Josiah Wedgwood (12 July 1730 – 3 January 1795) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
potterA potter is someone who makes pottery.It can also mean "to move about aimlessly", especially in the phrases "potter around" and "potter about".Potter may also refer to:-People:*Alexandra Potter , British author...
, credited with the
industrializationIndustrial processes are procedures involving chemical or mechanical steps to aid in the manufacture of an item or items, usually carried out on a very large scale. Industrial processes are the key components of heavy industry....
of the manufacture of
potteryPottery is the ceramic ware made by potters. Major types of pottery include earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. The places where such wares are made are called potteries. Pottery is one of the oldest human technologies and art-forms, and remains a major industry today...
. A prominent abolitionist, Wedgwood is remembered for his "
Am I Not A Man And A Brother?" anti-slavery medallion. He was a member of the Darwin-Wedgwood family.
Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
was his grandson.
Early life
Born in
BurslemThe town of Burslem, known as the Mother Town, is one of the six towns that amalgamated to form the current city of Stoke-on-Trent, in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, in the Midlands of England.-Topography:...
,
StaffordshireStaffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the twelfth and last child of
Thomas WedgwoodThomas Wedgwood III was an English potter and the father of Josiah Wedgwood, the famous potter. Thomas was the elder son and heir of Thomas Wedgwood II and Mary Leigh of Burslem...
and Mary Wedgwood (
née Stringer; d. 1766), Josiah was raised within a family of
English DissentersEnglish Dissenters were English Christians who separated from the Church of England. They opposed State interference in religious matters, and founded their own communities in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries...
. He survived a childhood bout of
smallpoxSmallpox is an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning spotted, or varus, meaning "pimple"...
to serve as an apprentice potter under his eldest brother
Thomas Wedgwood IVThomas Wedgwood IV , was an English master potter who taught his illustrious youngest brother Josiah Wedgwood the trade.Wedgwood was the son of the potter Thomas Wedgwood III and his wife Mary Stringer. He married twice, first to Isabell Beech , who had five children, two of whom died in...
. Smallpox left Josiah with a permanently weakened knee, which made him unable to work the foot pedal of a
potter's wheelIn pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in the shaping of round ceramic wares. The wheel may also be used during the process of trimming excess body from dried wares and for applying incised decoration or rings of color...
. As a result, he concentrated from an early age on designing pottery rather than making it.
In his early twenties, Wedgwood began working with the most renowned English pottery-maker of his day,
Thomas WhieldonThomas Whieldon was one of the most respected and well known English potters of his time. By 1740, he was the master of pottery at Fenton Low...
. He began experimenting with a wide variety of pottery techniques, an experimentation that coincided with the burgeoning of the nearby industrial city of
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. In 2007, the population of the city was estimated to be 458,100...
. Inspired, Wedgwood leased the Ivy Works in his home town of Burslem. Over the course of the next decade, his experimentation (and a considerable injection of capital from his marriage to a richly-endowed distant cousin) transformed the sleepy artisan works into the first true pottery
factoryA factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where workers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
.
Marriage and children
Wedgwood married Sarah Wedgwood (1734–1815), his third cousin, in January 1764. They had seven children:
- Susannah Wedgwood (1765–1817) (married Robert Darwin
Dr Robert Waring Darwin, F.R.S. was an English medical doctor, who today is best known as the father of the naturalist Charles Darwin. He was member of the influential Darwin-Wedgwood family.- Biography :...
, parents of the English naturalist Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
)
- John Wedgwood
John Wedgwood , the eldest son of the potter Josiah Wedgwood, was a partner in the Wedgwood pottery firm from 1790-1793, and again 1800-1812....
(1766–1844)
- Josiah Wedgwood II
Josiah Wedgwood II , the son of the English potter Josiah Wedgwood, continued his father's firm and was Member of Parliament for Stoke-upon-Trent from 1832 to 1835...
(1769–1843)
- Thomas Wedgwood
Thomas Wedgwood , son of Josiah Wedgwood, the potter, was an early experimenter with Humphry Davy in photography.-Life:...
(1771–1805) (no children)
- Catherine Wedgwood (1774–1823) (no children)
- Sarah Wedgwood (1776–1856) (no children, very active in the slavery abolition movement)
- Mary Anne Wedgwood (1778–86) (died as a child)
Work
Josiah worked in pottery, and his work was of very high quality. If he saw in his workshop an offending vessel that failed to meet with his standards, he would smash it with his stick, exclaiming, "This will not do for Josiah Wedgwood!" He was also keenly interested in the scientific advances of his day and it was this interest that underpinned his adoption of its approach and methods to revolutionize the quality of his pottery. His unique glazes began to distinguish his wares from anything else on the market. He was perhaps the most famous potter of all time.
By 1763, he was receiving orders from the highest levels of the
BritishThe Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, was a sovereign state in northwest Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1801...
nobility, including
Queen CharlotteCharlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the queen-consort of the United Kingdom as wife of King George III.Queen Charlotte was a patroness of the arts, known to Johann Christian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, among others. She was also an amateur botanist who helped establish Kew Gardens...
. Wedgwood convinced her to let him name the line of pottery she had purchased "Queen's Ware", and trumpeted the royal association in his paperwork and stationery. In 1774, Empress Catherine of Russia ordered the Green Frog Service from Wedgwood; it can still be seen in the
Hermitage MuseumThe State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture situated in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and open to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
. An even earlier commission from Catherine was the Husk Service (1770), now on exhibit in
PeterhofPeterhof is a municipal town within Petrodvortsovy District of the federal city of Saint Petersburg on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland . It hosts one of two campuses of Saint Petersburg State University...
.
As a burgeoning industrialist, Wedgwood was a major backer of the
Trent and Mersey CanalThe Trent and Mersey Canal is a 93.5 miles long canal in the East Midlands, West Midlands, and North West of England. It is mostly a "narrow canal" but east of Burton upon Trent, it is a wide canal .-History:As its name implies, the Trent and Mersey...
dug between the
River TrentThe River Trent is one of the major rivers of England. Its source is in Staffordshire between Biddulph and Biddulph Moor. It flows through the Midlands until it joins the River Ouse at Trent Falls to form the Humber Estuary, which empties into the North Sea below Hull and Immingham.The Trent is...
and
River MerseyThe River Mersey is a river in North West England. It is around long, stretching from Stockport, Greater Manchester, and ending at Liverpool Bay, Merseyside. For centuries, it formed part of the ancient county divide between Lancashire and Cheshire....
, during which time he became friends with
Erasmus DarwinErasmus Darwin was an English physician who turned down the invitation of George III for him to be a Royal Physician. He was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, abolitionist, inventor and poet...
. Later that decade, his burgeoning business caused him to move from the smaller Ivy Works to the newly-built
Etruria WorksThe 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...
, which would run for 180 years. The factory was so-named after the
EtruriaEtruria — usually referred to in Greek and Latin source texts as Tyrrhenia — was a region of Central Italy, an area that covered part of what now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna and Umbria. A particularly noteworthy work dealing with Etruscan locations is D. H...
district of
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, where black
porcelainPorcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
dating to
EtruscanEtruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy and Corsica, residing between the Apennines and the River Tiber, whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci...
times was being excavated. Wedgwood found this porcelain inspiring, and his first major commercial success was its duplication with what he called "Black Basalt".
Not long after the new works opened, continuing trouble with his smallpox-afflicted knee made necessary the
amputationAmputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for such problems...
of his right leg. In 1780, his long-time business partner
Thomas BentleyThomas Bentley was a British film director. He directed 68 films between 1912 and 1941.He was born in London, England, United Kingdom....
died, and Wedgwood turned to Darwin for help in running the business. As a result of the close association that grew up between the Wedgwood and Darwin families, Josiah's eldest daughter would later marry Erasmus' son. One of the children of that marriage,
Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
, would also marry a Wedgwood — Emma, Josiah's granddaughter. This double-barreled inheritance of Wedgwood's money gave Charles Darwin the leisure time to formulate his theory of evolution.
In the latter part of his life, Wedgwood's obsession was to duplicate the
Portland VaseThe Portland Vase is a Roman cameo glass vase, currently dated to 5-25AD, which served as an inspiration to many glass and porcelain makers from about the beginning of the 18th century onwards...
, a blue and white glass vase dating to the first century BC. For three years he worked on the project, eventually producing what he considered a satisfactory copy in 1789.
After passing on his company to his sons, Wedgwood died at home, probably of cancer of the jaw, in 1795. He was buried three days later in the parish church of Stoke-on-Trent. Seven years later a marble memorial tablet commissioned by his sons was installed there.
He belonged to the fourth generation of a family of potters whose traditional occupation continued through another five generations.
Wedgwood's companyWedgwood, strictly Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, is a British pottery firm, founded on May 1 1759 by Josiah Wedgwood, which in 1987 merged with Waterford Crystal, creating Waterford Wedgwood, the Ireland-based luxury brands group. The company still exists as a subsidiary within the group, with its own...
is still a famous name in pottery today (as part of Waterford Wedgwood; see
Waterford CrystalWaterford Crystal is a trademark brand of crystal glassware, previously produced in Waterford, Ireland, though the factory there was shut down after the receivership of Waterford Wedgwood plc in early 2009...
), and "Wedgwood China" is the commonly used term for his
JasperwareJasperware is a form of pottery that has a stoneware body which is either white or colored, which is noted for its matte finish. It was first developed by Josiah Wedgwood and its best known form is the popular blue-and-white ware, but it comes in many other colors...
, the blue (or sometimes green) china with overlaid white decoration, still common throughout the world.
He was an active member of the
Lunar SocietyThe Lunar Society was a dinner club and informal learned society of prominent industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 in Birmingham, England. At first called the Lunar Circle, "Lunar Society" became the formal name by 1775...
often held at
Erasmus Darwin HouseErasmus Darwin House in Lichfield, Staffordshire is the former house of the English poet and physician Erasmus Darwin.Erasmus Darwin House in Lichfield was the home of Erasmus Darwin, the renowned physician, scientist, inventor, poet, and educationist, from 1758 until 1781...
and is remembered on the
MoonstonesThe Moonstones are a set of eight carved sandstone memorials to various members of the Lunar Society. Made in 1998, they can be viewed in the grounds of the Asda supermarket in Queslett, Great Barr, Birmingham, England...
in
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
. He was elected to the
Royal SocietyThe Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence...
in 1783 for the development of a
pyrometerA pyrometer is a non-contacting device that intercepts and measures thermal radiation, a process known as pyrometry.This device can be used to determine the temperature of an object's surface....
.
Wedgwood is credited as the inventor of modern marketing, specifically direct mail, money-back guarantees, traveling salesmen, self-service, free delivery, buy one get one free, and illustrated catalogues..
Am I Not A Man And A Brother?
Wedgwood was a prominent slavery
abolitionistAbolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and emancipate slaves in western Europe and the Americas. The slave system aroused little protest until the 18th century, when rationalist thinkers of the Enlightenment criticized it for violating the rights of man, and Quaker and other evangelical...
. His friendship with
Thomas ClarksonThomas Clarkson , abolitionist, was born at Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England, and became a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire...
- abolitionist campaigner and the first historian of the British abolition movement - aroused his interest in slavery. Wedgwood mass produced cameos depicting the seal for the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade and had them widely distributed, which thereby became a popular and celebrated image. The Wedgwood medallion was the most famous image of a black person in all of 18th-century art. The actual design of the cameo was probably done by either William Hackwood or Henry Webber who were modellers in his
Stoke-on-TrentStoke-on-Trent is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme and Kidsgrove, Stoke forms the The Potteries Urban Area...
factory. From 1787 until his death in 1795, Wedgwood actively participated in the abolition of Slavery cause, and his Slave Medallion, which brought the attention of the public to the horrors of the Slave trade, was very effective in bringing public attention to abolition.
http://www.thepotteries.org/did_you/005.htm Wedgwood reproduced the design in a cameo with the black figure against a white background and donated hundreds of these to the Society for distribution. Thomas Clarkson wrote; "ladies wore them in bracelets, and others had them fitted up in an ornamental manner as pins for their hair. At length the taste for wearing them became general, and thus fashion, which usually confines itself to worthless things, was seen for once in the honourable office of promoting the cause of justice, humanity and freedom".
Locomotive
A locomotive was named after Josiah Wedgwood and ran on the Churnet Valley Railway.
See also
- Josiah Wedgwood & Sons
Wedgwood, strictly Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, is a British pottery firm, founded on May 1 1759 by Josiah Wedgwood, which in 1987 merged with Waterford Crystal, creating Waterford Wedgwood, the Ireland-based luxury brands group. The company still exists as a subsidiary within the group, with its own...
- Erasmus Darwin House
Erasmus Darwin House in Lichfield, Staffordshire is the former house of the English poet and physician Erasmus Darwin.Erasmus Darwin House in Lichfield was the home of Erasmus Darwin, the renowned physician, scientist, inventor, poet, and educationist, from 1758 until 1781...
Eramus Darwin Museum house and gardens
Sources
- Dolan, Brian (2004). Wedgwood: The First Tycoon. Viking Adult. ISBN 0-670-03346-4.
External links