWOOD RG } “saccharoid,” to borrow a geological term—in appearance and rough to the finger: it needs to be rubbed down with -fine emery before it can be made to pass successfully this test of touch. Though generally left with its natural matt or nearly matt surface the jasper ware is susceptible of a fine polish. Wedgwood occasionally polished the grounds and bevelled edges of some of his smaller cameos j and intaglios, particularly in his more direct imitations of natural 3 stratified stones: examples of polished edges are furnished by the two specimens figured on Plate III, and by the bevel (showing three strata) of the Medusa plaque (Fig. 8). The inside of tea-cups, bowls, and salt-cellars was also frequently ground and polished on the lathe. The peculiarity in chemical composition which marks out the jJasper-ware body from all other ceramic pastes was brought about by the introduction of a compound of the element barium. This metal occurs in nature chiefly in the form of sulphate, the mineral, which is found abundantly in Derbyshire, being known as cawk, heavy-spar, and barytes. The distinctive character of the alkaline earth contained in heavy-spar seems to have been first ascertained by Guyton de Morveau in 1779: four years afterwards Withering recognised the same earth in a mineral carbonate, from Leadhills in Lanarkshire, now called Witherite. But as early as the year 1773 Wedgwood was making experiments with these two minerals. The chemical knowledge of his day was, however, too imperfect to be of great use to the inquiring potter, who was obviously much puzzled by the apparently capricious behaviour of the two compounds under the action of fire. In 1774 he wrote to his partner Bentley, “I must go into Derbyshire to search for spath fusible or No. 19:” not long afterwards he made the journey thither and found what he required. Wedgwood’s keen observation and his untiring assiduity in experiment were soon rewarded. He had learnt the chief properties, as constituents of his new jasper-ware, of the sulphate of baryta or cawk and of the rather more fusible carbonate, although we possess no evidence of his having discovered the differences in their chemical composition. Henceforth cawk became the chief ingredient of his “ jasper,” although a small quantity of the carbonate of baryta was occasionally introduced as c si ae — +e . : . : ——— SS SESROAGS Sani nt Sens LCs EPUBSDSOEDCID EERIE SFB STOURD COTESEE Se Yin) REGIEOUSNOGSEON RS PYSEUE) ot ad FEED UIEES SUSSEDUEET POLESP OMNI SIBry DUBCEED OTL de pOaea (> ME PIES OO) [RENEE SLID BR we cx v9 oer SETI Oa z 7 7 eH 7 Sas 7 i t ott PRERR a Ware fe y=. Pa) aeiten) os) Stabe s Sebat¥e Penoe lt Suebees tod EFEEROTS OF FEMEOWUMRgRE OT enters RN ns Yeoet ” 1RaRcrS1) 17) ESSER! CLEDNS errs > oe 2 tt UOT — Sebo shah 34 ¥OSIAH WEDGWOOD well. The other materials were clay and finely-ground flint." He tried several kinds of clay such as Weal blue clay, Dorset clay, and Cornish China-clay. He also used Cornish or China stone which contains a notable proportion of felspar. Wedgwood wrote to his partner in. somewhat enigmatical terms when indicating the ingredients of his jasper-body, saying that its composition was “too precious to reveal all at once.” One of his formule, when translated into percentages, is probably pretty nearly represented by these figures—sulphate of baryta, 59 parts; clay, 29; flint, 10; carbonate of baryta, 2. One of the chief charms of jasper-ware consists in the daintiness of its colour. Besides several tones and hues of blue derived from cobalt, we meet with a yellow, a lilac, and a green jasper ; there is also a black variety. Each of these colours occurs in several modifications. “The black is sometimes bluish, sometimes neutral: the green, which was derived from chromium, though always toned with some grey, exhibits many different hues, ranging from yellowish-green to bluish-green ; the lilac, due to manganese, varies generally between a pink and a pale pur- ple, but occasionally presents the precise hue of a mixture of cocoa-infusion and milk ; and the yellow is slightly greyish, with a tendency towards an amber hue in some examples ; in other pieces it approaches the colour of the lemon, while some varieties may be called buff. As a rule Wedgwood limited himself to the association, in any single production of his kiln, of no more than two of the above colours, with the addition of white ; the least happy in effect of these combinations are those in which blue and yellow occur alone, unaccompanied by white. Jasper-ware was made in two ways. In one process the entire sub- stance was coloured by the metallic oxide used ; in the other, the surface only was stained. The former method yielded the product known as “solid jasper,’ the latter gave the “ jasper-dip”—by it the most delicate and refined effects were produced. This jasper-dip was invented in 1777, really in order to economise the costly oxide of cobalt. During the partnership with Bentley, the solid jasper was, however, chiefly em- ployed. But at the time of Bentley’s death in 1780, and for the next 1 The useful fireproof cement lately introduced into commerce under the name “«Purimachos ” consists of the same ingredients, the clay being in smallest proportion. Some of Wedgwood’s chemical vessels approach it very closely in composition. Fag toPare bs ideas fee ras t-te Saat ee ase 2 ee FOSIAH WEDGWOOD 35 fifteen years, Wedgwood produced the great majority of his larger ornamental pieces in jasper-dip. It is, however, to be noted that the two methods of manufacture were often associated in the same object. Thus, in the beautiful coloured chequered work which we find on some of the vases, flowerpots, and déjeuner sets of what we may call the period of perfection, (1781 to 1795), the little quatrefoils applied to the surface are of solid jasper, while the coloured squares are of jasper-dip. A troublesome defect in both methods ought not to be passed over. The facility with which the white jasper-body became tinctured with the colours imparted by various metallic oxides very frequently caused the thinner parts of the white reliefs to acquire a stain from the coloured surface below them. This discoloration is rarely absent from the edges of the white reliefs on a black ground, which frequently present a dirty- yellow hue. CHAPTER VI THE BARBERINI OR PORTLAND VASE Modelled from the Original by Henry Webber ; Discovery of the Vase, its Date, Decoration and Material ; Prices realised by Wedgqwooa’s Copies Tue name of Wedgwood is inseparably connected with that remarkable glass amphora commonly called the “Portland Vase:” the best of his copies, such as that reproduced in Plate I, challenge comparison with the original. That Wedgwood should have succeeded in translating the light-and-colour effects of a glass cameo into another material indicates how complete was his control of the “ jasper-body,”’ and how efficient was the aid which the modellers employed upon the task rendered him in this critical case. It is somewhat strange to find that Flaxman does not appear to have taken any part in this work, although Sir W. Hamilton had written to Wedgwood saying, “I should have thought my friend Flaxman would have been of use to you in your present undertaking ; for I must do him the justice to say, I never saw a bas- relief executed in the true simple antique style half so well as that he did of the Apotheosis of Homer from one of my vases.’ According to Miss Meteyard (/fandbook, pages 297-9), the work connected with the copying of the designs on the vase was done chiefly in London, although several of Wedgwood’s own modellers—Henry Webber,' William MHackwood, William Wood, and others—were engaged upon it. The same authority also states that the original was not sent down to Etruria until December 22, 1790, more than four years after it had been entrusted to the care of Wedgwood. It is difficult to reconcile this statement with others—in Miss Meteyard’s /Zandbook—such as 1 An excellent modeller, recommended to Wedgwood by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir William Chambers. ene eat ee nee an ee PTY eS _— x SERUERE WETS PPE FEY SSP ERpERT eT 97 Sue) WEUnTED FRSSTTY YeROE COW PPRUFENTC) ERDONU gazes assets Fat eon) PPR Poesartz Os EONS cre Sete Snare ee staat FOSTIAH WEDGWOOD 37 this one, that in October, 1789, a perfect copy had been made, and with one’s conviction that such a potter must have had the vase always at hand during his laborious efforts in preparing suitable colours and bodies wherewith to reproduce it. For it must be remembered that the original material is a very dark blue glass, over which was a layer of nearly opaque white glass, out of which the cameo figures in relief were cut. On the other hand, Wedgwood had to make his copies in a blue-black jasper-body ; to this the moulded reliefs in white jasper were afhxed, but the variations observable in different specimens show that much surface-modelling must have been executed by hand after the reliefs had left the mould, and before the object was fired. It should be stated in this connection that Wedgwood altered slightly some of the minor details of the designs on this vase, and restored the parts which had been corroded. The modern history of the Portland Vase, although it has been often given, is so interesting as to bear repetition here. A few words may not inappropriately be prefixed in correction of some of the views as to its date and subject entertained by writers on Wedgwood ware. It is now generally admitted by experts that this remarkable example of cameo-cutting belongs to the closing years of the Roman Republic, or at least cannot be of later date than the first century of the Imperial Principate. Diverse interpretations of the two scenes depicted on the vase have been offered, but it is most probable that they illustrate episodes in the courtship of Peleus and Thetis, their meeting on Mount Pelion being depicted in one group, and in the other the consent of Thetis to be the bride of Peleus, Poseidon and Eros being present. The youthful bust on the base of the vase represents Paris wearing a Phrygian cap, and heavily draped. It is a separate work, and formed no part of the original design. Until the acquisition of the vase by the Duchess of Portland in the year 1785 it was known as the Barberini Vase, for it was discovered between the years 1623 and 1644, during the Pontificate of Urban VIII., Maffeo Barberini. This Pope had ordered the sepulchral mound called Monte de Grano, situated at a spot on the road to Frascati about two and a-half miles from Rome, to be excavated. In a marble sarcophagus of the early part of the third century of our era the vase was found ; ee ren tenee cece te eeneenatil a Sst mIUSIOGID USL SBOD TOON EIEOEE Dn TnT (eeetieveNT Era’ ‘2 ei 38 FOSIAH WEDGWOOD it was subsequently placed in the Barberini Palace in Rome. Sir W. Hamilton bought it (about the year 1782) for £1,000. He sold it to the Duchess of Portland in 1785: after her death the Duke of Portland purchased it for £1,029 ; he lent it to Wedgwood. In 1810 the fourth Duke deposited it on loan in the British Museum. On the 7th of February, 1845, William Lloyd, a scene-painter, wantonly broke it into many fragments. These were put together without much adroitness, the bottom was not replaced: the restored vase may be seen in the Gem and Gold Ornaments Room. ‘The above-mentioned sarcophagus is now in the Museum of the Capitol in Rome. The reliefs on its sides, representing stories from the life of Achilles, furnished Wedgwood with materials for two of his largest and finest plaques, the “Sacrifice of Iphigenia,” and “Priam begging the Body of Hector from Achilles.” These subjects were taken, with some modifications, from the reliefs on the front and back of this sarcophagus : the sculptures on the two ends, representing groups of warriors, were also employed in the same way. The whole set of designs appears to have been modelled by the Italian sculptor Pacetti, who worked at Rome for Wedgwood under Flaxman’s superintendence. Some additional particulars with regard to the plaque of the Sacrifice of Iphigenia (Plate II.) will be found in the next chapter. It was Wedgwood’s intention to produce fifty proofs (for so we may call the early copies) of his reproduction of the Portland Vase ; we do not know whether this intention was fulfilled. About twenty of these old examples of the first issue have been recognised in various public and private collections. Nearly all approach very closely the dimensions of the original, which is 10} inches high, but differ from each other in the quality of the black ground, and in the tint, the degree of opacity, and the refinement of the white reliefs, At the beginning of the present century, a few years after Wedgwood’s death, more copies of the vase were made, but we are inclined to think that none of them is equal to those of the first issue. It has also been produced in smaller sizes and in other materials ; while Wedgwood’s many imitators copied, though with very moderate success, this conspicuous triumph of his skill. Wedgwood charged fifty pounds for some of his copies of the Portland Vase ; for other pope cag MN Pe Te omit preg ee 4OSIAH WEDGWOOD 39 examples, which were flawed or which did not entirely satisfy his critical eye, he seems to have been content with a smaller price. The sums which early specimens have brought by auction have increased a good deai during the last half-century. In 1849 the copy in the Tulk Collection was bought in for £20; that belonging to Samuel Rogers sold for fifty guineas in the year 1856; the copy in the Purnell Collection fetched no less than £173 when that remarkable assemblage of works of art was dispersed at Sotheby’s in the year 1872. A good early copy sold at Christie’s in 1890 for £199 Ios: it was in the collection of Mr. Cornelius Cox. The example in the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street was originally bought (in 1793) by Dr. R. W. Darwin, of Shrewsbury ; that in the British Museum is one of the first subscription copies : in the South Kensington there is a specimen from the Jones Bequest. That which is reproduced in Plate L, from Mr. J. L. Propert’s Collection, is of unrivalled quality. The ground is rather lustrous and of a most unusual: colour, not exactly black, but an extremely dark slate hue. The highest - price yet realised for a copy of this vase was £215 55.5 this was in 1892, at the dispersal of the choice series of works by Wedgwood belonging to the late Mr. W. Durning Holt. In a strict chronological discussion of Wedgwood’s labours his reproduction of the Portland Vase should have been described in a later chapter, but the fame and importance of this work seemed to demand a separate and early treatment of the subject. TE eRe rent fe orca ta OPUS iced Eke ele oteels LE CSSENP ArT t SRESI DEUS tOET EES Prova ot sd FESS ECIEEY SEEGERS 04 MP SRD HRCI PIE ESP SSP LOSES 98 1S ER Bhs remote IE Oe BBO gears Gergen one hid street ab ganatepcicis — ESET VESSESS FP EY Fs PEL ERBES CDE TE SUSESSIY EUGESES ESET ® NESTE Gb PREV OREO) SERENA cars mes Pot UOE SC Ecbsniwce sc) sosee cree ns aso Sos oo ClisbeaVeie ee WAL! HIS CAMEOS, MEDALLIONS, AND PLAQUES Early Trials in Colour ; Cameos and Intaglios in Semi-Porcelain and Black Basalt ; Cameos and Medallions in the Fasper-Body; Plaques and Tablets ; Important examples Durinc Wedgwood’s lifetime, in the sixth and last English edition of his Catalogue, Class I. of his productions consists of two sections. The first of these is described as containing “Small Cameos from Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Antique Gems. 637 subjects.” In the second section are included “Intaglios or Seals. 391 subjects.” In the first edition of the Catalogue (1773) the Cameos and Intaglios were grouped together, and numbered in all 285 only. As time went on Wedgwood not merely increased the number and variety of his productions of this class, but endeavoured to attain a higher degree of perfection in material and workmanship. He tells us that his cameos were made for two purposes, some to serve as ornaments, the rest to be gathered into cabinets in order to illustrate mythology or history : this remark applied, doubtless, not only to the works com- prised in Class I, but also to the cameos of the nine succeeding classes. Amongst the most instructive specimens of the early cameos are a number of trial-pieces made of a cream-coloured paste or a greyish- white semi-porcelain, but having their grounds washed or painted with enamel colours or stains. The colours are olive-green, blue, dull pink, ochre-yellow, lavender, brick-red, chocolate, and black; in most cases the surface is glossy and uneven, while the colour is not brought accurately up to the contours of the relief-head. The small uncoloured semi-porcelain cameos lack sharpness, and they were not improved by the addition of coloured grounds. Still these first experi- Sel eee ener aes msi inno aa TEENS A Rata AA PRG: inamnnae sun area i aa a gpumureetitrd abe ie Re TRISHA SS —— —— 2 i Gry 5 fo 204 f tov JOSIAH WEDGWOOD 67 vase would bring several times that sum at the present time. A specimen of the type and size shown in Fig. 19 fetched £68 5s at the sale of the Barlow Collection in 1869, where also a particularly sumptuous though smaller vase, with Flaxman’s Dancing Hours, realised no less than £131. The prices were however greatly exceeded at the sale of the collection of Dr. Sibson eight years afterwards, when one of the large “ Homeric” vases of white and black jasper-dip brought no less than £735, passing into the collection of Lord Tweedmouth. The subject on this vase was the “* Apotheosis of Homer”’ by Flaxman. The cover was surmounted by a Pegasus. The accompanying square pedestal bore reliefs representing Sacrifices to Flora and to Cupid, and was decorated with white griffins at the angles ; the height of the whole was nearly 25 inches. A similar and companion vase with the “‘ Apotheosis of Virgil” was in the collection of the late T. Shadford ‘Walker, of Liverpool. Thes2 unusually large vases in black and white jasper were not made before the period 1789-1791: copies are of extreme rarity. In fact the smaller vases ranging in height from 5 or 6 inches to a foot were always produced in far larger numbers than any of those described in this paragraph. Besides vases in white on blue and white on black, the other colours described in Chapter V. were also applied in the adornment of these objects. Many examples with white reliefs on a green or a lilac ground occur. ‘There are numerous varieties of hue and tint on these pieces, the green being sobered by the presence of much grey and ranging from a sage hue to one in which there is a good deal of yellow, while the lilac is sometimes pinkish and sometimes bluish. Some tricoloured combinations are also met with corresponding with the tricoloured medallions described in Chapter VII. ; a few vases have three colours in addition to white. In such cases the happiest effects are perhaps realised by means of chequer work and other conventional designs rather than by the introduction of figure subjects. For when the latter are associated with much decorative detail executed in a variety of attractive hues, the entire composition frequently lacks repose and breadth. During the last two or three years of his life it would seem that Wedgwood sparingly introduced gilding (duly burnt in) into the decoration of a very few of his jasper vases in white and deep lapis or mazarine blue. eo) NV SoOCvT ET Ss sae eA at cee aban ono een al easiciees aaeeeee eesti oo ; ssid S857 ARIEL bh idieteneense anaes aud eae (CISUNPITIEIR Os MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTIONS IN FASPER Ghessmen ; Match-pots, Pedestals, and Drums; Pipe-bowls ana Hookahs ; Tea and Coffee Sets; Salt-cellars ; Bulb-stands and Flower-pots ; Lamps ana Candlesticks ; Scent-bottles ; Bell-pulls. Wepcwoop applied his jasper-body with great ingenuity, fertility of resource, and good taste, to the production of an extraordinary number of objects of utility or luxury, personal or domestic. Many indeed, though not all, of these articles had been made by him in the other bodies which he had perfected, such as cream-ware, terra-cotta and black basalt, but these materials were inferior to jasper in quality of colour, and did not admit of equal richness and variety in decorative treatment. Of these objects, excluding cameos, medallions, plaques, and vases, to which several 'preceding Chapters have been devoted, the famous chessmen designed by Flaxman in 1785 demand prominent notice. The original drawing for the set is still at Etruria; for it Flaxman’s charge was six guineas. In accord with the origin and character of the game, the style adopted by the artist for these figures is distinctively medieval and not classical. Many of the pieces, notably the king, queen, and bishop, are well adapted, by the simplicity of their contours, for the purpose for which they were intended. But their liability to break, and the difficulty experienced in handling many of them would alone suffice to prevent their use by chess-players. The two sides were made in olive green and lilac, in black and white, and in blue and white. The old specimens form a beautiful suite of ornaments for the cabinet, the modern replicas are rough in texture and defective as to their minuter details and the modelling of the faces. Wedgwood produced an enormous number of pedestals, drums, Fafa be ene Fesees ese aNPPUO URSA Picecacten aera raaraeeaReeaaea peaeeaneneets a eters eciaeome nen emeeme dette memeeeeetee eee eee JOSIAH WEDGWOOD 69 match-pots, and other cylindrical pieces. Flaxman’s group of “Blind Man’s Buff” lent itself charmingly to the adornment of these pieces of a round form. The Figs. 20 and 21 represent a pair of stands for vases in the South Kensington Museum; they are in white on a ground of sage- green. They were purchased for the collection in 1855, at a time when Wedgwood’s productions were less esteemed than they are now; still one is surprised to find from the labels that the Museum gave no more than ten pounds for this important pair of pedestals. Many of the smaller objects in this group were intended to be mounted in ormolu as candelabra: they are frequently found decorated with cut glass pendants. The four-sided altar-shaped pedestals with bases rather wider than the tops, and the cylindrical drums with small cameo figures in white on blue, or with chequer-work of two colours and white, make particularly beautiful supports for a gilt bronze and glass superstructure, provided the design of the latter is kept sufficiently simple. For the Eastern markets Wedgwood provided vessels in jasper to be used in the hookah or hubble-bubble: these have sometimes been mistaken for lamp-reservoirs. A few pipe bowls for tobacco also exist; they may have been more abundant once, as they are peculiarly liable to injury and accident. Tea and coffee sets, including oval trays for the whole equipage, cups and saucers, bowls and sugar-basins, with tea-pots and coffee-pots, were made in an immense variety of forms and in all the colours of which the jasper-body was susceptible. The bowl, Fig. 22, is of white jasper so translucent as to show, even in the illustration, that the light is trans- mitted through its substance, as is indicated by the paler tone of grey in the central part of the bottom of the vessel. The festoons of ivy are in solid jasper of an olive hue; the berries being lilac; the pendent medallions have a lilac ground. The original specimen is in the Jermyn Street Museum. The covered sugar-basin, Fig. 23, is at South Kensington. It is introduced here as an example rather of one of Wedgwood’s favourite shapes and simpler styles of ornament, not on account of any particularly high quality of the material, which approaches in character stoneware rather than jasper. It was probably made during the first quarter of the present century ; the body is of a pale olive hue, the reliefs are lilac. An example of a saucer almost too heavily laden 70 FOSIAH WEDGWOOD with ornament is furnished, from the same gallery as the last example, by Fig. 24. It is of jasper-dip, the ground being sage-green, the Fiz, 20.—Pedestal, Blind Man’s Buff; green and white jasper. medallions white on lilac. This specimen belongs to the latest period of Wedgwood’s life, if indeed it is not to be dated a few years after his death, for there is a lack of fineness in the paste and of sharpness in the FOSTAH WEDGWOOD api reliefs. Some of the tea-cups with flutings of blue and white, acanthus leaf borders, and white reliefs of children at play, are simply perfect in Fig. 21.—Pedestal, Blind Man’s Buff; green and white jasper. all respects. ‘They, as well as the salt-cellars, were often polished on the inside by means of the lapidary’s wheel. a Many different forms of pots for growing bulbs, such as the hyacinth, Fig. 22.—Bowl, Ivy festoons ana pendent cameos; white, green and lilac jasper. Fig..23.—Sugar-Basin and Cover, Vine pattern ; pale olive and Vila. JOSIAH WEDGWOOD 78 tulip, and crocus, and for flowering plants, were made in the jasper-body. Wedgwood’s good taste in the matter of decoration was apparent in these works, for he was careful to select such ornamental motives as would not clash with nor overpower the foliage and blossoms to be associated with these vessels. The slight concave curvature which he Fig. 24.—Saucer, Festoons ana Cameos; white, green and lilac jasper. gave to the flowerpots relieved them from the ordinary prosaic appear- ance of such things, while the rims were made so solid as to be proof against any ordinary blow. ‘The material and the workmanship were of the highest quality, quite equal to those of the best ornamental vases. But nowadays while an old jasper vase four inches high of ssreepmmemerenetnemnt ee me ee ee eae ti ESUUE STONES AE SSEES EST BUDLI wt nnd EARS ESEETY SE POEDSIEY PNCE AT CERES SUNTEEE NET! Cas ebaed LETT aE LE IESE Ome [PSE ET ERE beets etre se REA 74 JOSIAH WEDGWOOD Wedgwood’s period of perfection cannot be bought for less than ten pounds, a flowerpot of the same quality and pattern may be acquired for two pounds or even less. The illustration given in Fig. 24 happens to be derived not from a specimen in jasper, but from one made of a very fine kind of terra-cotta, but it is equally adapted to demonstrate the beauty and simplicity of a form and decorative treatment originated by Wedgwood. It is of cane-colour with reliefs in a sober greenish grey. The design of these reliefs is taken from the common hard-fern, Fig. 25.—Flower-pot and Saucer, reliefs of fern-leaves ; cane-colour terra-cotta. Blechnum, boreale. Wedgwocd of course made flowerpots in other wares besides jasper, using cream-ware, pebble-ware, black basalt, and red terra- cotta, variously decorated with engine-turning, and with raised designs and paintings of many kinds. This was also the case with his bulb-stands, and with his bough-pots for cut flowers and foliage. But the multiplicity of his patterns in these classes baffles any attempt at adequate description. A pair of picturesque candlesticks with white figures and foliage on a ground of blue are in Mr. Propert’s collection (Figs. 26 and 27). They were selected for illustration on account of their differing widely >t shepver oe 2] > JOSIAH WEDGWOOD 75 in style from the classical and highly conventionalised designs with which we have been previously dealing. But Wedgwood in this section of his productions exhibited as much fertility of resource and sense of fitness as in any of the groups already discussed. His pillar candlesticks are models of simplicity, and so also are his taper-holders. The lamps — PET ANAL SSS | SD NS Figs. 26, 27.—Pair of Candlesticks, Children and Trees; blue and white jasper. designed after antique patterns are, however, for the most part cabinet objects, and are not fitted for everyday use. One word about scent-bottles. These dainty pieces, often with polished edges and mountings of gold, have always been highly appre- ITT SE steht og) GPE! 5 Rae D PERSE Sb Sid neces ees LaRSSEg Garner eee SHY MESDEU REY GabEfea cafes este suxsess saeeeat wis sere ta acrererarae eines taehann eaeieeeerneene eet eee ee 76 JOSIAH WEDGWOOD ciated. They vary in size and shape, but were generally made in solid blue jasper with figures or portraits of white in low relief ; they some- times are bordered with conventional designs also in white. Oviform handles for bell-ropes were made in considerable numbers and in queen’s ware as well as in jasper. They were decorated in a simple and appropriate manner; there is a representative series of specimens in the Liverpool Museum. Nothing has been said, for the limitations of space forbid the further extension of this chapter, of watch-backs, earrings, opera-glass mounts, and a number of other minor objects of decoration or utility for which Wedgwood employed with success his beautiful jasper paste. SS es a CHAPTER XI LATER YEARS The Brick House; Marriage; Partnership with Thomas Wedgwood, Purchase of the Site of “ Etruria” ; Grand Trunk Canal; London Show Room; a Surgical Operation ; Partnership with Thomas Bentley ; Etruria, the Village, the Works, the Hall; Fosiah Wedgwooa and Richard Champion; Scientific Work; Death; Portraits. Ir seemed advisable, on several grounds, to describe in successive chapters the chief materials and productions of Wedgwood’s manufactory, although this treatment of the subject involved a long break in our brief narrative of the potter’s life. This we may now resume by mentioning that at least as early as the year 1762, about three years after his first start as an independent manufacturer, Wedgwood, finding it necessary to occupy larger premises than heretofore, rented the Brick House and Works in Burslem, which he retained until his final and complete removal to Etruria in 1773. To the dwelling-house attached to these potworks, Wedgwood brought his bride, Sarah Wedgwood, a cousin, the daughter of Richard Wedgwood, of Spen Green. The wedding took place on the 25th January, 1764, in the parish church of Astbury, Cheshire. This marriage was altogether happy, Mrs. Wedgwood fully sympathising with her husband’s varied tastes, em- ployments, and aspirations, and yet devoting herself with exemplary diligence to all domestic and maternal duties. Their direct descendants during the last one hundred years have continued the labours which the death of Josiah Wedgwood in 1795 might have interrupted. The year 1766 was marked by the partnership then arranged between Josiah Wedgwood and his cousin Thomas, who had been employed in the works since 1759. As before mentioned he had been previously engaged at the Worcester china factory ; he was a skilful potter, and became superintendent of the department of the “useful Na nen re en ar PNT EEE SI SIe SS SME TY TI mt RESTEST ERATE NTTES Posed 78 FOSIAH WEDGWOOD works” both at Burslem and afterwards at Etruria. This partnership was dissolved only by the death of Thomas Wedgwood in 1788. In the same year, 1766, Wedgwood succeeded in acquiring a suitable site in the neighbourhood of Burslem for a new factory and dwelling-house. He says in a letter to Bentley, under the date July 18, “I have now bought the estate J] mentioned to you, for which I am to pay £3,000 at Michaelmas next.” Subsequently he acquired from another land- owner a considerable addition to his domain, so that its area sufficed not only for the erection of a village for his workmen, and an extensive potworks, furnished with many new and costly appliances, but also for a mansion for himself surrounded by spacious grounds, as well as a good house for his partner Bentley. It must indeed have been a prosperous business which Wedgwood had created, for it to have yielded him, in the brief space of ten years, the large profits necessary to carry out the immense undertaking which he had now commenced. For three Soreness years after his purchase of the “Ridge House” Estate, his new Etruria Works were opened. The formal inauguration took place fl on June 13th, 1769, Wedgwood himself “throwing” on the wheel the : first six vases. Some of these are still preserved. They are of black 4 basalt, painted with figures in the antique-style in two tones of red, ; and bear the legend “Artes Etruriae Renascuntur.” In form, and in the finish of their encaustic decoration they were greatly improved upon in the course of a year or two, but they-are of considerable interest as being almost the only dated specimens of Wedgwood’s time still extant ; they consequently serve to fix the period in which more advanced work of the same character and material was produced at Etruria. Wedgwood at the time of his commencement of his new works at Etruria was busy also in furthering the facilities of water carriage | in his district. His sound sense and foresight had been of great service in settling the plans of certain sections of the Grand Trunk E Canal in the year 1765, when his knowledge of the requirements of F i! the district of the Potteries had proved extremely useful to the Duke of Bridgewater’s engineer James Brindley. Mr. Bentley and Dr. Darwin were also both in consultation on this matter with Wedgwood, whose i promptitude in proving the weakness of rival schemes, and judicious | advocacy in influential quarters of the plan finally adopted, were EEE err fab S75 ee Sa Bnd SPOS PRD gsc ee Tapes SESRSEGUD iespeeeesaean eaten ti meadeson tera ameeee earteeee meecetieeeetteeeten erties ee FOSIAH WEDGWOOD 79 of incalculable value in securing a favourable issue when the Bill for authorizing the canal was under discussion in Parliament. It is characteristic of Wedgwood, shrewd man of business though he was, that he demurred to the prosaic directness of the course of that part of the canal which passed through his newly acquired estate. In 1767 he wrote to Bentley, saying, “Mr. Henshall and I spent yesterday and to-day at Hetruria in setting out the canal through that district, and on Monday next I shall begin to make it. The fields are so very level that the canal will run in a straight line through them, at least so it is set out, for I could not prevail on that Vandal to give me one line of Grace—he must go the nearest and best way or Mr. Brindley would go mad.” The variety of important matters which engaged Wedgwood’s attention at this time—1767—8—was indeed considerable. For besides the canal and the founding of Etruria, he was endeavouring to secure an adequate showroom and depot in the Metropolis for his productions. The room in Charles Street, Grosvenor Square did not allow of the exhibition of many sets of dinner and dessert services and of vases, and no one knew better than Wedgwood the importance of space for the proper display and arrangement of his wares. One likely house after another was inspected until in August 1768 some premises at the top of St. Martin’s Lane were finally secured at an annual rent of one hundred guineas. In the midst of all these and many other occupations Wedgwood become convinced of the necessity of having his right leg amputated. He foresaw that in superintending the work in the large establishment which he was about to found at Etruria the retention of this useless and often painful member would be a serious encumbrance. On May 28, 1768, the Operation was successfully performed, the patient making a rapid recovery, thanks in great measure to the assiduous care of his wife, and the cheerful companionship of his friend Thomas Bentley, who remained with him until all danger was over. The name of this friend has been frequently mentioned before in this essay; and it is now time to give a few particulars concerning one with whom for eighteen of ‘the most active years of his life Wedgwood was continuously consulting and corresponding. a | | i BG sa las _—_———— REST Ty : i 1 =e =a ; ; ees 80 FOSIAH WEDGWOOD The first meeting between Josiah Wedgwood and his future friend and partner Thomas Bentley, took place at Liverpool, in 1762. Wedgwood had again injured his knee during a journey to that town, and in consequence placed himself under the care of a very competent and well-informed surgeon there, Mr. Matthew Turner. The doctor effected the introduction of the two men; henceforward they became firmly attached friends, serving one another with zeal and in many different ways. They were nearly of the same age; in love for art, in business capacity, and in their generosity and public spirit, they had many characteristics in common. Bentley possessed accomplishments which the somewhat untoward circumstances in which Wedgwood’s early years were passed had prevented him from acquiring. He had spent some time on the Continent and spoke fluently both French and Italian, and was a fair classical scholar. His house in Liverpool became the meeting-place of many distinguished scientific and literary men, while his polished manners and his deep and intelligent interest in the public questions of the day brought him into contact with a large number of the conspicuous and wealthy men of the district. Thomas Bentley was in no way connected, so far at least as has been ascertained, with the famous critic Richard Bentley, who was sixty-nine years old when Wedgwood’s future partner was born. Bentley introduced Wedgwood to many of his friends, including Dr. Priestley, the celebrated discoverer of oxygen, Dr. Aikin, and a number of ingenious persons engaged in various kinds of literary, scientific, and artistic labours. Some were surveyors, engineers and mechanicians ; some painters and engravers ; of their talents in not a few instances, Wedgwood, in after years, made good use. Bentley was a merchant and warehouseman in an extensive way of business, and in this capacity also his association with Wedgwood exercised a considerable influence upon the growing prosperity of the master-potter. Negotia- tions for a partnership between them were opened by Wedgwood in 1766, but it was not until November 14, 1768, that the arrangements were finally completed, Bentley acquiring an equal share in the profits arising from the sale of ornamental as distinguished from useful ware. On articles belonging to the former class the stamp impressed bore the names “ Wedgwood and Bentley,’ sometimes abbreviated into “ W. and B.,” but occasionally altogether omitted. Bentley left Liverpool, though not SE JOSIAH WEDGWOOD 81 finally, in 1768, and occasionally resided in the Brick House at Burslem, a dwelling attached to one of the factories then occupied by Wedgwood. A residence was being built for him at this time close to the new potworks of Etruria, but the greatly increased demand for ornamental vases of Wedgwood’s make compelled him to change his plans, and to migrate to London, where he established himself in rooms over the warehouse rented by Wedgwood in Newport Street. Another move soon followed. A house and garden at Chelsea were obtained on lease dated 22nd of September, 1669, the year in which the original China works there were sold to William Duesbury of Derby. Here Bentley took up his quarters, which were conveniently situated, for they enabled him to super- intend the enamelling branch of the factory, which had been for some time conducted in the inconvenient premises of Newport Street, but was now to be better housed at Chelsea. The tenure of these Chelsea premises did not last long, for in 1774 Bentley removed his family and the enamelling business to Greek Street, Soho. Many of the letters written by Wedgwood to Bentley are preserved ; selections from this interesting correspondence have been printed by Miss Meteyard in her “ Life of Wedgwood.” Bentley died on the 26th of November, 1780, to the great sorrow of his friend and partner. He was buried in Chiswick Church, where there is a monument to his memory by Scheemakers. The inscription which it bears, though somewhat rhetorical and exag- gerated in expression, offers a warm and well-deserved tribute to his high qualities of head and heart. The death of Bentley was felt acutely by his surviving friend and partner. But Wedgwood continued his work with unabated industry and enthusiasm, losing no opportunity to extend his business and to develop at the same time the perfection and artistic merit of his manu- facture. It has already been pointed out that the production of vases in the jasper body was subsequent to the death of Bentley, and that many of the most beautiful medallions and plaques, more particularly those in jasper dip, were made between the years 1781 and 1795. Yet it must be borne in mind that not only were a vast number and great variety of fine things in variegated and black ware made during the term of the partnership, but that the splendid suites of mantelpiece plaques originated during the same period. We are able to fix the F remy meprenre emis treme igen geen cn poeta gterge er Spapascien oachoearetiesees tan pusaecuas cabtaea sanded seeeeteteetersaseeteresen teteares nee eee satetene eeeeeeetee 82 FOSIAH WEDGWOOD dates of some of these sets, partly by means of the extant invoices of the modellers and other artists employed, partly by the entries in the sale catalogue of 1781, and by those in the several editions of the firm’s own catalogue published during Bentley’s lifetime, and partly by actual examples of these suites known to have been made in particular years. ‘Thus there are in Mr. F. Rathbone’s gallery two white marble mantelpieces made for Longton Hall, one in 1777 and the other two years after. The first of these has as a central ornament, the fine design by Flaxman representing the Apotheosis of Virgil: on either side of this are two decorative plaques forming the frieze ; the blocks at either end are heads of Medusa, while the jambs are ornamented with two important plaques representing trophies and altars. The later mantel- piece has a large central circular medallion a profile head—of Ceres, while the other plaques bear designs of corn and conventional ornament. All these pieces are wrought in solid blue and white jasper of fine quality. The catalogues issued by Wedgwood and Bentley have just been named; they were drawn up by Bentley and revised by his partner. The first appeared in 1773, the second in 1774, the third was a translation into French of the second, the fourth was published in 1777, and the fifth in English and a sixth in French in 1779. Bentley wrote the introduction to the first edition and also the various modifications and numerous additions which appeared in the subsequent issues. One edition only, that of 1787, was published after Bentley’s death. It should be added, in order to show the Continental development of the business, that the catalogue was published in Dutch in the year 1778 at Amsterdam, and that in the following year it appeared in a German dress at Leipsic. The wide distribution in Europe of the productions of Etruria at this time may be learnt from the numerous specimens bearing the stamp of Wedgwood and Bentley which have been recognised in many Continental cities by English travellers. The writer, for instance, discovered many of the variegated or “pebble” vases in the Natural History Museum of the Florence University. Something has already been said as to the founding of the Staffordshire Etruria. The village, if such it can be called, does not now present, it must be owned, a very pleasing aspect, but as its population has been gradually increasing since Wedgwood’s day, and now JOSIAH WEDGWOOD 83 reaches the respectable total of 5,300, it must be regarded as a flourishing colony. The potworks remain, so far as outward appearance goes, in much the same state as when first erected. This cannot be said of Wedgwood’s residence, Etruria Hall. In 1884 after a recent visit of inspection, I wrote of it in the following words: “The house has an air of faded magnificence, in spite of neglect, the dinginess of its surroundings, and the smoke-smitten trees hard by.” The destruction of vegetation, which imparts so dreary and forlorn an appearance to the neighbourhood, is due not so much to the smoke of the potworks, but to the noxious gases emitted from the neighbouring bar-iron furnaces of Lord Granville. On penetrating to the cellars of the mansion I had no difficulty in discovering some of the appliances and receptacles, for his secret preparations, used by Josiah Wedgwood. For here rather than in the works he was continually experimenting, in order to effect the improvement of his ceramic pastes, glazes and pigments, away from the too curious eyes of visitors or workmen; and here his secretary and assistant, Alexander Chisholm, was in frequent attendance. It is impossible, in a condensed account such as that now offered, to describe even a few of the important orders which Wedgwood executed at the Etruria Works for royal, distinguished or wealthy patrons. A word however must be said concerning the celebrated service made for the Empress of Russia, Catherine II. This was shown in the summer of 1774 in the new Greek Street rooms. Mrs. Delany wrote about it, saying, “there are three rooms below and two above filled with it, laid out on tables, everything that can be wanted to serve a dinner; the ground, the common ware pale brimstone, the drawings in purple, the borders a wreath of leaves, the middle of each piccema particular view of all the remarkable places in the King’s dominions.” The service (or rather the services, for there were two). consisted of 952 pieces. heir cost as plain cream-coloured ware previous to decoration was no more than {51 85. 4d. The mere enamel-painting of the views and borders entailed an expenditure of more than £2,200. Some duplicate specimens of plates and cups belonging to this service still remain in England, and though well and elaborately decorated they cannot be said to be wholly satisfactory. This was the fault, not of the potters and painters, but of the conditions imposed by the ae) : ESS Ia) Sesh taties Secs PERS CARS eh cer el spied oe SE aLt oe takeers aoa E SUSIE: GreSQSsg veneer reveiw ir PASO CRORES GREE sp feviesey STPSEEYALY ED RESTENESESC SE STTES EorSIEO vies Saeki boom shire tir intearecterenten teeter eth eeeeeemtine eet eee 84. FOSIAH WEDGWOOD Imperial patron. There is an incongruity in the notion of cutting up your slice of mutton on a charming landscape, and helping a medieval castle to a spoonful of mashed potato! The Empress kept this service at her country retreat of La Grénouilliere, where it was seen by Lord Malmesbury in 1779. When during his later years Wedgwood had become not only | t \ very prosperous but had acquired considerable wealth, his generous and public spirit prompted him to employ much of his riches in furthering wise schemes of benevolence and general utility. All through his life, as means and opportunities allowed, generosity was a marked characteristic of the man. In two particulars, however, his conduct seems open to some degree of censure. For he endeavoured to prevent the modellers and artists whom he employed from acquiring any honour from their labours, not permitting them to affix their names to the products of their skill: and he opposed Richard Champion of Bristol in his attempts to secure some slight pecuniary ” reward for his laborious and skilful trials in the manufacture of true porcelain just at the time when he was on the point of making | his admirable productions a commercial success. One would like i to think that it was sheer ignorance of the facts rather than prejudice a) and self-interest which induced Wedgwood to write to Bentley thus mm Pye owe Champion, you may have heard, is quite demolished. It was never likely to be otherwise as he had neither professional knowledge, sufficient capital, nor scarcely any real acquaintance with the materials he was working upon. I suppose we might buy some growan stone and growan clay now upon easy terms for they prepared a large quantity this last year.” An able refutation of these state- | ments has been made by Mr. Hugh Owen in his Two Centuries of q| Ceramic Art in Bristol (pp. 149-151). Mr. Owen’s account of i! this unhappy business is too long to quote in its entirety, but there are two passages therein which deserve citation:—‘ Every step taken \ by Wedgwood in this dispute needs the labour of an apologist.” ‘ His l needless fear of competition rendered inoperative, for a time, the | } better feelings of a noble nature.” \ This is scarcely the place for a disquisition on what are commonly | described as the scientific labours of Wedgwood. He reckoned many rere galepeany tren) aceon pete ernment nnn ame cam ee eg ong eg mena tee sone JOSIAH WEDGWOOD 85 scientific men, such as Darwin and Priestley, amongst his friends, and thoroughly appreciated their endeavours to apply their knowledge to purposes of practical utility. He had an able assistant in Alexander Chisholm, who entered his employ in the year 1781. And we read of his engaging a lecturer on chemistry to give instruction to his sons. He received the distinguished honour of being enrolled in the Royal Society, not however by reason of his chemical qualifications, but on account of his ingenious invention of an instrument for measuring high degrees of temperature. It was on the 16th of January, 1783, that Josiah Wedgwood was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society ; he was formally admitted into this Society “ for improving natural knowledge” on the 13th of February in the same year. Five papers by him were published in the Philosophical Transactions. Three of these, relating to the measurement of high temperatures by means of the shrinkage of clay-cylinders, appeared in the volumes for 1782, 1784, and 1786, and furnish details concerning the use and the indications afforded by the Pyrometer invented by their author. The two remaining papers are on chemical subjects, and are to be found in the Phil. Trans., vols. Ixxiii. (1783) and Ixxx. (1790). The first of these contributions gives an analysis of Derbyshire Black Wadd, and is interesting to the modern chemist as describing a method of separating iron from manganese by means of fractional precipitation with an alkali, and as mentioning the change of colour due to the passage of the protoxide of the latter metal into the binoxide. But it is impossible to argue from these two chemical papers and from his letters and memoranda that Wedgwood was a great chemist. Doubtless he was a most persistent and indefati- gable experimenter, as well as an acute observer. The trial of materials and recipes, gathered from all quarters, with a view to their employment in bodies, glazes and colours, constituted the greatest part of his experimental work. Chemistry, in Wedgwood’s day, was a science in a very early stage of development ; even had he mastered all that was known of it, the aid that it could have afforded him in his practical inquiries would have been comparatively insignificant. Nevertheless it may be freely conceded that in his knowledge of chemistry and of physics, Wedgwood stood alone amongst the potters of his day. We learn from his papers and memoranda that he was familiar with the few RS rae corn orn Ee NU SNORAOOEEDL SOE ONE OAD Lz Hew CDns Rt PRESTBOUSSTESIEEEFES PFSETERD ot nt Fat | i H 4:5 Sicoae with enrtascesinsa nee abe een reer GG ee 86 JOSIAH WEDGWOOD chemical reagents that were available in his time. He tested the action of these, as well as of different temperatures and admixtures, upon the materials which he was using or was proposing to use in his craft. His studies, however, must necessarily have been confined in great measure to the comparison of phenomena, the real nature of which a whole century devoted to philosophical research has not sufficed entirely to explain. Wedgwood’s literary work was not wholly confined to his corre- spondence with Bentley, Darwin, and other friends. He wrote and published several pamphlets. His style was somewhat laboured, and his grammar not above reproach, but he succeeded in conveying his meaning, while we always feel sure that he wrote under a strong conviction of the importance of what he was saying. There is sound common sense in the able Address to the Young Inhabitants of the Pottery, which he published in 1783 on the occasion of bread-riots. In the same year he also wrote another address to workmen on the subject of entering into the service of foreign manufacturers. His Memorial relative to a Petition from Mr. Champion for the Extension of a Patent, and his Conjectures on the Bas-reliefs of the Portland Vase were less happy productions. Wedgwood’s health was never robust, and during the last five years gave frequent occasions for anxiety to his friends. He had partially retired in 1790 from some of the more active duties of his business and was able to take longer holidays than before. At home he had many recreations, collecting books, engravings and objects of natural history, and occupying himself in the development of the gardens and grounds of Etruria Hall, where, moreover, he constantly entertained a succession of congenial visitors. But Wedgwood was not long to enjoy his partial retirement from the cares of business. After a brief illness, the nature of which left no hope of recovery, Josiah Wedgwood passed away, towards the end without pain and unconscious, on the 3rd of January, 1795. Had he lived to the late summer of that year he would have been 65. His grave is in the churchyard of Stoke: in the chancel of that church there is a monument to his.memory by Flaxman. The inscription thereon tells us that he “ converted a rude and inconsiderable Manufactory into an elegant Art and an important part of National Commerce.” Wedgwood left more than half a million of money in addition to his large and flourishing business. — Seeest swat SSS STE LS TET ES evr IB etn ee A A Rt RE FOSIAH WEDGWOOD 87 There are five portraits of Josiah Wedgwood. The best of these is by Sir Joshua Reynolds; it was painted in 1783. It has been engraved twice; the version by S. W. Reynolds has been reproduced in Fig. 1. George Stubbs painted two portraits of the master—one, on horseback, is now in the possession of Lord Tweedmouth, the other, of kitcat size, was engraved by G. T. Stubbs, but is an unsympathetic and commonplace work. The fourth portrait is the cameo medallion of which none of the copies in the jasper body is of fine quality. The fifth is the posthumous relief by Flaxman on the monument in Stoke Church. To this list may be added the modern bust by Fontana in the Memorial Institute at Burslem. —— —— = STE: SSticiyy sharer mirorert am URAC Ebi Ste SSy LHINSE On} ebret ett ied BESTE ws Bod Cai Svante: GEsStSaS Suue eum E Oban SabacE St Ot as ooaed San Sen CpdEaEs va HW MELEEE ese EEEPS TRIES: ‘= oneape SGeRAGRG fe cane nanan) inane eines ns et etre ries sete tte ee Fi CHAPTER XII HIS POSITION AS AN ART-POTTER A Pervading Style; Merits and Defects; Sources of bis Designs ; Artists Employed— Fames Tassie, Fobn Flaxman ; Imitators and Successors Ir one has collected together a considerable number of pieces of the different kinds of earthenware which were first made in England between the years 1760 and 1800, it will not prove a difficult task, even for the uninitiated, to separate the specimens into three groups. Of these $c Een patents TTT =f groups one will present what naturalists call a distinctive “facies.” It ll will show, in respect to material, form, and colour, not only a marked 4 superiority to the other groups, but a pervading style—a style originating i in the union of beauty with utility. Ornament is not an after-thought but a growth,—a development rather than an addition. Needless to i say that this characteristic style distinguishes the vast majority of Hy Wedgwood’s productions. A second group, in our hypothetical col- | lection, will show in a hesitating way, and to a variable degree, many of the merits of the first group; it will contain works by the most competent of the plagiarists and imitators of the great potter. One feels that had it not been for his previous labours these productions would never have seen the light, and that the greater number of them have a second-hand and second-rate air. The third group will be altogether miscellaneous and, for the most part, inferior. With rare and not very important exceptions, the pieces included in this group will represent potteries which were not under the control of an inspiring and. original idea. The case presented in the preceding paragraph may help us in defining Wedgwood’s artistic position. He was not a mere employer of artists, not a mere translator into clay of designs made by other Dagar an oases rare ces ree operetta erences eee FOSIAH WEDGWOOD 89 hands in other materials. Nor was he a mere copier of the antique. He possessed a marvellous power of co-ordination and adaptation, and appreciated the grace of congruity, although he occasionally allowed the association of incompatible decorative elements. He was endowed with an inventive faculty which revealed itself not only in new materials and new methods but in the origination of new forms. Moreover, having selected with consummate taste the artistic materials, original and derived, which he deemed to be best suited for his purpose, he so informed them with his spirit and temper that, under wide diversities of substance, colour and shape, there will be found a certain unity of conception. In a word, no other potter of modern times has so successfully welded into one harmonious whole the prose and the poetry of the ceramic art. Wedgwood’s appreciation of beauty and his imagination and fancy, on the one hand, with his skill, perseverance and knowledge on the other, enabled him to attain an altogether unique position. True, he may not have left us any artistic works which we can call wholly his own, although we know that he was a practical thrower, an expert modeller, and an ingenious designer of new forms. But we owe an immense debt of gratitude to Wedgwood for the exquisite taste with which he reproduced and multiplied in beautiful materials the creations of great artists such as Flaxman, and for the industrial enter- prise which enabled him to make and to distribute throughout the Old and New Worlds countless objects in which utility and beauty were happily combined. Wedgwood’s successes were however not unaccompanied by drawbacks. Mechanical processes were more largely employed by him than by any of his predecessors. Very few even of his most elaborate and most purely ornamental productions were unique. He used the same decorative motives over and over again even in his more costly pieces. And the touch of the human hand, which gives life to designs poor in conception and feeble in execution, was necessarily absent from the vast majority of the cheaper products of his kilns. Occasionally he did not hesitate, instead of preparing new moulds, to rearrange the figures of a classic composition, to omit some of them, or even to add incongruous elements from another source. If he had possessed more knowledge and more appreciation of the meaning of the ancient myths these changes would have been a Seer an Sahar es Sus avoned San SSR nat ant OAD SINESGEE nEaS Ekads SEE LET eT TSTOISTERI OIG ge FOSTAH WEDGWOOD impossible. And it is to be regretted that Wedgwood expended so much of his extraordinary power and skill in the work of making copies of objects of antique art, although he thereby favoured and followed a prevailing fashion of his day. Indications have been already given, from time to time in this paper, of the sources, ancient and modern, from which Wedgwood obtained his designs. His earlier productions were mere copies from casts of antique and cinque-cento gems and pastes. Afterwards he borrowed from a great diversity of sources, often modifying the original composition. He had frequent recourse to illustrated books like those of Comte de Caylus, Mr. a James Stuart and Sir W. Hamilton. He had drawings and models made ef from Greek vases and Roman and Greco-Roman bas-reliefs. The por- i traits of illustrious persons of his own day were taken from pictures, ie engravings, coins, and medals, or were specially modelled in wax by com- petent artists such as Flaxman, Hackwood and Tassie. Many other artists, both sculptors or modellers and draughtsmen, contributed designs. fl Sometimes the drawings of lady amateurs (Lady Diana Beauclerk and Lady Templeton, for instance) were translated into cameo reliefs and became popular. In the hope that further information may be ultimately elicited concerning some of Wedgwood’s artists, I have gathered many of their names into an alphabetical list, appended to this chapter, accounts ff and letters of Wedgwood as given in Miss Meteyard’s works having 4 been the chief source of information. Our knowledge of the works produced by the Italian sculptors employed at Rome, either independently or under Flaxman’s or Henry Webber’s supervision, is imperfect, but in some instances they have been identified, though details of the personal | | | history of these men, Angelini, Dalmazzoni, Pacetti and others, are wholly wanting. Of the many excellent designers and modellers who executed work of a more or less original character in Wedgwood’s own factories and exclusively for him we know scarcely anything but the names, and a few of their productions. Occasionally however we learn | incidentally some interesting particulars concerning these artists. Thus | we find that in 1769 Wedgwood wrote of an accomplished painter of \ admirable figures and borderings on his Etruscan ware, a Mrs. Wilcox, \ who had just left the china factory at Worcester. “She is a daughter to ai) that Fry who was famous for doing heads in mezzotint.’’ This was Biter bemeteenemiaetcriecninem te ee a a nn NL FOSIAH WEDGWOOD gl Thomas Frye, the inventor of Bow China. Thus a casual notice of his daughter affords interesting evidence of an hereditary talent and suggests a link of connection between three famous potworks. When, however, Wedgwood obtained the occasional aid of in- dependent artists other sources of information are available. Such, for instance, is the case with two modellers to whom the potter was largely indebted, namely James Tassie and John Flaxman. Brief notices of the careers of these two men may therefore be here fitly introduced. Wedgwood appears at first to have been dependent for his copies of antique and modern gems upon James Tassie. A bill of his is extant dated November 11th, 1769, in which Messrs. Wedgwood and Bentley are charged 115. 8d. for seventy impressions in sulphur, and 2s. for a couple of impressions in enamel glass. The majority of the cameos and intaglios comprised in Wedgwood’s first catalogue, published in 1773, were derived from moulds furnished by Tassie, but in later years Wedgwood employed moulders of his own, by whom an immense number of impressions were made from the original gems in many famous cabinets. Still a few words concerning James Tassie may be of interest, for to this very skilful artist Wedgwood not improbably owed the idea of copying in a plastic material not merely antique gems but the portraits of the men and women of his day. James Tassie was born at Pollokshaws, near Glasgow, on July 15th, 1735. He commenced his career as a stonemason, but soon turned his attention to the arts of modelling and sculpture, studying in the academy established in Glasgow by Robert and Andrew Foulis. From Glasgow Tassie went in 1763 to Dublin, where in conjunction with Dr. Quin he perfected the vitreous compositions used in copying antique gems. In 1766 ‘Tassie settled in London. In the same year the Society of Arts granted him a premium for his “Profiles in Pastes.” He exhibited “Portraits Modelled in Paste” at the Society of British Artists in 1768; in the following year he contributed other portraits to the exhibition of the Royal Academy. The extent of his labours both as an original artist and as a copyist may be gauged by the fact that the catalogue of his reproductions from the antique issued in 1791 contained no less than 15,800 numbered items : to these must be added several hundred portrait medallions, which 92 FOSIAH WEDGWOOD are undoubtedly of his own modelling and execution, although he copied in his white vitreous paste many of the works of other sculptors and medallists. Tassie’s larger cameo portraits are generally of high quality, and may be ranked with those which Wedgwood produced in his jasper body. Indeed there occur examples of the busts of many distinguished persons both in Tassie enamel and in Wedgwood paste. And it may be safely concluded that the originals of many of these were the work of James Tassie. Mr. John M. Gray, in his biographical sketch of Tassie (Edinburgh, 1893), particularly names the medallions of Joseph Black, chemist, James Byres, architect, the Earl of Mansfield, and Viscount Melville, as reproduced by Wedgwood from the moulds furnished by Tassie. The death of James Tassie took place on the 1st of June, 1799, rather more than four years after that of his better- known contemporary, Josiah Wedgwood. It is to be regretted that his tombstone, in the graveyard attached to a Congregational chapel in Collier’s Rents, Southwark, though it existed in a dilapidated condition in the year 1860, has since that date been destroyed. It is worthy of note that Tassie frequently mounted his portrait reliefs of white enamel on grounds of coloured glass, and that many of his more important cameos show unmistakable signs of having been finished by the gem-engrayer on the lapidary’s wheel. Moreover, there is still a third particular in which one may possibly recognise a similarity in the processes adopted by Tassie and by Wedgwood. For in Sir John Soane’s Museum there are preserved two large plaques, which have been always attributed to the Scotch artist, and which remind one very forcibly of those early trial pieces in which Wedgwood covered the backgrounds of his cameos with coloured enamel, which when fired yielded a rather glossy though uneven surface. I do not however feel certain as to these two plaques owing more to Tassie than their design. Of course there was a radical difference between the moist plastic material employed by the potter and the half-fused vitreous enamel which the artist in glass used in the manufacture of the vast majority of his productions. The pressing of softened glass into a mould demanded the utmost promptitude and precision in manipulation, while a more leisurely treatment was admissible in the case of any kind of ceramic paste. Pip Gets cat ni idees ore sectnan eeee oe EeRRReeeetr se ceccaat cies aneeerteeraesetecrateremenaee mma FOSIAH WEDGWOOD 93 It was on the recommendation of Bentley that John Flaxman’s aid as a designer and modeller was first secured by Wedgwood. The project of making large tablets for chimney-pieces was under discussion between the partners in 1775. On the 14th January in that year, Wedgwood, in replying to a letter from Bentley, says, “I am glad you have met with a modeller, and that Flaxman is so valuable an artist. It is but a few years since he was a most supreme coxcomb, but a little more experience may have cured him of this foible.” Wedgwood soon learnt to estimate very highly the genius of the young sculptor, wrote of him as “the greatest artist of the age,” and gave him a long series of important commissions. I have already indicated, in preceding chapters, how many of the finest portrait medallions and classical figures and groups can be unhesitatingly assigned to Flaxman, but the sculptor was occupied with many other commissions for the potworks of Etruria during the whole period BS! DSc The story of Flaxman’s life is so well known that the briefest summary of the chief incidents of its earlier part is all that need be here given. His father was a maker and seller of plaster casts, but was occasionally employed as a modeller by Roubiliac, Scheemakers, and other sculptors of the time. His second son, the subject of this notice, was born on 6th July, 1755. The boy’s health was weak, and his time was spent, except for a brief period, at home, and chiefly amongst the casts of his father’s shop. We hear, however, of the notice taken of him by some of his father’s artistic and literary patrons. He occupied himself in drawing and modelling and in teaching himself classic fables and Latin. When no more than twelve years old he gained the first prize for a medal from the Society of Arts, which awarded him a similar distinction three years later. From 1767 onwards he contributed works to several public exhibitions: in 1770 he exhibited a wax model of Neptune in the Royal Academy, of which he then became a student. In the com- petition for the gold medal in 1772 the President and Council of the Royal Academy awarded it to a rival. This reverse seems to have exercised a salutary effect upon the youth, checking his tendency to self-assertion. In 1775 he began working for Wedgwood, who SeMei eee aE a ae tS eS SD Si Se aba ene ee ir perc diese “ay matters / ii i} Hl ORES aE este tet Uae EE EEO EO Ee a oo FOSTAH WEDGWOOD during the last twenty: years of his life’ helped in many ways the young sculptor. When Flaxman was twenty-four he executed the lifelike portrait of himself which is given in Plate IV. from the specimen at South Kensington ; for this the authorities of the Museum gave £161 145. just thirty years ago. A replica of this terra-cotta medallion is in the collection of Mr. Propert. His series of monumental designs was commenced in 1780, and was continued until his death in 1826. Of his larger works these public monuments were the best, but as the marbles were too often completed by Italian workmen, the spirit of Flaxman’s original models frequently evaporated under their hands, a certain degree of emptiness and insipidity being the result. In his smaller works, especially in the wax portraits and classical bas-reliefs executed entirely by his own hand for Wedgwood, and in such pieces as the statuette in terra~cotta which is given in Fig. 28 from the original in the South Kensington Museum, the life and power of the sculptor is well seen. By many critics his pen and pencil and washed sketches are considered to be Flaxman’s most characteristic and satisfactory work. ‘Their simplicity and grace were caught from antique vase-paintings and bas-reliefs, but these drawings, slight though they generally are, are instinct with personal observation, and possess the charm of tender feeling and happy invention. In 1782 Flaxman married Ann Denman; five years afterwards, helped by the recommendations and pecuniary aid of Wedgwood, he went to Rome, where he remained until 1794; the rest of his life was spent in London. Wedgwood’s successes provoked the rivalry of his brother potters, but not content with improving their own productions, they deliberately copied his. For instance, they did not have direct recourse to the antique examples whence Wedgwood derived so many of his designs, but they secured early copies of his pieces and proceeded to imitate them, form, body, ornament and all. Cameos, seals, vases, and the “useful” ware—all were pirated. None of his plagiarists achieved a success at once so varied and so complete as that of Wedgwood. Perhaps John Turner, who worked in Lane End from 1762 until his death in 1786, may be regarded as having nearly equalled Wedgwood in the quality of his blue and white jasper. It is, however, distinguish- eat é ie Jeh n .Haxman fom a& Ylévallion in Ferra cetta ty himself : a ee JOSIAH WEDGWOOD 95 able by its texture, which is more porcellanous, and by its colour, which has either a greenish or a purplish hue. William Adams, of Burslem, and afterwards of Tunstall, produced blue and white jasper of good ze Fig. 28.—Statuette, seated figure, in right hand a syrinx ; terra-cotta. quality; much work in the same material is also due to the successors of Adams. The blue and white cameos made at Sévres in imitation of Wedgwood’s jasper are often good, but they are of biscuit porcelain. tne onety erento ee Oe | 4 3 filth RAPER UE OCR oa AR oes a oa Sepermetieeesrprptemmeyen pers ore apegrarge ee —— ee 96 FOSTAH WEDGWOOD Palmer, of Hanley, was an unscrupulous imitator of Wedgwood’s seals and vases, and occasionally forged the mark ‘“‘ Wedgwood and Bentley.” He and a potter of the name of Neale also imitated the encaustic- painted vases of Wedgwood. Elijah Mayer, of Hanley, produced many good pieces in the style of Wedgwood and in various bodies. A dozen other Staffordshire potters, belonging to the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first quarter of the nineteenth, might be named as having worked under the direct influence of the inventions and improvements introduced by Josiah Wedgwood. List OF THE CHIEF MODERN ARTISTS WHOSE DESIGNS OR MODELS WERE USED By WeEDGWOOD. (Dates in brackets refer to years in which the several artists are known to have been working Sor Wedgwood.) Angelini (Rome, 1787). Astle, Thomas ; 1735-1803. Bacon, John 3; 1740-1799. Barret, George 3 1732-1784. Beauclerk, Lady Diana; 1734-1808. Burch, Edward ; (1772). Coward, John (1768). Dalmazzoni, Angelo 1787-1795). Dassier, John ; 1676-1763. Davaere or Devere, John (Rome, 1788-1794). Flaxman, John ; 1755-1826. Fratoddi (Rome, 1787). Gosset, Isaac 3 1713-1799. Gosset, Matthew ; 1683-1744. Grant, B., and Hoskins, James (1774). Greatbach, William. Hackwood, William (1770). (Rome, Landre, Mrs. (1769, 1774). Le Brun, C.; 1619-1690. Lochée, John Charles ; (1787). Mangiarotti (Rome, 1787). Manzolini (Rome, 1787). Nini, Jean Baptiste ; 1716-1786. Pacetti (Rome, 1787). Parker, Theodore (1769). Prag, I, Ci7GO)) Reynolds, Sir Joshua ; 1723-1792. Roubiliac, L. F.; 1695-1762. Stothard, Thomas ; 1755-1834. Stubbs, George ; 1724-1806. Tassie, James; 1735-1799. Tebo (1775). Templeton, Lady (1783). Smith, Joachim (1773-1775). Steel, Aaron (1784). Webber, Henry (Etruria, 1782). Wilcox, Mrs. (1769-1776). Amongst other names of painters, designers, and modellers which might have been included in the above list are those of Boot, Miss Crewe, Denby, Holinshed, Keeling, Richard Parker, P. Stephan, Ralph Unwin, and Edward Watson. productions of Wedgwood’s factory can be definitely assigned to many In a considerable number of cases, extant of the artists whose names are here recorded. openssh REN ny tem re per pe GEAR TD ER Sxennk COLLECTIONS AND COLLECTORS Provincial Museums ; Public Collections in London ; Formation and Dispersal of Private Collections ; Criteria of Quality and Date; Marks However small a collection of English pottery may be it generally includes a few examples of Wedgwood’s productions. But it will be easily understood that a few examples cannot suffice to adequately represent the amazing variety of work which was turned out from the kilns of the great potter. Very few collections, public or private, have been formed in pursuance of a definite plan ;—indeed, at the present day it would not be possible to obtain by purchase anything like a complete representative series of Josiah Wedgwood’s productions. There are several distinct types, as to form, though not of material, which are now known only from his catalogues or his manuscript papers. And then, too, of his largest and most important plaques and vases very few examples exist, so that years may elapse without one of these rare pieces coming into the market. Josiah Wedgwood himself found, when too late, that it was impossible to make up a complete set of his own works. None of our national museums possesses a really representative collection of the works of Wedgwood. Several provincial towns how- ever are richer in this respect than London. Liverpool with the Mayer collection, and Birmingham with the interesting series of specimens gathered and presented by Messrs. R. and G. Tangye are far ahead of the metropolis. Fortunately Burslem itself, as the central town of the Staffordshire potteries, contains the Wedgwood Memorial Institute, in which is preserved a really fine assemblage of the productions of the great potter. This collection is due to the munificence of Mr. Thomas G SIER SSIES NESSSEST Vw BOGAN CORD Edn So OGN LetVaEEV arti) ceeeesttNetUGEs ed 1s0Met! 3 cad ED TIE Sessile WoceSO MRI CRE Meera speed ae Ewan om A AEOHI COD HieSY Ss ort | eS ee = 98 FOSIAH WEDGWOOD i Hulme, who has formed it by means of judicious selections from all the i recent sales of examples of the old period of the Etruria manufactory. i) Other specimens will be found in the two pottery towns of Stoke and i Hanley; although in the Mechanics’ Institute of Hanley and the Free Public Library of Stoke the productions of the predecessors and con- temporaries of Wedgwood are far more fully represented than are those of the master. The Castle Museum at Nottingham has been recently enriched with the fine collection of the late Mr. Felix Joseph; some specimens will be found in the Art Museums of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and in the Science and Art Museum at Dublin. The three metropolitan public collections of Wedgwood are those in F | the British Museum, the South Kensington Museum, and the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street. Even were they combined into a single assemblage they would afford a very imperfect notion of the extensive range of our potter’s labours. One would miss examples, or at least an adequate representation, of entire groups of Wedgwood’s productions, such as of large plaques in black basalt, in white semi- porcelain, in coloured jasper and in encaustic painted ware, of statuettes, busts and animals ; of lamps and candelabra ; of flower- and root-pots ; of cream-coloured services for table use; and of ink-vessels, paint-chests, eye-cups and other objects of domestic and technical utility. I do not think that too much emphasis can be laid upon the happy manner in | which Wedgwood associated beauty with serviceableness in his different | varieties of useful ware; this characteristic feature cannot be properly shown by a miscellaneous gathering consisting of a pair of plates from | one service, a dish from another, and a soup-tureen from a third. One wants in a museum a table equipage, not complete indeed, but representative. So, also, one would like to see in a public gallery illustrations of the way in which Wedgwood adapted his productions to the arts of the jeweller and the architect. His bas-reliefs in various bodies let into panelled walls, his suites of tablets for the friezes and jambs of mantelpieces, his large vases and busts for the tops of book- cases, and his wine coolers for the sideboard, cannot be duly appreciated when dissociated from their intended surroundings and ranged in crowded ij ranks on the shelves of a cabinet. Nor can the artistic effect of Wedgwood’s small and delicate jasper cameos be properly seen when these arene Jo te detalit ast ntee tater meres aertertiee Ce 4FOSLAH WEDGWOOD 99 choice gems are fixed in formal rows upon a museum tablet, instead of being framed in cut steel, in gold, in silver or in ivory, or set in bon- bonniéres, tea-caddies and patch-boxes. Our national collections are therefore not inadequate merely on the score of incompleteness, but also by reason of their defective arrangement. During the last forty years or so many private collections of Wedgwood’s productions have been made; many also have been dispersed. Specimens of the jasper-body have been more generally sought for than those made of other and perhaps less choice compositions. Coloured jasper vases and déeuner sets as well as cameo medallions and portraits have mainly engaged the attention of collectors. Black basalt, white semi-porcelain and white jasper, as well as granite and marbled ware, have not secured a high place in the esteem of the majority of connoisseurs. A few collectors have gathered together specimens of table services in Queen’s ware: the delicately tinted dessert dishes, plates, tureens, compotiers, and bowls, in the form of different species of shells, have been more highly appreciated than the pieces with enamelled orna- mental borders of more or less conventional design painted by hand. The cream-ware decorated with transfer-printed engravings in black, red, or puce, has perhaps been deemed to be a less characteristic product of Etruria, since we know that for the most part it was printed and fired in the kilns of Messrs. Sadler and Green at Liverpool. But on more careful inquiry it will: be found that Wedgwood did not rest content with the designs purchased from others or made by Sadler and Green, but was continually furnishing the Liverpool firm with fresh material obtained by himself and more agreeable to his own taste. He frequently suggested improvements in style, method, or colour. As to this last point, that of the harmonious colouring of his cream-ware, Wedgwood wrote to Green in 1770 (in reference to designs printed in outline and then filled in with enamels by hand), urging him to avoid certain crude colours and to adopt a more sober scale. So that after all no collection of Wedgwood’s cream ware can be considered representative unless it contain a series of specimens illustrating the salutary influence which the great potter exercised upon the practice of the art of transfer-printing on earthenware by Sadler and Green. a en Sacer Ten SS SNERIERS EEE SS ABTISUS CSTPSEED BS REST EE SEIDEL ISTE [TUT nd ES ESS EOE FEO 100 FOSTAH WEDGWOOD The frequent formation and frequent dispersal of private collections of the works of Wedgwood during the last five-and-twenty years has had several different results. Many specimens have found a Af final, and we hope secure, resting-place in public museums; many | have passed from one private collection to another, then to a third, i and perhaps even to a fourth; not a few have been lost sight of, HM at least for a time. Another consequence of such changes of ownership, and of the attention paid to the subject, has been seen in the searches which have been made for fine examples in every part of Europe. Not only the shops but the private dwellings of France, Germany, Italy, Holland and Belgium have been ransacked by i enthusiastic collectors and eager dealers. One hears of a series of large white and lilac jasper plaques being discovered in a little back parlour in Venice; of a fine cameo of the Medusa’s head being SORT ISIE TEST] bought for five lire in a broker’s shop in a village near Turin ; of beautiful medallions set as ornaments in furniture, in clocks and ~{| even in doors in a remote French chateau, while some very choice | specimens of the best period of manufacture have returned to the country that produced them, even from Russia. Wedgwood had agencies in several important Continental centres, and the distribution h of his ornamental as well as of his useful wares during the last i] quarter of the eighteenth century was carried out on an extensive ii scale. During the last twenty or thirty years not only have a large number af of fine specimens of Wedgwood’s work formed part of several collections of works of art and of domestic furniture which have been dispersed by auction, but there have been sold many inclusive and general gatherings of pottery as well as of Wedgwood’s productions in particular. The H) prices obtained on such occasions have fluctuated considerably, but have || as a rule been greatly in advance of those of forty years ago. When a) several such sales occur about the same time or at a period of commercial happen that the Wedgwood collectors of the day are content with what they already possess and no new gatherings are being formed. ‘The P f } i depression, the prices realised are naturally lowered, especially if it so tT 1 : : priced catalogues of recent auctions are, for these reasons alone, insuffi- i t i} cient guides whereby to judge of the appreciation of the examples sold. — TE FOSTAH WEDGWOOD tol Moreover, a catalogue affords no adequate indications of quality, for all old Wedgwood is not necessarily fine. The chief collections dispersed at Christie’s during the last thirty years were these:—De La Rue, 1866; Marryatt, 1867; Barlow, 1869; Carruthers, 1870; Bohn, 1875; Sibson, 1877; Shadford-Walker, 1885; Braxton-Hicks, 1887; and Cornelius Cox, 1890. At the present time there are many possessors and collectors of old Wedgwood. Some of them are the owners of hereditary or family collections, but the majority have formed their own gatherings by recent purchases. To the former group Sir J. D. Hooker and Professor T. Roger Smith belong; to the latter Mr. J. A. Bartlett, Mr. A. W. Franks, Mr. J. L. Propert, Mr. W. J. Stuart, Lord Tweedmouth, Mr. Jeffery Whitehead and Dr. Edgar Willett. The name of the chief expert in old Wedgwood should be introduced here. Mr. Frederick Rathbone, of South Kensington, has done more in the way of forming the best collections made during recent years than any one else, and a visit to his gallery in Alfred Place West is indeed a treat to the lover of the ceramic art. For thirty-five years he has enjoyed exceptional facilities for the acquisition of an intimate knowledge of the work of the great potter ; his good taste and critical eye have enabled him to take full advantage of his opportunities. Having been for some time the agent and representative in the art department of the firm of Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, his acquaintance with the modern period of manufacture has afforded him the means of comparing and contrasting the new work with the old. His knowledge of marks and of the other criteria by which the good pieces may be recognised has been freely given to connoisseurs, and I am myself indebted to him for the cuts of the signatures with which the present chapter concludes. He is at present engaged in the production of a richly illustrated work on Old Wedgwood which is being published by Mr. Quaritch. It is not possible to define precisely in words those special character- istics by which old and fine Wedgwood may be discriminated from new or inferior. The senses of touch and sight must be brought into requisition, Whatever the variety of material, shape, or decoration may be, there will be apparent a pervading air of lightness with truth of form and perfect finish. In the case of the jJasper-body, flatness and Tt : H Sees emma Tne t is RLSLE SONIC REES ES ECOTED es PAS ES DEAT SEDER: POLES RD Mice WN LOLE TE See pIned EAE ESSE HEHE Sis deed RaSh MISSES Be SOT SESE Ss a Rae cas ee Soe eed Nea eee ee ———————— - to2 FOSIAH WEDGWOOD of | smoothness of ground, without ripples, bubbles or stringiness, are marked 1] features. The mark on the productions of Wedgwood consisted simply of | i the name impressed in the clay in letters of varying size; but during the partnership (1769-1780) with Bentley the form adopted on the Hi ornamental ware was “‘ Wedgwood & Bentley,” with the addition of i “Etruria” on the basalt, Etruscan, and variegated or pebble vases, and occasionally on the pedestals of large busts or figures. On the very small basalt intaglios the initials only, “ W. & B.”, appear. During the best period of manufacture the impressed marks are sharply defined ; occasionally genuine old pieces have no stamp. Besides the manu- facturer’s mark, an immense number of supplementary signs, sometimes a impressed, sometimes painted, have been noted ; Miss Meteyard devotes f | fourteen pages of her Handbook to their description ; they are workmen’s marks, and have little significance ; in a few instances, however, they serve to distinguish invariably fine work in the jasper-body. Such is | the case with the letter O and the numeral 3, which occur, singly or in ‘| association, below the usual Wedgwood stamp. a The following marks are selected from Mr. F. Rathbone’s essay i, on the subject: they, or some of them, occur on pieces made up Ll to the time of Wedgwood’s death, but the stamp WEDGWOOD | in capital letters has been continuously used at Etruria from 1795 until t the present day. a Wedgwood This rare mark is found on an early piece supposed ft i to have been made by Wedgwood at Burslem. WEDGWOOD | These marks are believed to have been used by WEDGWOOD , Wedgwood previous to his partnership with Miedo woed Bentley, and afterwards on “ useful” ware. Wedgwood This mark occurs on a wafer or bat of clay affixed inside the plinths of old basalt vases or the pedestals of busts. faevee nee alee ieee FOSIAH WEDGWOOD 103 | This circular stamp occurs round the screw at the base of the basalt, granite, and Etruscan vases— never on those of jasper. WEDGWOOD Sere & BENTLEY — These marks, varying in size, are found upon busts, WEDGWOOD granite and basalt vases, figures, plaques, medal- & BENTLEY “ 3 lions, and cameos, also occasionally (and by Wedgwood : ‘ & Bentley accident) upon useful ware of the period. Wedgwood & Bentley Wedwood This mark occurs on intaglios and_ is generally & Bentley : fs accompanied by the Catalogue number. 356 This rare mark is found only upon chocolate and RD eh white seal intaglios, usually portraits, made of two “Troe” layers of clay and having the edges polished for mounting. Wedgwood These marks were employed chiefly, if not exclusivel Wedgwood ploy’ Y> y> Wedgwood 2 @ ’ g e in the period after Bentley’s death, while the 12 WEDGWOOD Pp ; ys d » while the last WEDGWOOD three were continued after Wedgwood’s death. WEDGWOOD ibd cieceii ees SE OP eae eS ES Se ose hateey Spree estney SSS ioee SS ELAS HALLE eb Hines rei ors EERE ERT BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES The following works, amongst others, have been consulted in the preparation of this essay. Bartett, William ; Catalogue of a Collection of Wedgwood NAVE ta Nee 2S, ang Gs) Se cee a a ee NS) CuurncH, Ai; English Barthenware. “2. . 0°. © « 1884 i Garry, C. T.; Catalogue of a Loan Collection of the Works E of Josiah Wedgwood exhibited at the Liverpool Art : Cees ae Or Ee ere sk, 1879 Gray, J. M.; James and William Tassie . . . . . 1894 | MerevarD, Eliza; The Life of Josiah Wedgwood. 2 vols.. 1865-6 ' | 2 _ The Wedgwood Handbook . . . . . 1875 . Rarupone, F.; Loan Exhibition of Old Wedgwood. . . . 1893 tH : | in » The Tangye Collection of Old Wedgwood i Warerse Breminghaty (“55 Wo. Mee hoy 1885 a) Reexs, T., and Ruprter F. W.; British Pottery and ence ain gorge Cdtvs oiqhes, ur eba eet. ees = 0, 1873 s|| ScHREIBER, The Lady Charlotte ; The Schreiber Collection . 1885 Sopen-SmirH, R. H.; English Pottery and Porcelain at the a\| éNeomminche Pale, 5 5 G o 6 & & 6 6 6 Ge 1873 Warp, John; The Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent . . . . 1843 AMS, IBIN|ID), i Le separ ep crepes ypcrceger ere — SEE iinet abt if 2 GETTY CENTER LIBRARY NTN 3125 00759 2013 iii eyes SHR Hed) ea TRVEsaey 5S gece PO eer USSR 0 eee rem We iS eS IR oat Ser a nS ue