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Wedgwood pottery sale and auctions in the
Antique Web!
A Brief
History of Wedgwood China
By
Max Bellamy
The story of the line begins in 1730
with the birth of Josiah Wedgwood to
a family who manufactured pottery.
At six years old, Josiah was an
apprentice and by 14 he had suffered
a bout of smallpox that weakened his
right knee. By 1760, Josiah had his
own factory
and had been
experimenting with different
formulas of porcelain, clays and
glazes and technological advances in
the art of transferring designs to
the finished product. In 1765 he
manufactured a complete set for
Queen Charlotte, advertised himself
as the “potter to the Queen” and his
business took off.
Josiah’s
crowning achievement was his
creation of Jasperware. Jasper is
translucent clay that marries the
basalt and Josiah’s original
formulas to produce a dense,
homogeneously colored stoneware.
After more than 10,000 failed
experiments with various clays and
glazes, Jasperware was launched in
1775 to overwhelming success,
especially to his customers in the
new democracy of the United States
of America. Josiah stated shortly
thereafter, “there was no item too
rich or too costly for Americans.”
Wedgwood died in 1795 and the
business was left to his sons, who,
having been brought up wealthy, had
absolutely no interest in running
it. The job fell to a nephew, Tom
Byerly who struggled greatly with
the burden of running a business he
had little love for. The next 25
years proved difficult for the
company and Josiah II took over to
turn things around by restoring the
formulas and business standards set
by his father. Needless to say,
constant economic turmoil, wars and
growing competition made the 1800’s
very difficult and it wasn’t until
the 20th Century, under the
leadership of Josiah V that things
began to improve.
With new, streamlined production
facilities, aggressive worldwide
marketing especially in America, and
exclusive designs, Wedgwood China
products began gaining prominence in
the industry. In 1966, Wedgwood’s
shares were introduced into the
London Stock exchange and since that
time, the company has been involved
in aggressive expansion. The assets
of Susie Cooper, Royal Tuscan,
William Adams, Franciscan, Mason’s
Ironstone, Waterford, and Rosenthal
have been merged with Wedgwood to
form the Wedgwood group. Josiah
Wedgwood I would be proud.
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