Cecily Stella Wedgwood (29 October 1904''England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916–2007'' – 18 February 1995), known as Star Wedgwood, was a British

ceramicist Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take forms including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is one of the visual arts. Whi ...

Work

Star was introduced to pottery decoration through Alfred Powell's painting classes at the

Etruria Works The Etruria Works was a ceramics factory opened by Josiah Wedgwood in 1769 in a district of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which he named Etruria. The factory ran for 180 years, as part of the wider Wedgwood business. Wedgwood kept his ...

of the

Wedgwood Wedgwood is an English fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd. It was rapid ...

pottery firm in England. She became a designer herself at the company during the early 1930s and created a number of patterns on bone china and Queen's ware for Wedgwood. Her signature was a five-pointed star and the initials CW. According to the Wedgwood Museum, "Her bone china designs tend to be bold, and made extensive use of strong colours and platinum lustre". In 1937, Star married Frederic Maitland Wright, who later became the company secretary of Wedgwood and joint managing director with Norman Wilson. She died in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

in 1995.

Heritage

Born in

Barlaston Barlaston is a village and civil parish in the Stafford (borough), borough of Stafford in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is roughly halfway between the city of Stoke-on-Trent and the small town of Stone, Staffordshire, Stone. According ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, England,''1911 England Census''''Staffordshire, England, Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes, 1837–2017'' Star was the daughter of

Francis Hamilton Wedgwood Francis Hamilton "Frank" Wedgwood JP DL (9 October 1867 – 29 October 1930) was a partner in and Managing Director of the Wedgwood pottery firm. Biography Wedgwood was the eldest son of Clement Wedgwood and Emily Catherine Rendel, daughte ...

and his wife Katherine (''née'' Pigott). Her father has been described as a "fifth generation Wedgwood", directly descended from the Wedgwood company founder, potter

Josiah Wedgwood Josiah Wedgwood (12 July 1730 – 3 January 1795) was an English potter, entrepreneur and abolitionist. Founding the Wedgwood company in 1759, he developed improved pottery bodies by systematic experimentation, and was the leader in the indust ...

, thus making Star part of the Wedgwood family's sixth generation.

References

1904 births 1995 deaths British ceramicists 20th-century British women artists British women ceramicists 20th-century ceramists Wedgwood pottery People from Barlaston {{UK-artist-stub