WEDGWOOD WARE. England's most noted art potter was Josiah Wedgwood, born at Burslem, Staffordshire, in 1730. In 1754 he became Whieldon's partner, but started his Ivy House works in 1759, making °cream-color' ware. By 1773 \%'edgwood's products were all being made at the newly-erected magnificent works called Etruria. "Jasper' ware (made first in 1775) was Wedgwood's most noted achieve ment. It was of colored body and decorated with Flaxman's reliefs in white. The texture of the paste was very beautiful and the ware was left unglazed (biscuit). It was used, not only in vases and table services. hut also as cameos in medallions:plaques. brooches, shoe buckles, earrings, snuff-boxes. etc. Jasper ground colors were dark and light blues, lav ender, pink, two tones of green, black, so-called 'lilac' and yellow — the rarest and most cov eted of all pieces First it consisted of a solid colored body of a most beautiful grain, but was later made in a white body and dipped to give a surface of color upon which the delicate white reliefs were laid. A few pieces (Made since 17901 are "tricolored.• The medallions (Hackwood, as well as Flaxman, did many of the best) contained mythological subjects and beautifully executed portraits of Benjamin Franklin, Robert Boyle, Sir Isaac Newton. Priestly, Hamilton, etc. A fine white ware, named "pearl' was made from a variation of Wedgwood's °Queen's wares to this was his cream-color patronized by Queen Charlotte) used on 'shell' patterns and coated with pearl. shell lustre enamel washes. Gold. purple, yel low and silver (platinum) lustre pieces were made from 1792 to 1810 in tea-pots, coffer pots, cream jugs, candlesticks, trays. etc. The black stoneware that Wedgwood called "basalts of Egypt' was used on °Etruscan' (as Greek vases were then called) vase styles, medallions, panels, seals, plaques, busts, tea and coffee sets. etc., with reliefs of mythological scenes, trees. horses, flowers. Noted are the busts in this ware of Zeno, Cicero, Plato, Chaucer, Milton. Spencer, Bacon, Lord Chatham of the larger sizes and the smaller Voltaire, Rousseau, etc Most famous of Wedgwood's Productions is the glass Barberini or Portland vase (see PORTLAND VASE) in black-polished earthenware background with applied whitejasper bas-reliefs. Wares of mottled bodies and glazes were made in both Burslem and Etruria, Wedgwood learned this style through Whieldon's "tortoiseshell' gran ite, agate and other marbled wares. Another variety was the antico' or unglazed red stoneware, after the Elers brothers' style, used on cream jugs, milk jugs, etc. The so-called
Greek 'Etruscan' antique pieces were imitated by a method Wedgwood termed 'encaustic' painting; they used an enamel paint process that produced a dull (mat) surface. As the pieces copied were of the Greek 'Decadent' period they are not much admired; such ware LS found in tea-cups, jugs, bowls, etc. Wedg wood's 'bronze encaustics' still exist but the bronze (precipitated gold), adhering through japanners' size is mostly worn Wedgwood produced scarcely any porcelain ware, but his nephew, Byerly (10 years after the great Josiah's death), made a real fine porcelain in small quantities, in unrefined dec oration, mostly. Since 1872 porcelain has been produced again in Etruria. This great factory has been continued under the descendants of Josiah to this day.
Characteristics and True pieces having the 'Wedgwood' mark and word 'Eng land" date from 1791. then the country of origin was added. 'Old' Wedgwood body has been compared with a 'baby's sloe; Church de scribes it as 'ivory, neither dry and chalky looking on the one hand, nor of waxy smooth ness on the other; Yoxall says it 'feels Eke a clay-pipe which has a fihn of soap-bubble over it.* In Josiah's day the body had a perfect homogeneity and the workmanship showed "no ripples or stringiness' as appeared later. Marks are *Wedgwood & Bentley,' "WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY.' 'WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY, ETRURIA,' in a circle; also "W. & B.' These were during the Bentley partnership, otherwise 'WEDGWOOD' alone was used The mark is always impressed. Much has been said of the Wedgwood forgeries, but they are so rare as to be almost considered negligible. Neither the ware nor the impressed mark are easy to cl imitate. Voyez, when dismissed by W made cameos in Wedgwood style and he was a 'perfect master of the antique style,* few are known of. William Adams (worked under Josiah) made fine jasper cameos, hut gave them the mark 'Adams* impressed. Gamier says a Herr Schmidt, at a Bayreuth factory (19th century), imitated Wedgwood's stoneware, ming his mark Burton, W., 'English Earthenware and Stoneware' (New York 1904); Church, A. H., \\ LdLwood, Laster Potter' (London 1001): Iewitt, 'Life of Josiah Wedg•o 1865) ; Metevard, E., 'The Life of Josiah Wedgwood' (London 1865-66) . • id., 'Wedgwood and his Works' (London 1873); Rathbone, F., 'Old Vl edges ood ' ( London 1893 ) .