Joseph Wedgwood was born in 1730 in Burslem, Staffordshire, into a family
already steeped in the pottery tradition. His father, uncles, and several
of his cousins were all members of the trade. At the age of nine, Josiah's
father died and the young boy left school to learn the family craft. He
first worked in the pottery belonging to his brother Thomas, where he acquired
the skills necessary to become an expert"thrower", that is, where he learned
how to effectively throw the clay onto the forming wheel. A serious bout
with smallpox at 11 left Josiah somewhat debilitated, especially injuring
his right knee which was to plague him for the rest of his life. This injury
is significant because it compelled the young apprentice to eventually
abandon the demands of the thrower's bench, and occupy himself in other
areas of the manufacturing of pottery. This was well-suited to Wedgwood's
personality, he seemed to gravitate towards experimentation. This developing
diversity of skills was unappreciated by his older brother, who refused
to promote his apprentice brother into a full partner. Josiah went on to
work for several other potters in the area, including Thomas Whieldon.
(Burton) This partnership was unique in that Whieldon, recognizing the
value of Wedgwood's experimental work process, designed a contract with
his employee that allowed him to keep the details of his work private.
Wedgwood had found an environment within which his individualism could
develop. Wedgwood opened his own pottery in 1758, hiring one other journeyman
and naming it the Ivy House Works. From the beginning, Josiah's pottery
was a success story and this only increased with the hiring of his lifelong
partner Thomas Bentley. A well-known figure on the Liverpool intellectual
scene, Bentley's association with artists and antiquarians broadened Wedgwood's
pool of resources. Within one year, the Ivy House Works was able to make
a donation towards the establishment of a second local free school that
was double the size of any other area potteries. Ivy House Works was not
only distinguished by its success, but also by the modern industrial practices
put in place there, as well. Known for cleanliness and order, Ivy House
Works also went against the grain of traditional divisions of labor. Wedgwood
himself was skilled in a variety of functions within the factory and he
trained his workers to follow suit. In these early years Josiah himself
would design and form the pottery models, while simultaneously acting as
clerk and warehouseman.
Josiah extended his intense work ethic beyond the scope of his own pottery,
to include the surrounding community as well. In 1763 he offered evidence
before a parliamentary committee in an effort to improve the roads in this
isolated area, he also pledged five hundred pounds of his own money towards
this project. By 1765 Wedgwood had been appointed "Potter to Her Majesty"
for the creamware service he designed for her. Queen Charlotte, wife of
George III requested the service from Wedgwood, whose improved creamware
china was well known. Wedgwood named it "Queen's Ware", knowing that whatever
china adorned the table of the queen would most certainly be in demand.
This professional coup was eclipsed in 1774 when Empress Catherine II of
Russia also put in a request for a complete creamware service for her palace
near St. Petersburg. It was to consist of 952 pieces with a frog motif
that appears throughout, and it came to be known as La Grenouillere. Each
piece is decorated with a specific and different view of an English home
or garden. in a letter, Josiah reveals his nervousness at the scope of
his project as well as his business savvy. "Suppose the Empress should
die when the service is nearly completed; as it will be a very expensive
business it may not be amiss to mention something of this kind to the Consul."(pp.
130-133, Burton)
The real benefit of this commission for Wedgwood was not financial, it is estimated that the set cost 2,500 pounds to make and the Empress paid him 3,000. However, the prestige and notoriety attained is inestimable. In a bold act of early marketing, Wedgwood offered the public a chance to view Catherine's creamware before shipping it off to Russia. He displayed the entire set in London in a widely-advertised and popular exhibition;Even the King and Queen came to catch a glimpse of what Russia's nobility would be sipping from. By this point, Wedgwood had developed his creamware to a certain degree of perfection that rivaled other English potters as well as work from the Continent and the Far East. More brilliant in its glaze, Wedgwood often was shaped in forms taken from nature such as leaves and flowers. In 1765, at a dinner with Lord Gower, Wedgwood's "pot works were the subject of conversation for some time, the cream color table services in particular.... His Lordship said that nothing of the sort could exceed them from fine glaze. "(p. 7, Burton)
With his financial success and celebrity status Josiah now went about the business of expanding his empire. In 1776 he purchased a site called Ridge House Estate, located between Burslem and Stoke-on-Trent for his young family's residence and a new factory. He developed the property extensively, including a village for his workers called Etruria. Here was where The Etruscan Arts were to be reborn, and Wedgwood did his part to satisfy the national craze for things that looked Greek and Roman, particularly vases. Wedgwood himself characterized this fascination as an "epidemical madness"(p. 84, Burton), a demand he could barely fulfill. Although somewhat isolated, Etruria helped to put this region on the map, and a series of similar pottery communities developed in what was to be known as the pottery district. It is not suprising to learn that Josiah himself had a hand in the actual infrastructure of the region. He played a significant role in the making of a canal system, and helped to settle the question of the Trent and Mersey canal, acting as its first treasurer in 1777. Wedgwood not only involved himself in local politics, but in scientific developments as well. In 1783 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and he contributed two papers on the construction and use of the pyrometer, an invention which is used to determine high temperatures.(Burton)The construction of this device was a result of Wedgwood's measurement of the shrinkage suffered by cylinders of prepared clay in the Etrurian furnaces. He also contributed significant findings based upon his own research into the improvement of optical glass for scientific instruments. As with all of Wedgwood's achievements, this work both resulted from and contributed to the advancement of his products.
The six celebratory vases thrown at the opening of the Etruria works on
June 18, 1769 were basalt and decorated with encaustic painting. Wedgwood
had perfected this fine black and red style which was meant to emulate
their ancient Etruscan predecessors. Wedgwood and Bentley were inspired
by the Italian vases recently brought to England by Sir William Hamilton.
In addition to basalt, work began at Etruria on what was to become one
of the more famous Wedgwood styles, Jasper ware. Previously known as "white
body", the largest technical problem faced by the artisans at Etruria was
the tendency of the colored background to bleed through onto the white
section. Jasper ware was made in two ways. "Solid Jasper" r efers
to when the entire substance of the white body was colored by metallic
oxide, and jasper dip is when only the surface is stained.
In 1781 Wedgwood produced perfected ornamental Jasper ware, again using
a public exhibition to display and advertise hisproduct. Almost all of
the shapes and designs have their replicas in Basalt, and therefore satisfied
the public's desire for things classical. Wedgwood and Bentley maintained
a connection with Sir Hamiltion which was to last throughout their professional
lives, and Josiah himself was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
in 1786. Largely self-taught in the field,(with assistance from his partner)
Wedgwood used whatever resources were available to him to develop products
that were classical in spirit. Both men frequented the British Museum regularly
and a record shows the books that the firm owned as :Hamilton's Etruscan
Antiquities, Stuart's Athens, Rossi's Statues, Gravelot's Antiquities,
and Middleton's Antiquities. In addition to these texts was Johann Joachin
Winkelmann's book on monuments which described more than 200 works of ancient
art. As with Hamilton, Wedgwood maintained an ongoing correspondence with
Winkelmann as part of his habit of looking to the past for inspiration.
In Etruria, commerce was combined with both antiquity and art. Wedgwood and Bentley both incorporated the spirit of Romantic painting into their ideas for pottery, often turning to artists like Joshua Reynolds for assistance. The painter Joseph Wright worked on a canvas for Wedgwood based upon the "Corinthian Maid" image. The prudish Josiah urged Wright to avoid an excess of nudity in his composition. Jasper ware also allowed for artistic development at Etruria, which began to produce ornamental pieces in addition to dinner services. Cameos, medallions, plaques and tablets were made and displayed at the Greek Street establishment in Soho. Many of the smaller pieces would be set in jewelry and furniture. Throughout these styles there are contrasting colors and encaustic painting, as developed in the black and red basalt. Rosso Antico, Cane-colored and Bamboo ware are some of the variations within this style. In an act that seems both abow to the catalogues of antiquity and a nod to future marketing techniques, the first catalogue of ornamental ware was published, entitled, "Catalogue of cameos, intaglios, medals, bas-reliefs, busts, small statues, vases, etc. London 1773"( Burton) There were eight subsequent editions of this catalogue printed, including any relevant additions and translations in French, German and Dutch. The remaining catalogues are scarce, and considered as worthy of the collector's pursuit as the china itself. The catalogue suggests Wedgwood's desire that his products be regarded on the basis of their artistic and antiquarian merits well as his drive to dominate an overseas market. Queen's ware was now widely imitated on the Continent, where it was known as "faience anglaise". Traditional tin-glazed earthenware pottery that once could be found throughout France, for example, was now nearly invisible. Staffordshire pottery, and particularly that which came from the factory at Etruria dominated. Wedgwood had created a market abroad through publicity and he maintained that market throughout the superiority and popularity of his product. This was no cottage industry, rather it resembled more what we today think of as an entrepreneurial success story.
Although an advocate and beneficiary of free trade, Wedgwood worked hard
to prevent English potters from emigrating elsewhere. Foreign potters were
often subsidized and Wedgwood knew that his dominance depended upon skilled
workers. In the same way that Thomas Whieldon encouraged him to be discrete
about his developments when first starting out, Josiah demanded the same
kind of secretive silence from his workers at Etruria. In 1783 Wedgwood
published a pamphlet entitled"An Address of the Workmen in the Pottery
on the Subject of Entering intothe services of Foreign Manufacturers."
Wedgwood dissuaded his fellow countrymen from carrying their skills abroad.
As for America, e used the dangerous crossing as evidence of emigration's
ill-advisability. He then appealed to their sense of patriotism and guilt
at abandoning England, which would be potter-less, " Recruits could not
be raised from England sufficient to supply the places," he wrote in the
pamphlet. As for France, he played upon his countrymen's gastronomic fears.
" After being used to train the locals you will be thrown out to exist
on frogs, hedge-hogs and the wild herbs of the field. " Wedgwood then goes
on to exploit fears about the instability of France, " In this foreign
land, suspected, watched, despised and insulted you must continue until
the end of your wretched days. "
In 1785 Wedgwood received the crucial position of chairman of the newly-established
General Chamber of Manufacturers of Great Britain. That same
year William Pitt proposed his plans for an Irish Commercial Treaty.
Intended to pacify the increasingly desperate Irish peasantry and over-burdened
landlords, Wedgwood and other manufacturers in the Chamber regarded the
Treaty as a threat, an unfair opening up of their market to outside competition.
Wedgwood spearheaded the drive to block the treaty, which they achieved.
Wedgwood continued his high powered political activity when he was appointed
as a committee member of the Society for the Suppression of the Slave Trade.
Wedgwood exerted his considerable power on behalf of the struggles of slaves,using
the same cunning and vigor he used to block efforts to help Ireland.
Josiah designed a cameo showing the profile of a slave in chains and engraved
with the words "Am I not a man and a brother ?" These early political pins
quickly became fashionable, with women using them as jewelry and
men placing them onto their snuff-boxes. Wedgwood personally sent cameos
to some of the more well-known supporters of the cause, such as Benjamin
Franklin. However, despite Wedgwood's abolitionist work ,and public support
of the French Revolution, when labor rights broke out at Etruria in 1783,
Wedgwood's response was a scolding lecture. He directed his response towards
the children of the rioters, asking them torepudiate their parent's actions.
He ended by asking his workers to "Submit quietly to the will of heaven."
In spite of Wedgwood's booming financial success, the wage books at Etruria
show little change from 1762-1790.
Wedgwood considered his finest work to be what is now known as the Barberini
or Portland vase. Dated sometime around 40 B.C. and discovered earlier
in th 17 th century, the vase was first thought to be stone, but Winkelmann
and others demonstrated that it was, in fact, glass. Sir William Hamilton
purchased the vase and then sold it to the Duke and Duchess of Portland.
Wedgwood was already familiar with the vase from engravings, and he rented
it so that he could make a copy. He completed the work in four years and
organized a special exhibit in London. Inside the accompanying brochure,
Wedgwood asked the public to determine th success of his imitation, alongside
signatures of luminaries such as Joshua Reynolds who pledged him their
support.
Wedgwood is the embodiment of the Romantic age's dramatic contradictions,
as well as a signifier of the coming Industrial Revolution. He set a standard
and pace that was modern and that transformed the look of what had previously
had been a cottage industry . Part of Wedgwood's success was timing, his
work ethic proved a suitable match for the given circumstances of the era.
Like other Romantics, Wedgwood combined elements that were previously fixed
in binary oppositions, such as art and science. Wedgwood also reflected
the aesthetics of his age, incorporating into his craft influences of both
Neoclassicism and the Pre-Raphaelites. Nature and the Picturesque, an emphasis
upon the individual(in cameos), and antiquity(in vases), are just some
of the ways that Wedgwood's pottery reflected the artistic moment. If Keats'
negative capability is th power to lose oneself in the pursuit of the concrete
reality of nature, then Wedgwood facilitated this process with the creation
of his objects of beauty.
Source:
Burton, Anthony: Josiah Wedgwood a Biography; Andre Deutsch, 1976
