Wedgwood - the Timeless Classic
Wedgwood - the Timeless Classic
When they hear the word Wedgwood, what is the first thing that comes into your mind? Probably something like this:
Not surprising, since this is classic Wedgwood, their famous jasperware. The Wedgwood company has been producing jasperware since 1773.
Josiah Wedgwood, a fourth-generation potter from Staffordshire, founded his Eturia factory in 1769. He was an experimenter and innovator, and so successful that by the time he died, he had amassed a fortune that caused a recent biography to refer to him as 'the first tycoon'.
During his day, the major 'high end' potters of Britain and Europe were seeking the secret to recreating oriental porcelain, the white translucent ware that fetched high prices from the carriage trade.
Wedgwood took a different route, bringing elegance to durable stonewares and earthenwares.
The most familiar of his innovations was the famous jasperware, pieces of colored bisque (unglazed) with a decorative applied relief in white. Jasperware is most commonly seen in light blue (so common in fact that the shade of blue has become known as "Wedgwood blue"), but it has also been made in a host of other shades, including dark blue, black, moss green, pink, and even orange.
The subject matter of the reliefs is usually a classical scene. The 18th century was the heyday of interest in classical Greece and Rome, and wealthy travelers were often bringing antiquities back to England; everything from ancient cameos to sarcophagi provided subject matter for Wedgwood's wares. (The 18th century also saw the creation of the fig leaf, and many Wedgwood classical scenes included strategically placed draperies not seen in the original artwork, to cover the 'naughty bits'.)
But there is more to Wedgwood than jasperware. Wedgwood's 'cream ware' was renamed "Queen's Ware" after Queen Charlotte bought a set and appointed him Queen's Potter.
Wedgwood also produced patterned dinnerware, and one of the nice things about Wedgwood is that, while innovative, they are never faddish. If something works, they keep making it.
This dinner plate, for example, in the Liverpool Birds pattern, dates from the turn of the 20th century. But this pattern was introduced by Wedgwood in 1763! That's continuity!
This continuity means that Wedgwood collecting is not just for the well-to-do. While you can certainly invest considerable sums in antique Wedgwood, you can also acquire the same distinctively Wedgwood look by buying modern Wedgwood. Whatever your area of interest in Wedgwood, whether it is collecting black jasperware or acquiring a complete set of their Kutani Crane pattern dinnerware, you can find what you're looking for at reasonable prices with a little effort and patience.
A word of caution, though. Not everything marked Wedgwood is "the" Wedgwood. Remember that I mentioned that Josiah Wedgwood was a fourth generation potter? That means there were a lot of other potters named Wedgwood out there! If the piece you're looking at is marked "Wedgwood & Co", that's a different company, later renamed "Enoch Wedgwood (Tunstall) LTD". Well, what about "J Wedgwood Ironstone"? J for Josiah? Nope. By the mid-19th century, the Wedgwood company founded by Josiah was legendary enough that a potter named John Wedge Wood decided to name his company J Wedgwood Ironstone. (Beautiful pieces and quite collectible, by the way, but collectible as ironstone, not as Wedgwood.)
As for Josiah, he died in 1795 a very wealthy man, leaving behind a company that survives and thrives to this day, and a daughter who became the mother of Charles Darwin.
Dating Wedgwood pieces is a complicated subject! Here's a link to a site that provides the code:
Dating Wedgwood
Interested in reading more about Wedgwood?
Copyright 2007 by Joyce Lee Harmon
