![WedgwoodGroup-BMA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/WedgwoodGroup-BMA.jpg)
Wedgwood is an English
fine china,
porcelain
Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...
and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759
by the potter and entrepreneur
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 indus ...
and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd. It was rapidly successful and was soon one of the largest manufacturers of
Staffordshire pottery
The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of ce ...
, "a firm that has done more to spread the knowledge and enhance the reputation of British ceramic art than any other manufacturer", exporting across Europe as far as Russia, and to the Americas. It was especially successful at producing fine
earthenware
Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a c ...
and
stoneware
Stoneware is a rather broad term for pottery or other ceramics fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern technical definition is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire clay. Whether vi ...
that were accepted as equivalent in quality to porcelain (which Wedgwood only made later) but were considerably cheaper.
Wedgwood is especially associated with the "dry-bodied" (unglazed) stoneware
Jasperware
Jasperware, or jasper ware, is a type of pottery first developed by Josiah Wedgwood in the 1770s. Usually described as stoneware, it has an unglazed matte "biscuit" finish and is produced in a number of different colours, of which the most com ...
in contrasting colours, and in particular that in "Wedgwood blue" and white, always much the most popular colours, though there are several others. Jasperware has been made continuously by the firm since 1775, and also much imitated. In the 18th century, however, it was table china in the refined earthenware
creamware
Creamware is a cream-coloured refined earthenware with a lead glaze over a pale body, known in France as '' faïence fine'', in the Netherlands as ''Engels porselein'', and in Italy as ''terraglia inglese''.Osborne, 140 It was created about 175 ...
that represented most of the sales and profits.
In the later 19th century, it returned to being a leader in design and technical innovation, as well as continuing to make many of the older styles. Despite increasing local competition in its export markets, the business continued to flourish in the 19th and early 20th centuries, remaining in the hands of the Wedgwood family, but after World War II it began to contract, along with the rest of the English pottery industry.
After buying a number of other Staffordshire ceramics companies, in 1987 Wedgwood merged with
Waterford Crystal
Waterford Crystal is a manufacturer of lead glass or "crystal", especially in cut glass, named after the city of Waterford, Ireland. In January 2009, the main Waterford Crystal manufacturing base on the edge of Waterford was closed due to the ...
to create
Waterford Wedgwood plc, an Ireland-based luxury brands group. After a 2009 purchase by
KPS Capital Partners
KPS Capital Partners is an American investment company that manages KPS Special Situation Funds, a family of investment funds. KPS specifically invests out of two funds raised in October 2019: KPS Special Situations Fund V ($6.12 billion) and KPS ...
, a New York-based private equity firm, the group became known as
WWRD Holdings Limited
WWRD Holdings Limited is a company that was created by KPS Capital Partners in 2009 out of the remains of Irish firm Waterford Wedgwood plc, and it has been owned since 2015 by Finnish home products maker Fiskars. The company owns Waterford Cry ...
, an initialism for "Waterford Wedgwood Royal Doulton". This was acquired in July 2015 by
Fiskars
Fiskars Group (also known as Fiskars Oyj Abp or Fiskars Corporation, and until 1998 as Fiskars Oy Ab) is a Finnish group company. The company has its roots in the village of Fiskars (in the town of Raseborg, about west of Helsinki), where it ...
, a Finnish consumer goods company.
Early history
![BLW Tea and coffee service, Staffordshire](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/BLW_Tea_and_coffee_service%2C_Staffordshire.jpg)
Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795), came from an established family of potters, and trained with his elder brother. He was in partnership with the leading potter,
Thomas Whieldon
Thomas Whieldon (September 1719 in Penkhull, Stoke-on-Trent – March 1795) was a significant English potter who played a leading role in the development of Staffordshire pottery.
The attribution of actual pieces to his factory has long been ...
, from 1754 until 1759, when a new green
ceramic glaze
Ceramic glaze is an impervious layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fused to a pottery body through firing. Glaze can serve to color, decorate or waterproof an item. Glazing renders earthenware vessels suitable for holding ...
he had developed encouraged him to start a new business on his own. Relatives leased him the ''Ivy House'' in
Burslem
Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent.
...
, Stoke-on-Trent, and his marriage to Sarah Wedgwood, a distant cousin with a sizable
dowry
A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment ...
, helped him launch his new venture.
Wedgwood led "an extensive and systematic programme of experiment", and in 1765 created a new variety of
creamware
Creamware is a cream-coloured refined earthenware with a lead glaze over a pale body, known in France as '' faïence fine'', in the Netherlands as ''Engels porselein'', and in Italy as ''terraglia inglese''.Osborne, 140 It was created about 175 ...
, a fine glazed
earthenware
Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a c ...
, which was the main body used for his tablewares thereafter. After he supplied her with a teaset for twelve the same year,
Queen Charlotte
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was Queen of Great Britain and of Ireland as the wife of King George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until the union of the two kingdoms ...
gave official permission to call it "Queen's Ware" (from 1767). This new form, perfected as white
pearlware
Creamware is a cream-coloured refined earthenware with a lead glaze over a pale body, known in France as '' faïence fine'', in the Netherlands as ''Engels porselein'', and in Italy as ''terraglia inglese''.Osborne, 140 It was created about 175 ...
(from 1780), sold extremely well across Europe, and to America. It had the additional advantage of being relatively light, saving on transport costs and import tariffs in foreign markets. It caused considerable disruption to the makers of European
faience
Faience or faïence (; ) is the general English language term for fine tin-glazed pottery. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major ...
and
delftware
Delftware or Delft pottery, also known as Delft Blue ( nl, Delfts blauw) or as delf,
is a general term now used for Dutch tin-glazed earthenware, a form of faience. Most of it is blue and white pottery, and the city of Delft in the Netherlands ...
, then the main European tableware bodies; some went out of business and others adopted English-style bodies themselves. The Pont-aux-Choux factory near Paris was one of the first to do so; in France creamware was known as ''faience fine'', in Italy ''terraglia''.
Wedgwood developed a number of further industrial innovations for his company, notably a way of measuring
kiln
A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...
temperatures accurately, and several new ceramic bodies including the "dry-body" stonewares, "black basalt" (by 1769), caneware and
jasperware
Jasperware, or jasper ware, is a type of pottery first developed by Josiah Wedgwood in the 1770s. Usually described as stoneware, it has an unglazed matte "biscuit" finish and is produced in a number of different colours, of which the most com ...
(1770s), all designed to be sold unglazed, like "
biscuit porcelain
Biscuit porcelain, bisque porcelain or bisque is unglazed, white porcelain treated as a final product, with a matte appearance and texture to the touch. It has been widely used in European pottery, mainly for sculptural and decorative objects th ...
".
![Creamware plates, Wedgwood 1771-5](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Creamware_plates%2C_Wedgwood_1771-5.jpg)
In 1766, Wedgwood bought a large Staffordshire estate, which he renamed
Etruria
Etruria () was a region of Central Italy, located in an area that covered part of what are now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and northern and western Umbria.
Etruscan Etruria
The ancient people of Etruria
are identified as Etruscans. Thei ...
, as both a home and factory site; 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 ...
factory was producing from 1769, initially making ornamental wares, while the "useful" tablewares were still made in Burslem.
In 1769 Wedgwood established a partnership with
Thomas Bentley
Thomas Bentley (23 February 1884 – 23 December 1966) was a British film director. He directed 68 films between 1912 and 1941. He directed three films in the early DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process, ''The Man in the Street'' (1926), ' ...
, who soon moved to London and ran the operations there. Only the "ornamental" wares such as vases are marked "Wedgwood & Bentley" and those so marked are at an extra level of quality. The extensive correspondence between Wedgwood and Bentley, who was from a landowning background, show Wedgwood often relied on his advice on artistic questions. Wedgwood felt the loss keenly when Bentley died in 1780.
Wedgwood's slightly younger friend,
William Greatbatch
William Greatbatch (Circa 1735 to circa 29 April 1813) was a noted potter at Fenton, Staffordshire, from the mid-eighteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. Fenton was one of the six towns of the Staffordshire Potteries, which were j ...
, had followed a similar career path, training with Whieldon and then starting his own firm around 1762. He was a fine modeller, especially of moulds for tablewares, and probably did most of Wedgwood's earlier moulds as an outside contractor. After some twenty years, Greatbatch's firm went under in 1782, and by 1786 he was a Wedgwood employee, continuing for over twenty years until he retired in 1807, on generous terms specified in Wedgwood's will. In the early period he seems also to have acted as agent for Wedgwood on trips to London, and after Wedgwood's retirement he may have in effect managed the Etruria works.
Transfer printing and enamel painting
![Platter-FrogService-Wedgwood-BMA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Platter-FrogService-Wedgwood-BMA.jpg)
Wedgwood was an early adopter of the English invention of
transfer printing
Transfer printing is a method of decorating pottery or other materials using an engraved copper or steel plate from which a monochrome print on paper is taken which is then transferred by pressing onto the ceramic piece. Fleming, John & Hugh Ho ...
, which allowed printed designs, for long only in a single colour, that were far cheaper than hand-painting. Hand-painting was still used, the two techniques often being combined, with painted borders surrounding a printed figure scene. From 1761 wares were shipped to
Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
for the specialist firm of Sadler and Green to print; later this was done in-house at Stoke.
From 1769 Wedgwood maintained a workshop for
overglaze enamel painting by hand in Little Cheyne Row in
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an affluent area in west London, England, due south-west of Charing Cross by approximately 2.5 miles. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the south-western postal area.
Chelsea histori ...
, where skilled painters were easier to find. The pieces received a light second firing to fix the enamels in a small
muffle kiln
A muffle furnace or muffle oven (sometimes retort furnace in historical usage) is a furnace in which the subject material is isolated from the fuel and all of the products of combustion, including gases and flying ash. After the development of ...
; this work was also later moved to Stoke. There was also a showroom and shop in Portland House, 12
Greek Street,
Soho, London
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develo ...
. Painting included border patterns or bands and relatively straightforward floral motifs on tableware. Complicated figure scenes and landscapes in painted enamels were generally reserved for the most expensive "ornaments" like vases, but transfer printed items had these.
The
Frog Service
The Frog Service or Green Frog Service is a large dinner and dessert service made by the English pottery company Wedgwood for Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, and completed in 1774. The service had fifty settings, and 944 pieces were ord ...
is a large
dinner and dessert service made by Wedgwood for Empress
Catherine the Great of Russia
, en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes
, house =
, father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
, mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...
, and completed in 1774. The service had fifty settings, and 944 pieces were ordered, 680 for the dinner service and 264 for the dessert. Although Wedgwood was already transfer printing many tablewares, this was entirely hand-painted in Chelsea in monochrome, with English views copied from prints and drawings; the final appearance was not dissimilar to transfer printing, but each image was unique. Also at Catherine's request, each piece carries a green frog. Although Wedgwood was paid just over £2,700 he barely made a profit, but milked the prestige of the commission, exhibiting the service in his London showroom before delivery.
Jasperware
Wedgwood's best known product is Jasperware, created to look like ancient Roman
cameo glass
Cameo glass is a luxury form of glass art produced by cameo glass engraving or etching and carving through fused layers of differently colored glass to produce designs, usually with white opaque glass figures and motifs on a dark-colored backgroun ...
, itself imitating
cameo gems. The most popular jasperware colour has always been "Wedgwood blue" (a darker shade is sometimes called "Portland Blue"), an innovation that required experiments with more than 3,000 samples. In recognition of the importance of his pyrometric beads (
pyrometer
A pyrometer is a type of remote-sensing thermometer used to measure the temperature of distant objects. Various forms of pyrometers have historically existed. In the modern usage, it is a device that from a distance determines the temperature of ...
), Josiah Wedgwood was elected a member of the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
in 1783. In recent years, the Wedgwood Prestige collection continued to sell replicas of the original designs, as well as modern
neo-classical style jasperware.
The main Wedgwood motifs in jasperware, and the other dry-bodied stonewares, were decorative designs that were highly influenced by the ancient cultures being studied and rediscovered at that time, especially as Great Britain was expanding its
empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
. Many motifs were taken from ancient mythologies: Roman, Greek and Egyptian. Meanwhile, archaeological fever caught the imagination of many artists. Nothing could have been more suitable to satisfy this huge business demand than to produce replicas of ancient artefacts. From 1787 to 1794 Wedgwood even ran a studio in Rome, where young Neoclassical artists were in abundance, producing wax models for reliefs, often to designs sent from England. The most famous design is Wedgwood's copy of the
Portland Vase
The Portland Vase is a Roman cameo glass vase, which is dated to between AD 1 and AD 25, though low BC dates have some scholarly support. It is the best known piece of Roman cameo glass and has served as an inspiration to many glass and porcelain ...
, a famous Roman vase now in the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, which was lent to Wedgwood to copy.
Other dry-bodied stonewares
Wedgwood developed other dry-bodied stonewares, meaning that they were sold unglazed. The first of these was what he called "basaltes", now more often "black basalt ware" or just basalt ware, perfected by 1769. This was a tough body in solid black, much used for classical revival styles. Wedgwood developed an attractive reddish stoneware he called ''rosso antico'' ("ancient red") This was often combined with black basalt. This was followed by caneware or bamboo ware, the same colour as
bamboo
Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...
and often modelled to look as though objects were made of the plant; first introduced in 1770, but mostly used between 1785 and 1810.
File:DAR pot - IMG 8624.JPG, Cauliflower
Cauliflower is one of several vegetables in the species ''Brassica oleracea'' in the genus ''Brassica'', which is in the Brassicaceae (or mustard) family. It is an annual plant that reproduces by seed. Typically, only the head is eaten – the ...
coffee-pot, with Wedgwood's green lead glaze, c. 1760, Thomas Whieldon and Josiah Wedgwood
File:Tea Caddy with Lid LACMA M.82.206.6a-b (2 of 2).jpg, Tea caddy
A tea caddy is a box, jar, canister, or other receptacle used to store tea. When first introduced to Europe from Asia, tea was extremely expensive, and kept under lock and key. The containers used were often expensive and decorative, to fit in wi ...
, c. 1770, transfer printed
Transfer printing is a method of decorating pottery or other materials using an engraved copper or steel plate from which a monochrome print on paper is taken which is then transferred by pressing onto the ceramic piece. Fleming, John & Hugh H ...
by Sadler and Green.
File:Teapot, 1779-1780, Caneware molded in the form of cut bamboo - Wedgwood Museum - Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent, England - DSC09590.jpg, Caneware teapot, 1779-1780
File:Wedgwood Factory - Cup - 1951.304.a - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif, Jasperware teacup, c. 1784
Figures
Generally Wedgwood avoided the typical type of
Staffordshire figures, white earthenware standing figurines of people or animals that by about 1770 were usually brightly painted, though sometimes sold in plain glazed white. These imitated rather successfully the porcelain figures pioneered by
Meissen porcelain
Meissen porcelain or Meissen china was the first European hard-paste porcelain. Early experiments were done in 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his death that October, Johann Friedrich Böttger continued von Tschirnhaus's work and ...
, a style which by about 1770 was being produced by the majority of porcelain factories, on the continent and in Britain. Though Staffordshire figures fell precipitously in price and quality after about 1820, in the 18th century many were still well-modelled and carefully painted.
Instead Wedgwood concentrated on more sculptural figures, and produced many busts or small relief portrait plaques of celebrities, both types of high quality. The subjects were generally notably serious: politicians and royalty, famous scientists and writers. Many were small, with the oval shape usual in the painted
portrait miniature
A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolor, or enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, and were popular among 16th-century eli ...
; others were larger. They were probably generally intended for framing; many examples still retain their frames.
Many subjects reflected Wedgwood's religious and political views,
Unitarian and somewhat
Radical
Radical may refer to:
Politics and ideology Politics
*Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change
*Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...
respectively, in particular what is probably the best-known Wedgwood relief, the
abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
design ''
Am I Not a Man and a Brother
AM or Am may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* A minor, a minor scale in music
* ''A.M.'' (Chris Young album)
* ''A.M.'' (Wilco album)
* ''AM'' (Abraham Mateo album)
* ''AM'' (Arctic Monkeys album)
* AM (musician), American musicia ...
?'', the basic design of which is usually credited to Wedgwood, although others drew and sculpted the final versions. This appeared in many formats in print and pottery from about 1786, and was very widely distributed, often given away.
In addition plaques of varying sizes, most in jasperware, caught the fashion for
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...
, with a great variety of classical subjects, but mostly avoiding nudity. The smaller ones were intended to be set in jewellery, sometimes in steel by
Matthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engine ...
's factory, and larger sizes might be framed for hanging, or inset in architectural features like fireplace mantels, mouldings and furniture. Smallest of all were many
button
A button is a fastener that joins two pieces of fabric together by slipping through a loop or by sliding through a buttonhole.
In modern clothing and fashion design, buttons are commonly made of plastic but also may be made of metal, wood, ...
designs.
File:Voltaire - Wedgwood, modeled by Anthony Keeling, c. 1779 - Brooklyn Museum - Brooklyn, NY - DSC08926.JPG, Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...
in black basalt, modelled by Anthony Keeling, c. 1779. One of relatively few standing figures.
File:Portrait Medallion of Dr. Joseph Priestley, Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, undated, green jasperware - Chazen Museum of Art - DSC01955 (cropped).JPG, Relief portrait plaque of Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...
by Giuseppe Ceracchi
Giuseppe Ceracchi (also known as ''Giuseppe Cirachi'') (4 July 1751 – 30 January 1801) was an Italian sculptor, active in a Neoclassic style in Italy, England and the nascent United States, who was a passionate republican during the American a ...
, plaque 10.5 x 8.2 cm; 4¼" x 3¼"
File:Vase with cover MET DP104603 (cropped).jpg, Large vase, c. 1775, Wedgwood & Bentley. Earthenware with paint effects and gilding
Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...
, both now partly worn away.
File:Volute Krater Vase LACMA M.82.46.jpg, Volute Krater Vase, c. 1780, using a variety of techniques to imitate ancient Athenian red-figure vase painting
Image:Crew - Belt Clasp with a Female Making a Sacrifice - Walters 481770.jpg, Belt clasp designed by Lady Templeton and Emma Crewe
Emma Crewe (born 1741, d. in or after 1795) was a British artist known for her designs for Josiah Wedgwood, and for her botanical art.
Life
Crewe was the daughter of Elizabeth Shuttleworth, herself daughter of Richard Shuttleworth (1683–1749 ...
, 1780-1800, the setting perhaps by Matthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engine ...
.
File:Wedgwood-Kabinett 2.jpg, Wedgwood Room with jasperware
Jasperware, or jasper ware, is a type of pottery first developed by Josiah Wedgwood in the 1770s. Usually described as stoneware, it has an unglazed matte "biscuit" finish and is produced in a number of different colours, of which the most com ...
plaques, in Palais Erzherzog Albrecht in Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
After Josiah
The firm lost some momentum after the deaths of Bentley in 1780 and the retirement of Josiah Wedgwood in 1790 (he died in 1795). By 1800 it had about 300 employees in Staffordshire. The
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
made exporting to Europe impossible for long periods, and left export markets in disarray.
Thomas Byerley, Josiah's nephew, became a partner and was mainly in charge for some years, as Josiah's sons
John, known as Jack, and
Josiah II ("Joss"), who joined the firm only on Josiah I's retirement, had developed other interests, in particular
horticulture
Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...
. After Waterloo in 1815, there was a dramatic drop in the vital exports to America. Byerley's death in 1810 forced the brothers to confront the reality of the financial situation, as they needed to buy out his widow. Between the partners and other debtors, the firm was owed some £67,000, a huge sum. Joss bought Jack out, and continued as sole owner.
Wedgwood continued to grow under Jack and his son
Francis Wedgwood, and by 1859 the factory had 445 employees. As well as updated versions of wares from the previous century, bathroom ceramics such as sinks and lavatories had been important in recent decades, and Wedgwood's reputation for technical and design innovation had sunk considerably. However, they did introduce porcelain (see below),
lustre ware by 1810, a form of
Parian ware
Parian ware is a type of biscuit porcelain imitating marble. It was developed around 1845 by the Staffordshire pottery manufacturer Mintons, and named after Paros, the Greek island renowned for its fine-textured, white Parian marble, used since an ...
they called "Carrara" in 1848, and a "Stone China" from about 1827, the last of which was not especially successful. Neoclassicism was now less fashionable, and one response was to add floral enamels to black basalt wares from around 1805.
Godfrey Wedgwood
Godfrey Wedgwood (22 January 1833 – 9 October 1905) was a partner in the Wedgwood pottery firm from 1859 to 1891.
Wedgwood was born in Etruria Hall, the son of Francis Wedgwood and his wife Frances Mosley. He was taken into partnership by his ...
, Josiah I's great-grandson became a partner in 1859, and had considerable success reviving the firm in both these areas, in what was generally a successful period for British pottery.
Porcelain
![ARA 1809 V01 D131 The Wedgewood rooms](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/ARA_1809_V01_D131_The_Wedgewood_rooms.jpg)
Wedgwood's first decades of success came from producing wares that looked very like porcelain, and had broadly the same qualities, though not quite as tough, nor as translucent. During Josiah's lifetime and some time afterwards Wedgwood did not make porcelain itself. European factories had increasing success with porcelain, both
soft-paste in England and France, and
hard-paste mostly in Germany, which were still competing with
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
and
Chinese export porcelain
Chinese export porcelain includes a wide range of Chinese porcelain that was made (almost) exclusively for export to Europe and later to North America between the 16th and the 20th century. Whether wares made for non-Western markets are covered ...
, which were very popular, though expensive, in Europe. Towards the end of the 18th century other
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 ...
manufacturers introduced
bone china
Bone china is a type of ceramic that is composed of bone ash, feldspathic material, and kaolin. It has been defined as "ware with a translucent body" containing a minimum of 30% of phosphate derived from animal bone and calculated calcium phospha ...
as an alternative to translucent and delicate Chinese porcelain.
By 1811 Byerley, as manager of the London shop, wrote back to Stoke that "Every day we are asked for China Tea Ware—our sales of it would be immense if we had any—Earthenware Teaware is quite out of fashion...", and in response in 1812 Wedgwood first produced their own bone china, with hand-painting. However
West End taste did not perhaps represent all of Wedgwood's markets, and it was not the huge commercial success promised, and after thinking of doing so in 1814, the firm finally stopped making it in 1822. But when revived in 1878 it eventually became an important part of production.
;19th century
File:Tripod Vase - Wedgwood, c. 1805 - Brooklyn Museum - DSC09038.JPG, Empire Style
The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 durin ...
jasperware tripod vase, c. 1805
File:BLW Teapot with Chinese Flowers.jpg, Black basalt teapot with Chinese Flowers, c. 1820
File:Teapot (AM 1979.85-2) (cropped).jpg, Silver lustreware
Lustreware or lusterware (respectively the spellings for British English and American English) is a type of pottery or porcelain with a Metal, metallic glaze that gives the effect of iridescence. It is produced by metallic Oxide, oxides in an Cer ...
teapot, early 19th century
File:Teapot, Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, c. 1840, blue jasperware - Chazen Museum of Art - DSC01980.JPG, "Portland blue" jasperware, c. 1840
File:Dish And Cover (England), ca. 1880 (CH 18806101) (cropped).jpg, Victorian majolica
Victorian majolica properly refers to two types of majolica made in the second half of the 19th century in Europe and America.
Firstly, and best known, there is the mass-produced majolica decorated with coloured lead glazes, made in Britain, Eu ...
dish and cover (for cheese?), c. 1880
Artists who worked with Wedgwood
![George Stubbs - Reapers - Google Art Project](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/George_Stubbs_-_Reapers_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
From very early on Josiah Wedgwood was determined to maintain high artistic standards, which was an important part of his efforts to appeal to the top end of the market with pottery rather than porcelain wares. He relied considerably on Bentley in London in this, as is clear from their correspondence. As with other potteries, the designs of prints were very often copied.
*
William Hackwood
William Hackwood (c. 1757–1839) was a modeller for Wedgwood from 1769 until 1832. He began work in the Etruria factory as an "ingenious boy", in Josiah Wedgwood's phrase, where he was "... of the greatest value and consequence in finishing f ...
worked for Wedgwood from 1769 until 1832, starting at around 13, but after some years becoming the main modeller in the factory, finishing and making the moulds for the designs of others, and sculpting his own.
*
John Flaxman
John Flaxman (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career, he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several yea ...
(Junior), then 19 years old but already a trained sculptor exhibiting at the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
, was employed as a modeller and designer from 1775, mainly of reliefs in both cases. He worked for the next 12 years mostly for Wedgwood, staying in London and sending
modello
A modello (plural modelli), from Italian, is a preparatory study or model, usually at a smaller scale, for a work of art or architecture, especially one produced for the approval of the commissioning patron. The term gained currency in art circl ...
s in wax on pieces of slate or glass to Stoke. The "Dancing Hours" may be his most well known design. His father, John Flaxman Senior, made and sold plaster casts in a shop in London, and was supplying Wedgwood with some by 1770.
*Aristocratic ladies who produced designs, many in a softer "Romantic" version of Neoclassical style, were Lady
Elizabeth Templetown
Elizabeth Upton, Baroness Templetown (''née'' Boughton; 1746/47 – September 1823) was an English artist whose designs were used by Josiah Wedgwood the potter. She specialised in detailed cut-paper work which adapted well to Wedgwood's jasperw ...
,
Emma Crewe
Emma Crewe (born 1741, d. in or after 1795) was a British artist known for her designs for Josiah Wedgwood, and for her botanical art.
Life
Crewe was the daughter of Elizabeth Shuttleworth, herself daughter of Richard Shuttleworth (1683–1749 ...
and Lady
Diana Beauclerk; these were also mostly for jasperware reliefs.
*
Henry Webber
Henry Webber (1754–1826) was an English sculptor and modeller.
Life
He was born in July 1754, the son of Abraham Webber, a Swiss sculptor who had settled in England, and his English wife, Maria Quandt. He was apprenticed under John Bac ...
, a trained sculptor, was employed at Etruria in 1782, after being recommended by
Sir William Chambers
__NOTOC__
Sir William Chambers (23 February 1723 – 10 March 1796) was a Swedish-Scottish architect, based in London. Among his best-known works are Somerset House, and the pagoda at Kew. Chambers was a founder member of the Royal Academy.
Biog ...
and
Sir Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depend ...
, becoming chief sculptor in 1785, a position he held until 1806. He worked on the replica Portland Vase, and with Flaxman and "Jack" (Josiah II) was sent to Italy on a
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...
for the young man, and also to look at establishing a modelling studio in Rome, which was set up by Webber in 1788. Flaxman, remaining in Rome as an independent artist, agreed to supervise it part-time.
*
George Stubbs
George Stubbs (25 August 1724 – 10 July 1806) was an English painter, best known for his paintings of horses. Self-trained, Stubbs learnt his skills independently from other great artists of the 18th century such as Reynolds or Gainsborough ...
was not employed by Wedgwood, but late in his career developed an interest in painting in enamels, and persuaded Wedgwood to make new, large plaques for him to use. His paintings on these were not successful at the time, but are now very highly regarded.
![Box (AM 1988](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Box_%28AM_1988.164-2%29_%28cropped%29.jpg)
*
Giuseppe Ceracchi
Giuseppe Ceracchi (also known as ''Giuseppe Cirachi'') (4 July 1751 – 30 January 1801) was an Italian sculptor, active in a Neoclassic style in Italy, England and the nascent United States, who was a passionate republican during the American a ...
, an Italian sculptor, in England 1773–1781.
*
William Blake
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...
worked on engraving for Wedgwood's china catalogues in 1815.
*
Emile Lessore came to England in 1858 as an established ceramic painter, & after a few months at
Mintons
Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery, "Europe's leading ceramic factory during the Victorian era", an independent business from 1793 to 1968. It was a leader in ceramic design, working in a number of different ceramic bodies, ...
, joined Wedgwood. His speciality was enamel paintings, mostly landscapes, on plaques, which fetched very high prices. He and his family did not like living in Staffordshire, and in 1867 he returned to France, but Wedgwood continued to use him, sending blanks to be returned for firing, until his death in 1876. Two of his granddaughters,
Therese Lessore and
Louise Powell, later painted for the firm.
*
Daisy Makeig-Jones
Susannah Margaretta "Daisy" Makeig-Jones (1881–1945) was a pottery designer for Wedgwood. She is best known for her Fairyland Lustre series.
Makeig-Jones was born in Wath-upon-Dearne near Rotherham, Yorkshire, the eldest of seven children. ...
joined Wedgwood as an apprentice painter in 1909, and in 1915 her "Fairyland Lustre" range launched. This was very popular on both sides of the Atlantic until the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
; it is now keenly collected.
*In the 1930s
Keith Murray
Keith Omar Murray (born May 29, 1974) is an American rapper from New York. Murray grew up on Carleton Ave, in Central Islip, which is located on the South Shore of Long Island in Suffolk County. Murray was a known member of a local rap collec ...
designed in a broadly
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style.
*
Eric Ravilious
Eric William Ravilious (22 July 1903 – 2 September 1942) was a British painter, designer, book illustrator and wood-engraver. He grew up in Sussex, and is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs and other English landsca ...
designed a number of popular pieces such as mugs from 1936 until World War II (during which he died).
*
Jasper Conran
Jasper Alexander Thirlby Conran (born 12 December 1959) is an English designer. He has worked on collections of womenswear and for the home, as well as productions for the stage in ballet, opera and theatre.
Early life
He is the second son of ...
, who first designed for Wedgwood in 2001, was one of two Artistic Directors in 2019.
File:Vases-Lindsay-Wedgwood-BMA.jpg, Vases designed by Courtney Lindsay, mixing printed and painted decoration, 1900–01
File:Wedgwood - Plate Showing Imps on a Bridge and Tree House - Walters 482754 (cropped).jpg, Plate in the "Fairyland" lustreware
Lustreware or lusterware (respectively the spellings for British English and American English) is a type of pottery or porcelain with a Metal, metallic glaze that gives the effect of iridescence. It is produced by metallic Oxide, oxides in an Cer ...
range, designed by Daisy Makeig-Jones
Susannah Margaretta "Daisy" Makeig-Jones (1881–1945) was a pottery designer for Wedgwood. She is best known for her Fairyland Lustre series.
Makeig-Jones was born in Wath-upon-Dearne near Rotherham, Yorkshire, the eldest of seven children. ...
, 1915–30
File:Figure (AM 2007.66.3-1).jpg, One of the animal figures designed by John Skeaping
John Rattenbury Skeaping, RA (9 June 1901 – 5 March 1980) was an English sculptor and equine painter and sculptor. He designed animal figures for Wedgwood, and his life-size statue of Secretariat is exhibited at the National Museum of R ...
, early 20th century
File:Eric Ravilious - Wedgwood alphabet cup CROP.jpg, Eric Ravilious
Eric William Ravilious (22 July 1903 – 2 September 1942) was a British painter, designer, book illustrator and wood-engraver. He grew up in Sussex, and is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs and other English landsca ...
, Wedgwood alphabet cup, designed 1937
Image:Wedgwood kpjas 003a.jpg, Modern Wedgwood ''Kutani Crane'' pattern, in bone china
Bone china is a type of ceramic that is composed of bone ash, feldspathic material, and kaolin. It has been defined as "ware with a translucent body" containing a minimum of 30% of phosphate derived from animal bone and calculated calcium phospha ...
Ownership
Wedgwood family
Josiah Wedgwood was also a patriarch of the
Darwin–Wedgwood family
The Darwin–Wedgwood family are members of two connected families, each noted for particular prominent 18th-century figures: Erasmus Darwin, a physician and natural philosopher, and Josiah Wedgwood, a noted potter and founder of the eponymous ...
. Many of his descendants were closely involved in the management of the company down to the time of the merger with the Waterford Company:
*
John Wedgwood, eldest son of Josiah I, was a partner in the firm from 1790 to 1793 and again from 1800 to 1812.
*
Josiah Wedgwood II
Josiah Wedgwood II (3 April 1769 – 12 July 1843), the son of the English potter Josiah Wedgwood, continued his father's firm and was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-upon-Trent from 1832 to 1835. He was an abolitionist, and detested slav ...
or "Jack" (1769–1843), second son of Josiah I, succeeded his father as proprietor in 1795 and introduced the production by the Wedgwood company of
bone china
Bone china is a type of ceramic that is composed of bone ash, feldspathic material, and kaolin. It has been defined as "ware with a translucent body" containing a minimum of 30% of phosphate derived from animal bone and calculated calcium phospha ...
.
*
Josiah Wedgwood III
Josiah "Joe" Wedgwood III (12 January 1795–11 March 1880), a grandson of the English potter Josiah Wedgwood.
Wedgwood was the eldest son of Josiah Wedgwood II and his wife Elizabeth Allen. He was born nine days after the death of his gran ...
(1795–1880), son of Josiah II, was a partner in the firm from 1825 until he retired in 1842.
*
Francis Wedgwood, son of Josiah II, was a partner in the firm from 1827 and sole proprietor following his father's death until joined by his own sons. Financial difficulties caused him to offer for sale soon after taking over the firm its factory at
Etruria
Etruria () was a region of Central Italy, located in an area that covered part of what are now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and northern and western Umbria.
Etruscan Etruria
The ancient people of Etruria
are identified as Etruscan civiliza ...
and the family home
Etruria Hall
Etruria Hall in Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England is a Grade II listed house and former home of the potter Josiah Wedgwood. It was built between 1768–1771 by Joseph Pickford. The hall was sold by the Wedgwoods in the 19th century an ...
, but only the hall was sold. He continued as senior partner until his retirement to
Barlaston Hall
Barlaston Hall is an English Palladian country house in the village of Barlaston in Staffordshire, on a ridge overlooking the valley of the River Trent to the west, about south of Stoke-on-Trent, with the towns of Stone about to the south, a ...
in 1876.
*
Godfrey Wedgwood
Godfrey Wedgwood (22 January 1833 – 9 October 1905) was a partner in the Wedgwood pottery firm from 1859 to 1891.
Wedgwood was born in Etruria Hall, the son of Francis Wedgwood and his wife Frances Mosley. He was taken into partnership by his ...
(1833–1905), son of Francis Wedgwood, was a partner in the firm from 1859 to 1891. He and his brothers were responsible for the reintroduction of
bone china
Bone china is a type of ceramic that is composed of bone ash, feldspathic material, and kaolin. It has been defined as "ware with a translucent body" containing a minimum of 30% of phosphate derived from animal bone and calculated calcium phospha ...
in 1878.
*
Clement Wedgwood (1840–1889), son of Francis Wedgwood, was a partner.
*
Laurence Wedgwood (1844–1913), son of Francis Wedgwood, was a partner.
*Major
Cecil Wedgwood
Major Cecil Wedgwood, DSO (28 March 1863 – 3 July 1916) was a British soldier and partner in the Wedgwood pottery firm. He was the first Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent.
Wedgwood was the only son of Godfrey Wedgwood and his first wife Mary Jane Jac ...
DSO (1863–1916), son of Godfrey Wedgwood, partner from 1884, first Mayor of the federated County Borough of
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...
(1910–1911), was chairman and managing director of Wedgwood until his death in battle in 1916.
*
Kennard Laurence Wedgwood (1873–1949), son of Laurence Wedgwood, was a partner. In 1906 he went to the United States and set up the firm's New York office, which became Josiah Wedgwood and Sons USA, an incorporated subsidiary, in 1919.
*
Francis Hamilton Wedgwood (1867–1930), eldest son of Clement Wedgwood, was chairman and managing director from 1916 until his sudden death in 1930.
*
Josiah Wedgwood V
Josiah Wedgwood V (20 October 1899 – 18 May 1968) was the Managing Director of the Wedgwood pottery firm from 1930 until 1968 and credited with a transformation in the company's fortunes.
Wedgwood was one of seven children of Josiah Wedgwood I ...
(1899–1968), grandson of Clement Wedgwood and son of
Josiah Wedgwood, 1st Baron Wedgwood
Colonel Josiah Clement Wedgwood, 1st Baron Wedgwood, (16 March 1872 – 26 July 1943), sometimes referred to as Josiah Wedgwood IV, was a British Liberal and Labour politician who served in government under Ramsay MacDonald. He was a promine ...
, was managing director of the firm from 1930 until 1968 and credited with turning the company's fortunes around. He was responsible for the enlightened decision to move production to a modern purpose built factory in a rural setting at
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 ...
. It was designed by
Keith Murray
Keith Omar Murray (born May 29, 1974) is an American rapper from New York. Murray grew up on Carleton Ave, in Central Islip, which is located on the South Shore of Long Island in Suffolk County. Murray was a known member of a local rap collec ...
in 1936 and built between 1938 and 1940. He was succeeded as managing director by
Arthur Bryan
Sir Arthur Bryan (4 March 1923 – 11 February 2011) was managing director of the Wedgwood pottery firm (now Waterford Wedgwood
Waterford Wedgwood plc was an Irish holding company for a group of firms that specialized in the manufacture of ...
(later Sir Arthur), who was the first non-member of the Wedgwood family to run the firm.
;Other "Wedgwood" pottery
Ralph Wedgwood, presumably a cousin, made high quality wares in
Burslem
Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent.
...
from c. 1790 until probably 1796, marked "Wedgwood & Co", a name never used by the main firm. He then joined William Tomlinson & Co., a firm in Yorkshire, who promptly dropped their own name, using "Wedgwood & Co" until he left in 1801. That name was revived by
Enoch Wedgwood
Enoch Wedgwood (1813-1879) was an English potter, founder in 1860 of the pottery firm Wedgwood & Co of Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent. He was a distant cousin of the famous potter Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood (12 July 1730 – 3 January 1795) ...
(1813–1879), a distant cousin of the first Josiah, who used Wedgwood & Co, starting in 1860. It was taken over by Josiah Wedgwood & Sons in 1980.
Other potters used blatantly misleading marks: "Wedgewood", "Vedgwood", "J Wedg Wood", all on inferior wares.
1960s and 1970s consolidation
In 1968, Wedgwood purchased many other Staffordshire potteries including
Mason's Ironstone
Ironstone china, ironstone ware or most commonly just ironstone, is a type of vitreous pottery first made in the United Kingdom in the early 19th century. It is often classed as earthenware although in appearance and properties it is similar ...
,
Johnson Brothers
Johnson Brothers was a British tableware manufacturer and exporter that was noted for its early introduction of "semi-porcelain" tableware. It was among the most successful Staffordshire potteries which produced tableware, much of it exported ...
, Royal Tuscan, William Adams & Sons,
J. & G. Meakin and Crown Staffordshire. In 1979, Wedgwood purchased the
Franciscan Ceramics
Franciscan Ceramics are ceramic tableware and tile products produced by Gladding, McBean & Co. in Los Angeles, California, from 1934 to 1962, International Pipe and Ceramics (Interpace) from 1962 to 1979, and Wedgwood from 1979 to 1983. Wedgwood c ...
division of
Interpace in the United States. The Los Angeles plant closed in 1984 and production of the Franciscan brand was moved to Johnson Brothers in Britain. In 1986, Waterford Glass Group plc purchased Wedgwood plc, forming the company Waterford Wedgwood plc.
Waterford Wedgwood
![Wedgwood 1668](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Wedgwood_1668.JPG)
In 1986, Waterford Glass Group plc purchased Wedgwood plc for US$360 million, with Wedgwood delivering a US$38.7 million profit in 1998 (while Waterford itself lost $28.9 million), after which the group was renamed Waterford Wedgwood plc. From early 1987 to early 1989, the CEO was Patrick Byrne, previously of
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
, who then became CEO of the whole group. During this time, he sold off non-core businesses and reduced the range of Wedgwood patterns from over 400 to around 240. In the late 1990s, the CEO was Brian Patterson. From 1January 2001, the Deputy CEO was
Tony O'Reilly, Junior
St. John Anthony O'Reilly, generally Tony O'Reilly, Junior (born 1966 in Dublin) is a businessman with Irish and Australian citizenship, the third son and sixth child of former Heinz Chairman & CEO and Irish media magnate Tony O'Reilly and Aus ...
, who was appointed CEO in November of the same year and resigned in September 2005. He was succeeded by the then-president of Wedgwood USA, Moira Gavin, up until the company went into administration in 2009.
In 2001, Wedgwood launched a collaboration with designer
Jasper Conran
Jasper Alexander Thirlby Conran (born 12 December 1959) is an English designer. He has worked on collections of womenswear and for the home, as well as productions for the stage in ballet, opera and theatre.
Early life
He is the second son of ...
, which started with a white fine bone china collection then expanded to include seven patterns. In March 2009,
KPS Capital Partners
KPS Capital Partners is an American investment company that manages KPS Special Situation Funds, a family of investment funds. KPS specifically invests out of two funds raised in October 2019: KPS Special Situations Fund V ($6.12 billion) and KPS ...
acquired the Waterford Wedgwood group assets. Assets including Wedgwood, Waterford and Royal Doulton were placed into WWRD Holdings Limited.
WWRD Holdings Limited
On 5January 2009, following years of financial problems at group level, and after a share placement failed during the
global financial crisis of 2008
Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003
* ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007
* ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989
* ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015
* Bruno ...
, Waterford Wedgwood was placed into administration
on a "going concern" basis, with 1,800 employees remaining. On 27February 2009, Waterford Wedgwood's receiver
Deloitte
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...
announced that the
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
-based private equity firm
KPS Capital Partners
KPS Capital Partners is an American investment company that manages KPS Special Situation Funds, a family of investment funds. KPS specifically invests out of two funds raised in October 2019: KPS Special Situations Fund V ($6.12 billion) and KPS ...
had purchased certain Irish and UK assets of Waterford Wedgwood, and the assets of its Irish and UK subsidiaries. KPS Capital Partners placed Wedgwood into a group of companies known as WWRD, an abbreviation for "Waterford Wedgwood Royal Doulton".
From 2006 to 2008, Wedgwood began to
offshore most production to Indonesia to reduce costs, while Waterford production moved to Eastern Europe. Some high-end pieces are still made in Barlaston and Waterford, respectively.
In May 2015,
Fiskars
Fiskars Group (also known as Fiskars Oyj Abp or Fiskars Corporation, and until 1998 as Fiskars Oy Ab) is a Finnish group company. The company has its roots in the village of Fiskars (in the town of Raseborg, about west of Helsinki), where it ...
, a Finnish maker of home products, agreed to buy 100% of the holdings of WWRD. On 2 July 2015, the acquisition of WWRD by Fiskars was completed, including the brands Waterford, Wedgwood, Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Rogaška. The acquisition was approved by the US antitrust authorities.
In 2015 there were complaints of misleading labelling, in that products made in the company's
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
n factory were sold labelled "Wedgwood England".
Wedgwood Museums and the Museum Trust
Wedgwood's founder wrote as early as 1774 that he wished he had preserved samples of all the company's works, and he began to do so. The first formal museum was opened in May 1906, with a curator named Isaac Cook, at the main (Etruria) works. The contents of the museum were stored for the duration of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and relaunched in a gallery at the new Barlaston factory in 1952. A new purpose-built visitor centre and museum was built in Barlaston in 1975 and remodelled in 1985, with pieces displayed near items from the old factory works in cabinets of similar period. A video theatre was added and a new gift shop, as well as an expanded demonstration area, where visitors could watch pottery being made. A further renovation costing £4.5 million was carried out in 2000, including access to the main factory itself.
Adjacent to the museum and visitor centre are a restaurant and tea room, serving on Wedgwood ware. The museum, managed by a dedicated trust, closed in 2000 and on 24 October 2008, it reopened in a new multimillion-pound building.
In June 2009, the Wedgwood Museum won a UK
Art Fund Prize for Museums and Art Galleries for its displays of Wedgwood pottery, skills, designs and artefacts.
In May 2011, the archive of the museum was inscribed in
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
's
UK Memory of the World Register The UK Memory of the World Register is part of the Memory of the World Programme.
The UK Register recognises documentary heritage of outstanding importance to the UK. Any documentary heritage can be nominated in a biennial application process. The ...
.
[2011 UK Memory of the World Register]
, United Kingdom National Commission for UNESCO, 2011. Accessed 4 June 2011.
The collection with 80,000 works of art, ceramics, manuscripts, letters and photographs faced being sold off to help satisfy pension debts inherited when Waterford Wedgwood plc went into receivership in 2009. The
Heritage Lottery Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom.
History
The fund's predecessor bodies were ...
,
the Art Fund
Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charitable organization, charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for man ...
, various trusts and businesses contributed donations to purchase the collection. On 1 December 2014, the collection was purchased and donated to the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
. The collection will continue to be on display at the Wedgwood Museum on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Minton Archive
The
Minton Archive
The Minton Archive is a collection of records for the English pottery firm Minton. The archive was originally housed in the firm's works at London Road, Stoke-on-Trent. It was catalogued by Alyn Giles Jones (1928-2000), Archivist and Keeper of Ma ...
comprises papers and drawings of the designs, manufacture and production of the defunct pottery company
Mintons
Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery, "Europe's leading ceramic factory during the Victorian era", an independent business from 1793 to 1968. It was a leader in ceramic design, working in a number of different ceramic bodies, ...
. It was acquired by Waterford Wedgwood in 2005 along with other assets of the
Royal Doulton
Royal Doulton is an English ceramic and home accessories manufacturer that was founded in 1815. Operating originally in Vauxhall, London, and later moving to Lambeth, in 1882 it opened a factory in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in the centre of Engl ...
group.
At one time it seemed the Archive would become part of the Wedgwood collection. In the event, the Archive was presented by the Art Fund to the City of Stoke-on-Trent, but it was envisaged that some material would be displayed at Barlaston as well as the
Potteries Museum and Art Gallery.
Wedgwood station
Wedgwood railway station
Wedgwood railway station served the Wedgwood complex in Barlaston, Staffordshire, England. Although the station is not officially closed, there has been no train service at the station since 2004 and it is instead served by a rail replacement bu ...
was opened in 1940 to serve the Wedgwood complex 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 ...
.
Notes
References
*Dawson, Aileen, "The Growth of the Staffordshire Ceramic Industry", in: Freestone, Ian, Gaimster, David R. M. (eds), ''Pottery in the Making: World Ceramic Traditions'', 1997, British Museum Publications,
*Dolan, Brian, ''Josiah Wedgwood: Entrepreneur to the Enlightenment'', 2004, HarperCollins (UK title, used here), aka ''Wedgwood: The First Tycoon'' (US title, page numbers 2 higher), 2004, Viking
*Godden, Geoffrey (1992), ''An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of British Pottery and Porcelain'', 1992, Magna Books,
*Godden, Geoffrey (1885), ''English China'', 1985, Barrie & Jenkins,
*Hughes, G Bernard, ''The Country Life Pocket Book of China'', 1965, Country Life Ltd
*Young, Hilary (ed.), ''The Genius of Wedgwood'' (exhibition catalogue), 1995,
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
,
Further reading
* Burton, Anthony. ''Josiah Wedgwood: A New Biography'' (2020)
*
Hunt, Tristram. ''The Radical Potter: Josiah Wedgwood and the Transformation of Britain''. Penguin, 2021.
* Langton, John. "The ecological theory of bureaucracy: The case of Josiah Wedgwood and the British pottery industry." ''Administrative Science Quarterly'' (1984): 330–354.
*
McKendrick, Neil. "Josiah Wedgwood and the Commercialization of the Potteries", in: McKendrick, Neil; Brewer, John & Plumb, J.H. (1982), ''The Birth of a Consumer Society: The commercialization of Eighteenth-century England''
* McKendrick, Neil. "Josiah Wedgwood and Factory Discipline." ''Historical Journal'' 4.1 (1961): 30–55
online* McKendrick, Neil. "Josiah Wedgwood and cost accounting in the Industrial Revolution." ''Economic History Review'' 23.1 (1970): 45–67
online* McKendrick, Neil. "Josiah Wedgwood: an eighteenth-century entrepreneur in salesmanship and marketing techniques." ''Economic History Review'' 12.3 (1960): 408–433
online* Meteyard, Eliza. ''Life and Works of Wedgwood'' (2 vol 1865
vol 1 online als
vol 2 online* Reilly, Robin, ''Josiah Wedgwood 1730–1795'' (1992), a major scholarly biography
External links
Official Wedgwood UK websiteOfficial Wedgwood USA websiteWedgwood MuseumWedgwood buttons, made 1785–1800, from theVictoria & Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
jewellery collection.
Sydney Cove Medallion at the National Museum of Australia
{{Authority control
British porcelain
Ceramics manufacturers of England
Companies based in Staffordshire
Companies based in Stoke-on-Trent
English brands
English pottery
Neoclassicism
Staffordshire pottery
Tony O'Reilly family
Waterford Wedgwood
Wedgwood pottery
British companies established in 1759
1759 establishments in England
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