Etruria Works
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Etruria Works was a ceramics factory opened by
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 ...
in 1769 in a district 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 ...
,
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, which he named
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 ...
. The factory ran for 180 years, as part of the wider
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 ...
business. Wedgwood kept his old works in the nearby town of
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. T ...
at the Ivy House Works and the Brick House Works (demolished – the
Wedgwood Institute The Wedgwood Institute is a large red-brick building that stands in Queen Street, in the town of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. It is sometimes called the Wedgwood Memorial Institute, but it is not to be confused with the former ...
is built on its site). At least initially, the Etruria Works made the more expensive "ornamental"
stoneware Stoneware is a rather broad term for pottery or other ceramics fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern technical definition is a Vitrification#Ceramics, vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refracto ...
s Wedgwood was developing, while Burslem continued to produce the cheaper "useful" wares, such as
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 Hon ...
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 ...
. In 1767 Wedgwood paid about three thousand pounds for his new site, which was then known as the Ridgehouse Estate. It lay directly in the path of the
Trent and Mersey Canal The Trent and Mersey Canal is a canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities to the east of Burton upon Trent and north of Middle ...
of which Wedgwood was a promoter. On one side of the canal Wedgwood built a large house,
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 ...
and on the other side the factory. His architect was
Joseph Pickford Joseph Pickford (bap. 1734–1782) was an English architect, one of the leading provincial architects in the reign of George III. Biography Pickford was born in Warwickshire in 1734 but he moved as child to London when his father died. Pickfor ...
.


Wedgwood and Etruscan art

The motto of the Etruria works was ''Artes Etruriae Renascuntur''. This may be translated from the
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
as "The Arts of Etruria are reborn". Wedgwood was inspired by ancient pottery then generally described as
Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy *Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization **Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities ** Etrusca ...
, but now known to be mostly
Ancient Greek pottery Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exe ...
. In particular, he was interested in the painted vases which Sir William Hamilton began to collect in the 1760s while serving as British Ambassador to the
Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...
. Hamilton's collections were published as Etruscan, although the term was a misnomer, as many of the "Etruscan" items turned out to be
pottery of ancient Greece Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exe ...
. More authentically Etruscan in inspiration was Wedgwood's black basalt stoneware, which was already in development as the Etruria works were being built and came on the market in 1768. As with the black, burnished and unglazed
bucchero Bucchero () is a class of ceramics produced in central Italy by the region's pre-Roman Etruscan population. This Italian word is derived from the Latin ''poculum'', a drinking-vessel, perhaps through the Spanish ''búcaro'', or the Portuguese ''p ...
pottery characteristic of genuinely Etruscan ceramics, Wedgwood's "Black
Basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
es" were fired in a reducing atmosphere, achieved by closing vents, where the oxygen-starved flames drew off the oxygen from iron oxides, rendering the ceramic body black, a color that was enriched and deepened with the addition of
manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...
to the clay. The designers employed by Wedgwood, of whom
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 ...
is the most famous, were able to adapt this classical art for the eighteenth-century market. The products of Wedgwood's factory were greatly admired in Britain and abroad. Some of Flaxman's designs are still in production today.


Factory organisation

Wedgwood used
division of labour The division of labour is the separation of the tasks in any economic system or organisation so that participants may specialise (specialisation). Individuals, organizations, and nations are endowed with, or acquire specialised capabilities, and ...
. The site, its appearance and organisation was documented in ''Artes Etruriae renascuntur; a record of the historical old works at Etruria as they exist today, forming an unique example of an eighteenth century English factory'' (1920).


The twentieth century

There is a description of Etruria in the 1930s in
J. B. Priestley John Boynton Priestley (; 13 September 1894 – 14 August 1984) was an English novelist, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and social commentator. His Yorkshire background is reflected in much of his fiction, notably in ''The Good Compa ...
's ''
English Journey ''English Journey'' is an account by J. B. Priestley of his travels in England which was published in 1934. Commissioned by publisher Victor Gollancz to write a study of contemporary England, Priestley recounts his travels around England in 1933 ...
''. By this time the site was affected by mining subsidence, and plans were drawn for a new factory 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 ...
some miles south on the Trent and Mersey Canal. The new factory was built in 1938–40 and most of the old factory was demolished in the twentieth century after the Wedgwood company moved production to Barlaston.


The site today

Little remains of the factory today, although one surviving structure has been protected since the 1970s as a
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. Between 1986 and 2013 the local newspaper ''The Sentinel'' was based on part of the site. As well as ''The Sentinel'', the print plant in Etruria was responsible for printing Northern editions of the ''Daily Mail'' and ''Mail on Sunday''.


Notes


References

{{Stoke-on-Trent Buildings and structures in Stoke-on-Trent Demolished buildings and structures in England Grade II listed buildings in Staffordshire Staffordshire pottery 1769 establishments in England Wedgwood pottery British companies established in 1769 Grade II listed commercial buildings