Leaders of Modern Industry by G. Barnett Smith: The Wedgwoods

Note: This is a sub-section of Leaders of Modern Industry by G. Barnett Smith

THE WEDGWOODS.

THE potter's art is the most ancient in the world, for even in the most primitive and rudimentary ages serviceable pottery was a necessity to the human race. But between the rude vessels of the savage - which consisted of almost shapeless masses of clay hardened by the sun — and the beautiful products of Wedgwood, with designs by Flaxman, there was as much difference as between the veriest daub which ever shocked the artistic sense on the walls of the Royal Academy and the 'Transfiguration' of Raphael.

Excellence of manufacture, however, especially as regards porcelain, goes back for thousands of years. We owe to the Chinese the manufacture of porcelain, and, alike as regards antiquity and skill in the use of the raw materials, they easily stand first. During the terra-cotta vase period of the Greeks the Chinese were manufacturing porcelain. They claim to have been making pottery nearly 2,700 years before Christ, and it has been established beyond question that porcelain was made in China under the Han dynasty between 206 and 87 B.C. Ever since that time the industry has been pursued with more or less success.

Early in the eighteenth century there was one town alone which boasted of 3,033 porcelain furnaces, but the place was ruined by the Tai-ping insurrection. Animals of all kinds, mythical and actual, serve as decorations for Chinese ware. The old blue ware which the Delft manufacturers subsequently copied is the most sought after, and it seems that the workers possess the secret of causing the cracks in the glaze to be large or minute at will.

The porcelain industry was known in Japan a few years before Christ, and in the eighth century a corporation of porcelain manufacturers was established. The Japanese, however, are more celebrated for their pottery, and their Satsuma ware — which is of a pale yellow colour, and richly painted and lavishly gilt — is highly esteemed. Japanese potters are very clever in imitating woods of various kinds, basket-work, etc. Banko ware - which consists of small teapots and other unglazed earthen vessels — is another product much appreciated. Kaga ware is known for its rich gilding and ornamentation. Soft porcelain and pottery have been made in Persia since the twelfth century, the art having been imported from China; but there is also an original ware peculiar to the country, together with enamelled tiles, which exhibit brilliant metallic lustres on a fine white enamelled glaze.

Coming westward, we find that the Egyptians come first with a credible pottery record. It is stated that vases of baked earthenware were in use at the earliest period of Egyptian civilisation, and glazed tiles are preserved which belong to the epoch of Rameses III., not long after the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. 'That the Egyptians attained considerable skill as potters,' remarks a writer on this subject, Mr. James Paton, 'is attested by the lustrous red ware they made for holding perfumes, wine, honey, and other delicacies; but their most remarkable pottery was their so-called porcelain made of a fine sand or frit covered with a thick siliceous glaze, blue, green, white, purple, or yellow in colour. The blue colour — which is that principally employed — was produced by an oxide of copper which yielded tints of unrivalled beauty and delicacy. This famous porcelain was made as early as the eighteenth dynasty (about 1600 B.C.), and continued to be produced till the period of the Greek and Roman rule. It was fashioned into vases, sepulchral figures of deities, scarabaei, beasts, etc.; and it must have attained a great reputation, for remains of it are found in most of the ancient countries which had commerce with Egypt.'

The Assyrians and Babylonians likewise produced pottery at a very early period; and they used terra-cotta for historical and legal purposes, making cylinders, tablets, etc., of it, on which were impressed cuneiform writings dealing with such events as the Creation, the Flood, etc. There are scarcely any remains of ancient Hebrew pottery, but a considerable quantity of Phoenician pottery has been excavated in Cyprus.

The Greeks, however, were the greatest makers of pottery in the ancient world. They claimed the invention of the potter's wheel, and almost every city attained distinction in the art. 'The Greek vases which remain to this day, principally recovered from tombs in Greece, and in the lands to which its commerce extended, show that within a few centuries the art rose from the rude condition like that shown in prehistoric pottery till it reached a perfection and variety of form, and a grace and dignity of decoration, not since attained by the efforts of any people.' Many exquisite figures and groups have also been discovered in Greece and the East of Europe during the past quarter of a century. The black Etruscan ware which was in vogue from 500 to 300 B.C. gave rise to the Araline and so-called Samian ware of Rome. This Samian ware was of a bright red colour throughout, but it was covered by a lustrous siliceous glaze.

Brilliant enamelled pottery was made in the island of Rhodes early in the fourteenth century, and the Moors likewise began to produce thus early their famous Hispano-Moresque enamelled faience. The Majolica ware of the Italians is another well-known species. Enamelled faience was made in France in the sixteenth century, and in 1555 the celebrated Bernard Palissy discovered independently an enamelled glaze, which he applied to rustic dishes, embellished with exquisitely moulded figures, in high relief, of fishes, reptiles, fruits, etc. Of the famous Henri Deux decorative ware only 65 pieces are known to be in existence, and whenever any of these pieces are for sale they fetch fabulous prices.

The celebrated enamelled faience of Holland, known as Delft ware, dates from the seventeenth century only. Several German cities became known for their stoneware vessels. With regard to the New World, the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians made a good deal of decorated black and yellow pottery from a very early period. Porcelain began to be made in Europe about the year 1580, by Francis de Medici II., Grand Duke of Tuscany. Paris and Rouen took up the art nearly a century later. In 1760 the establishment at Sevres became national property, and has remained so ever since. The fame of Sevres rests on its beautifully glazed and coloured soft porcelain, but hard porcelain has also been made there since 1764. The Germans were the first among European makers to discover the secret of making hard, or kaolinic, porcelain, and the original credit is due to the alchemist Bottger, who in 1709 was in the service of Frederic Augustus II. of Saxony.

The porcelain made in Great Britain is chiefly of the soft description. Works were established at Chelsea, Bow, and Derby about the middle of last century, and the industry was founded at Worcester in 1751. William Cookworthy began to make hard porcelain at Plymouth in 1768, but after three years the works were transferred to Richard Champion, who continued the manufacture at Bristol until 1781. Cookworthy discovered at Carclaze, in Cornwall, the finest china-clay to be found in Great Britain, and his discovery was fraught with important consequences for the home manufacture of porcelain and fine pottery.

The commoner potter's clay, or pipe-clay, is largely obtained from Poole, in Dorsetshire. The purest potter's clay, known as china-clay, or kaolin, is formed by the decomposition of granite rocks, and consists of the hydrated silicate of alumina, with small proportions or traces of one or more of lime, potash, soda, and magnesia.

Pottery has three divisions: namely, earthenware, of which there are four kinds, plain, lustred, glazed, and enamelled; stoneware; and porcelain. Staffordshire porcelain was made at Longton Hall in 1752, but it was not until towards the close of the eighteenth century that the celebrated artistic ware of Minton and Co. and of Josiah Spode - the predecessor of Copeland and Co – was produced. Pennington manufactured porcelain at Liverpool from 1760 to 1780, and valuable porcelain was made not long after this at Leeds, Yarmouth, Worcester, Derby, Lowestoft, Burslem, Coalport, Nantgarw, Swansea, and other places. Parian or statuary porcelain was introduced by Copeland and Minton about 1848. But of all those who have developed the art of tine pottery in England, no maker is entitled to more lasting remembrance than Josiah Wedgwood, the principal subject of this biographical sketch. Before his time the brothers Elers had made fine red ware in imitation of that of Japan, at Bradwell; and their secrets were penetrated by one Samuel Astbury, who feigned idiocy in a most remarkable manner. Aqbury was in fact a man of genius, who improved upon the productions of the Messrs. Elers, and Miss Meteyard, the biographer of Wedgwood, states that it was Astbury who was the real precursor of Josiah Wedgwood.

Wedgwood, who has been described as the creator of British pottery as an art, was born at Burslem, Staffordshire, on the 12th of July, 1730. Before sketching his career, it may be well to say something of his ancestry. It appears that 'the surname of Wedgwood half fills the parish registers of Burslem through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.' Among other common names which have been associated with potters are those of Cartwright, Bagnall, Tilewright, and Mayer. The Mayers claim a descent of great antiquity. Among the early Wedgwoods —originally Weggewodes was one John, who resided at Dunwood, near Leek, towards the close of the fifteenth century. His grandson became lord of the manor of Horton, near Leek, by purchase, and he was made high collector of the subsidy of 1563. The high collector's grandson, John Wedgwood, married a gentlewoman of property named Margaret Ford, and died in 1658, at the age of 87. A kinsman of John, Gilbert Wedgwood, married an heiress, Margaret Burslem, in 1612. It was through this Gilbert that the Wedgwoods who were potters came. One of these, Thomas Wedgwood, the grandfather of Josiah, was regarded as a man of substance in Burslem. His son Thomas was a well-known manufacturer of moulded white ware, to which he afterwards added his father's business in mottled and black ware. Wedgwood married Mary Stringer, a Quakeress, by whom he had a family of thirteen children. Their last child, Josiah, was horn, as we have seen, in 1730.

Up to the time of the publication of authoritative memoirs of the Wedgwood family, erroneous notions prevailed as to Josiah's upbringing and the alleged poverty of his family. Miss Meteyard thus deals with these points:

It is said that Wedgwood's mother was a small and delicately organised woman, of unusual quickness, sensibility, and kindness of heart. Though her husband occupied his seat in the parish church, and her children were baptized at its font, she seems to have strictly enforced, though without austerity, the gravity and moral discipline of the sect amongst which she had been bred. Her children were taught to value sobriety and industry, to observe merit in others, and to see that all their hopes of advancement in this life depended upon the daily exercise of self-restraint, integrity, and the due cultivation of those natural gifts with which Nature has endowed the individual.

The manhood of Josiah Wedgwood betrays an early influence of this superior kind, as well as others of a tender character. It has been hitherto assumed that he was born in a mean hovel, surrounded by the rudest associations, and whilst yet a child consigned to the coarsest drudgery. The facts, as we thus find, were essentially different. His father, as we have seen, was a man in easy, if not in affluent circumstances. His relatives, Aaron Wedgwood and Dr. Thomas Wedgwood, junior, were persons of position in their native place. The latter was a man of the nicest skill in his art, and for those days extremely well educated. His handwriting is that of a gentleman. John and Thomas Wedgwood, the sons of Aaron, who commenced business in 1740, and in eighteen to twenty years from that date had acquired a fortune and built the handsomest house in Burslem, were, when Josiah Wedgwood was a child, active and intelligent young men, busy in improving their staple, and as keenly alive to the commercial needs, as to the intense spirit of industry then taking growth throughout the country.

A few years later, when they had erected their conspicuous dwelling, and earned comparative leisure, their hospitable hearth became a gathering-place for men of keen and active intelligence. Here Brindley, Thomas Gilbert, the Duke of Bridgewater's agent, John and Hugh Henshall, father and son, met to discuss the various plans then afloat, for constructing and improving roads and flint walls, and the first surveys for canal navigation.

Other of Josiah Wedgwood's relations held an equally influential position in their native place; and as to a simplicity of habits and manners, such prevailed everywhere. It is also certain, that the worthy and substantial class from which Wedgwood sprang were, generally speaking, as well educated as the greater portion of the gentry.

There is no reason to doubt that not only was the home in which Wedgwood was reared one of plenty, but one in which family affection was strongly manifested. Josiah was sent to the Dame school in Burslem, but the serious aspects of life were brought home to him very early, for at nine years of age he lost his father. For a long time he was sent to a school at Newcastle-under-Lyme, kept by a man of superior education named Blunt. Here he met many of his future friends, with whom he was generally popular. The journey from Burslem to Newcastle and back — about seven miles — was made on foot by Wedgwood and his fellow-pupils, alike in winter as in summer. Josiah was distinguished for his sagacity, his warm and generous temper and his uncommon vivacity and humour. We learn also that he was a favourite at home; with his little sisters especially —

Like other children, they kept birds, rabbits, and similar pets: and it is handed down, that some shelves in one of his father's working sheds were turned into a sort of museum, being decorated with fossil shells and other curiosities, which the men who attended the coal-laden pack-horses from Sneyd and Norton Green brought from the mines there. It is a remarkable fact in connection with this tradition, that many of Wedgwood's best forms were derived from natural objects; particularly from shells. In middle life he studied fossils scientifically; he bought a collection of shells, and attended sales where specimens of more than common beauty were likely to be seen. He encouraged this objective taste in his own children. It is told that on one occasion when a boy about twelve, some labourers whilst digging in a field near Newcastle came, as often happened, upon various fragments of pseudo-Samian ware, of which a fragment reached his hands. He was so delighted with its colour, glaze, and impressed ornaments, that he carried it home, and carefully preserved it on his mother's dresser shelves. At an earlier date, he took pleasure in contrasting the colours of her patchwork; thus proving how soon came into use the powers of his artistic eye for colour, and his classic taste for form.

By his father's will, Josiah Wedgwood was to receive £20 on attaining twenty years of age. But this event was as yet a long way ahead. When eleven years old he was put to the family business of a potter, as a thrower. He thus began, as he afterwards said, 'at the lowest round of the ladder.' His skill in throwing or forming the vessel upon the potter's wheel soon singled him out as one of the best workmen in the neighbourhood. This skill he always retained, so that after the lapse of forty years he could still give a practical example to his throwers, and by merely poising a newly-thrown vessel in his left hand he could tell at a glance its beauties or defects. If it failed even minutely in its geometrical proportions, he would break it up with the stick which he always carried, remarking as he did so, 'This won't do for Josiah Wedgwood.'

When Wedgwood was in his twelfth year there was a virulent outbreak of small-pox in Burslem, and Josiah suffered grievously from the disease. He had it in the malignant form, and, although he recovered, among the after-effects was a permanent injury to the knee. At the age of fourteen, Josiah was bound apprentice to his eldest brother Thomas — his father's successor - for a period of five years, 'to learn his art, mastery, occupation, or employment of Throwing and Handling.' The indenture was signed by himself, his mother, and brother Thomas, as the three parties to the deed, and attested by Samuel Astbury and Abner Wedgwood, the two paternal uncles of the young apprentice. The deed contained a stringent clause against contracting the prevalent vices of the day — card-playing, drinking, uncleanness, etc. This interesting historical document is now to be seen in the museum of the Hanley Mechanics' Institution, together with other relics relating to Wedgwood.

At the Churchyard Works, Burslem, young Wedgwood was soon taking an active part. He devoted himself to the important branch of the industry pursued by the throwers, which consisted in producing tea and coffee cups, basins, ordinary jugs, globular teapots, circular tureens, and other articles. But the pain and stiffness in his right knee returned, and as he could procure no relief, he was obliged to abandon the thrower's bench altogether at the age of sixteen, and to sit whilst at work with his leg extended before him upon a stool.

For twenty-two years he bore his infirmity patiently, suffering much pain, and being frequently laid aside from work; and at last he had the limb amputated, in order to be able to pursue his avocations. His biographer remarks that –

. . .this necessity to leave the thrower's bench, and turn his attention to other branches of his trade, led to the most important consequences. Had he remained stationary there during the larger portion of his apprenticeship, he would not have obtained that grasp of details, and that practical knowledge, which gave him subsequently such a mastery in his art, With the skill already acquired in throwing, joined to a perfection of vision which ensured to him at a glance the accuracy or inaccuracy of geometrical proportions, he was master of enough in this direction, of which the limits may be said to be stationary; and he was left free not only to pursue discoveries in the channels where they were likely to be made, but to turn his attention towards the improvement of minor points of detail.

This may be said to have been the turning point in his great career; the true beginning, environed as it seemed at the moment with the sad shadows of physical disability and disappointed hopes. The remainder of his apprenticeship, from his sixteenth to his nineteenth year, embraced that critical passage from youth to early manhood, when the mental and moral characteristics so strongly indicate themselves. And in this case they were of the highest kind: no tavern-hunting, no brawling, no vice of other kinds, but a steady attention to the duties before him, and a determinate self-culture.'

During his apprenticeship, Wedgwood lost his mother, to whom he was deeply attached, and who had done much to stimulate the nobler elements of his character. She was laid to rest near her husband, in the graveyard adjoining the works. When Josiah's apprenticeship expired, he made overtures to his brother to be taken into partnership, suggesting various methods for increasing their trade. But Thomas Wedgwood was afraid to open up new fields of effort, and declined the offer, so that Josiah was thrown upon his own resources.

In 1752, however, he entered into partnership with John Harrison, at Stoke. Harrison knew nothing of pottery, but he supplied the capital necessary to work a business which belonged to a potter named Thomas Alders. Alders was no great master of his art, so it was agreed to take young Wedgwood as partner. The wares made at Cliff Bank Pottery, Stoke, were for the most part mottled, cloudy, and tortoiseshell, glazed with lead ore or salt, and shining black ware of good quality. Tea-services, jugs, and other articles were also manufactured in 'blue scratched ware.' This ware had an ordinary white body, and was scratched with a sharp nail by women. Wedgwood not only extended the business, but produced articles of a superior class, which found a ready sale in Birmingham, Manchester, and elsewhere. But Harrison and Alders manifested such greed and cupidity that Wedgwood brought the partnership to a speedy end.

He soon found a more worthy partner in Thomas Whieldon, who like himself had both skill and taste in the potter's art. He was upright in character, and a conscientious seeker after perfection in his work. He was likewise very cautious in experiments, for Shaw, in his History of the Staffordshire Potteries, states that to prevent his productions being imitated in quality or shape, he always buried the broken articles. Whieldon's works were at Little Fenton. Although Wedgwood was not twenty-three years of age when he entered into this partnership, his fame was already considerable. One of his agreements with Whieldon was to the effect that he should practice for their joint benefit such secret processes as genius and experimental industry had made his but this without any necessity of revealing to others what they were. The first grand result of his laborious experiments was a new kind of green ware, exquisitely moulded, in perfect imitation of such natural objects as leaves and fruits. But the glazing was its greatest distinction.

The secret of the green glaze which was prevalent during the latest period of Roman pottery in England, and also during the Middle Ages, had been lost.

The green ware which up to this date had been manufactured by the Wedgwoods, Wheildon, and others, seems to have been simply coloured in the body with oxide of copper, and then washed over with a thin mixture of lead, flint, and water. But Wedgwood's great improvement was in the glaze itself. Unlike the ordinary flint glaze, it was composed of several substances which, after being fritted together, received a due proportion of calcined copper. The formula of this glaze, which has been preserved to us in an old receipt-book once belonging to Guy Green of Liverpool, shows clearly the vast amount of young Wedgwood's ability; and that he was keenly alive to the increasing efforts which were then being made in the various porcelain works both here and on the Continent to bring all the finer class of glazes as near as possible to the perfection of those in use by the Oriental potters.

Wedgwood's green consisted of these parts vitrified — flint glass, 6; red lead, 2; and white enamel, 4; with calcined copper of one twelfth. This constituted a blue-green, and required a good deal of yellow ground with it to make it a grass-green. The new firm made in improved form pickle-dishes, plates for confections and preserves, dessert services, and even teacups and saucers — all in the beautiful green ware. Tea, coffee, and chocolate pots were introduced in great variety and elegance of shape, and tea-ware and candlesticks were improved in glaze and form. One choice speciality in small wares was an elegant little oval snuff box. Wedgwood now visited Birmingham occasionally to transact business with the wholesale houses.

While vigorously and enthusiastically pursuing his labours, Wedgwood had the misfortune to injure his affected leg. Inflammation set in, and to reduce it purgatives and bleeding were resorted to, which greatly reduced the patient himself, and compelled him to keep his room for months. His mind, however, was soon as active as ever, and this is how he utilised his enforced leisure:

He had always been fond of reading, and had indulged in it so far as his hitherto busy life had permitted. But this taste now grew by what it fed on, till it became a passion. He saw clearly that this was a golden time, though a brief one, in which he might supplement the narrow limits of his early education by new acquisitions. He saw clearly the great philosophic fact — and one of which he made such valuable use in after years, in relation to his great art — that the sources of truth and knowledge are limitless. With his usual sagacity and humility of spirit, he began this self-culture on "the lowest round of the ladder." He improved his constructive knowledge of his native tongue, as also of arithmetic. He read such histories of his country as were then extant; made himself well acquainted with its social and industrial features, and its commercial and political relations to other countries. Much as all this was, there was a point still beyond, towards which his high capacity tended. He had a passion for chemical analysis and philosophical speculation, so far as such speculation was founded in Nature. He bought and borrowed books, some of which, on chemistry, he copied with his own hand, and he thus enlarged his insight into these two great branches of knowledge; and so ardent became his desire to still further widen the limits of what he knew, as to lead him to say often, as health returned, that the height of his ambition was to obtain a moderate competence which should enable him to devote the rest of his days to pursuits connected with literature and science.

The partnership of Wedgwood with Whieldon expired in 1759, and it was not renewed. The former now left Stoke and returned to Burslem, where he entered into business for himself. He had gained great experience, and considerably extended his artistic ideas. He engaged his second cousin, Thomas Wedgwood, as a journeyman for a period of five years, and this step was the beginning of a lifelong and honourable business connection between the two relatives. Wedgwood first occupied the old pot-works at the Churchyard, but subsequently moved to the Ivy House and its adjacent works. It is rather amusing, but the rival biographers of Wedgwood, Miss Meteyard and Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt, reproduce very different pictures of this Ivy House, and the signatures they likewise reproduce from the apprenticeship indenture of Josiah Wedgwood are considerably different in character. This only shows that anachronisms may creep into very excellent works.

The Ivy House and pot-works, which were situate in the very centre of the village of Burslem, belonged to Thomas and John Wedgwood of the Big House: to whom Josiah became tenant, covenanting by written agreement to pay for the whole premises the yearly rent of £10. Mr. Dewitt notes that this rent might be good when Burslem was but a village, and when its pot-works were scattered about the almost waste lands; but at the present day, for similar premises, it would have to be multiplied at least ten-fold before a tenant could have possession. The Ivy House, with its kilns and workshops, would have formed in the eyes of posterity one of the most interesting memorials of Josiah Wedgwood but the whole place was swept away in 1834 to make room for new public buildings.

Wedgwood's capital being limited, he could not contemplate any immediate expansion of trade; indeed, for a time he made most of his own models, prepared his mixtures, superintended the firing processes, and was his own clerk and warehouseman. But his name was known, and his work was growing in repute. On one occasion he managed successfully to replace, for an aristocratic family near Burslem, an eighteen-inch dish which belonged to a dinner-service of Oriental Delft, and which had been broken. The copy was absolutely perfect, and commissions for various kinds of ware followed. Wedgwood gradually added to his productions the manufacture of white stoneware, of which tiles for fireplaces formed a portion. On these, natural objects were worked in relief. After about a year he began sensibly to increase his business, and, as his health also was now re-established, things were brighter with him. He had yet, however, to advance the results of his art by moderate stages, for 'he saw distinctly that the time had not yet arrived for the development of his manufacture on a large scale.'

He added cottages and working sheds to his works, and increased the number of his workmen, assigning to each a certain branch of labour. Miss Meteyard remarks that it was 'still the ordinary custom fur the journeymen potters to pass from one kind of labour to another, just as impulse or convenience prompted, and this without reference to either the necessities of the moment or their master's interest. Wedgwood had long observed the evils of this system — the idle, slovenly, and irregular habits it begat in the workmen, and the loss of time and waste of efficiency in regard to productive results. Whilst his brother's apprentice, and still very young, he had, as we have seen, tried to modify somewhat this old system of things; and now that he was thoroughly his own master he resolved that, so far as he was concerned, it should no longer exist. At first he met with much sullen opposition, often amounting to an insubordination that necessitated immediate dismissal; but by firmness, patience, and great kindness be succeeded, in a comparatively short time, in bringing his manufactory into efficient order. His men found that it was much better to obey than to oppose; and that the regulations that they had at first clamoured against facilitated their labour to a surprising degree.'

There was something truly noble about Wedgwood's devotion to his art, and his conscientious efforts to bring it to perfection. We are told that every essential of body, glaze, form, and ornament was alike the object of his care. His patience was severely tried, and his repeated failures were must disheartening. Yet he pulled down one kiln after another in order to correct some defect, or effect some necessary improvement. His pecuniary loss was great, and the ware itself was often destroyed before he could obtain the necessary degree of excellence; at times he would be baffled by his chemical combinations, while, notwithstanding the greatest pains, experiments in body and glaze would prove abortive; but through all, his energy and indomitable spirit sustained him, until at length success crowned the work. He had to improve or invent almost every tool, instrument, or apparatus, and he personally instructed his men at the bench, himself making the designs for the articles which they produced.

While all this was going forward, he also took an interest in the people of Burslem generally. When a new school was proposed for the poorer children of the town, Josiah Wedgwood subscribed £10, and his brother, Thomas Wedgwood, of the Overhouse, contributed a similar amount. Such a sum was considerable to one still struggling on the threshold of his career. Eventually, instead of an additional school to the Free School already in existence being erected, a Town Hall was built, which formed the centre for what soon became a flourishing market. Wedgwood was very anxious for the mental and moral improvement of the working-classes of the district. When John and Charles Wesley first visited Burslem they were struck by the vice and brutality which prevailed, but after these good men had paid several visits there was a marked change for the better in the spirit and habits of the population.

The main roads in the district round Burslem were a disgrace to civilisation, and as the result of the efforts of Wedgwood and others, in the Session of 1763 an Act was obtained to improve a portion of the chief road to Liverpool and the Salt-Wyches of Cheshire. Carts and waggons were soon engaged in carrying pottery-ware to the north, and in bringing back shop-goods, flints, and clay to Burslem and the Potteries. But land and water carriage were so expensive as to be almost prohibitive, in addition to which there were such evils to contend with as slowness of transit, and risk from floods, breakage, and the notorious dishonesty of many of those employed in the conveyance of goods. To James Brindley, who was a constant visitor at the Wedgwoods, the great facilities subsequently afforded by canal navigation for traffic throughout the Midlands were largely due.

At the end of 1761 Wedgwood had brought his cream-ware to a high degree of perfection. His chief pieces, such as compotiers, tureens, sauce-boats, and salt-cellars, were chiefly modelled from natural objects such as shells, leaves, and the husks and seed-valves of plants. In shops and noted collections, and wherever he had opportunity, he sought out such specimens of Oriental furnish him with new ideas. But so far he only employed the softest and most subdued colours in enamelling. A cup and saucer preserved in the Museum of Practical Geology show the simple means by which he produced his best effects. 'They are painted with autumnal leaves, and edged with red lines; and he is ever thus recurring to Nature, and making her simplicity subservient to the highest effects. Such a new art, as it were, graceful, simple, and beautiful, because its forms were geometrically perfect, found for its specimens, though as yet comparatively few in number, ready purchasers. They seem to have been sent to London, and there consigned to the hands of the export merchant.'

An important discovery, made by Mr. John Sadler, a master printer of Liverpool, proved of great utility in the decoration of Wedgwood's cream-ware. This discovery was the application to glazed earthenware of impressions taken upon paper from engraved copperplates; the ware, after printing, being passed through the muffle, or enamelling oven, to fix the colours. With the exception of the Staffordshire Potteries, Liverpool was the only considerable centre at this period for the manufacture of earthenware. The fame of Wedgwood's improvements had spread thither, and one of the most eminent potters, Mr. Chaffers, saw that the pottery trade of Liverpool was doomed unless it could advance in a like direction. After many futile efforts, and a journey into Cornwall, Chaffers at length discovered a material which enabled him to produce a beautiful ware, that in many instances rivalled Oriental china in its shell-like thinness, its compact solidity of body, its smoothness of glaze, and the deep richness of its brilliant colours.

Wedgwood made frequent business journeys to Liverpool, and on one of these occasions he sustained injury to his disordered knee while on the road. On reaching his hotel in Dale Street, Liverpool, he took to his bed, and Mr. Matthew Turner, an eminent surgeon living close by, was sent for. Turner not only brought his patient physical relief, but manifested a strong interest in him personally. Dr. Turner was a man of unusual attainments, and possessing amongst other things a knowledge of chemistry, he supplied Wedgwood with several receipts for varnishes and other appliances of great service in his manufacture. On one occasion the doctor was accompanied by a friend, one Thomas Bentley, a Liverpool merchant, and a man of exceptional ability. As the result of an almost accidental visit, Bentley became Wedgwood's greatest friend for life, as well as his partner. From the moment of their meeting in the Liverpool inn, 'these men were more than brothers. Friendship is hardly the word for the zeal, kindliness, truth, unselfishness, inflexible justice, with which one served the other. It was a memorable meeting, a memorable friendship, both for themselves, their country, and the arts they loved.'

Bentley was a native of Derbyshire, and was born in the same year as Wedgwood. He was well educated, and became a man of culture. In 1757 he assisted in founding the Warrington Academy, among whose earliest tutors were three famous men — Dr. Taylor of Norwich, Dr. Aikin (father of Mrs Barbauld), and Dr. Priestley of Birmingham. At Bentley's house Wedgwood met these and other well-known men. Dr. Priestley was already acquainted with the Rev. William Willet of Warrington, who had married Wedgwood's youngest sister Catherine. Mr. Willet is said to have been among the first to inspire Priestley with a love for philosophical investigations. Bentley and Priestley likewise highly esteemed each other, but their opinions on religious topics widely differed. Bentley's theology was not to be confined within the narrow limits of Priestley's dogmatic views though their discussions, which were often continued till far into the night, 'were carried on with the utmost unanimity, and never disturbed the tenor of their friendship. There can be no doubt that this largeness of view, this ingenuous spirit of inquiry, this perception of an underlying current of truth in most things, this absence of one-sidedness and dogmatic rule, lay at the very root of the friendship thus newly formed between Wedgwood and Bentley, and led, by a natural inductive process, to all the more masterly of the artistic achievements which resulted there from. Bold and uncompromising in their opinions, these matchless friends, for such they were, could yet see the threads of truth in the beliefs of other men, and thus lived in perfect charity amongst them. And thus it was also in their secular art: they sought far and wide for those conceptions of ideal grace which they ultimately embodied in their works, and the result was in all higher instances, a perfection such as those only can rival, who, like them, are bound by neither period, style, nor conventional rules, but are willing to catch up the expressions of ideal truth and grace from a range as wide as Nature.'

Wedgwood began his correspondence with Bentley in May, 1762, on his return to Burslem, and from this date their friendship ripens. As time passes on, not a joy or a sorrow, a hope or a fear, a difficulty or a success, but the one imparts it to the other, with a manly frankness worthy of such men. A few glimpses of Wedgwood's political sentiments are obtained at this time. After reading and admiring Thomson's poem on Liberty, he exclaimed— 'Happy would it be for this Island were his three virtues, the foundation of British liberty -Independent Life, Integrity in Office, and a passion for the Common Weal more strictly adhered to among us.' He asks Bentley's advice as to purchasing Rousseau's Emile, which was just then making a great stir, having been banned by the Pope. Next we find him writing from London a graphic account of the debate on the unpopular Cider Tax Bill, which led to Lord Bute's downfall.

On the 25th of January, 1764, Josiah Wedgwood, being then in his thirty-fourth year, married his distant cousin, Sarah Wedgwood, the daughter, and eventually sole heiress, of Mr. Richard Wedgwood, of Smallwood, in Cheshire. The wedding took place at the fine old parish church of Astbury. The bride is said to have eventually brought Wedgwood a fortune of £20,000 - a very large amount in those days: but the bridegroom was himself already a man of position, and enjoyed the distinction of being Potter to her Majesty the Queen. His biographers again differ as to the house to which he brought his young wife. Mr. Jewitt says it was to Ivy House, and Miss Meteyard affirms that it was the Bell House, known also as the Brick House. The latter appears to have been correct. The Brick House and the adjacent works stood on what now forms part of the site of the Wedgwood Institute - which is but fitting, as it was the scene of many of the most momentous events in Wedgwood's career. Miss Meteyard observes on this point:—

Here it was, as he confides to Bentley, months after marriage, he and his wife were still "married lovers." Here in the leisure hours of evening he reads to her the last new Review, containing maybe some paper written by his friend Bentley: here he teaches her the curious cipher or shorthand in which he preserves the precious and self-discovered secret of his art, consults her invariably sound judgment, as he finds it to be, in matters of form, ornament, and combined results, and here dismisses to the lumber-room the spinning wheel which has accompanied her from Spen Green, for he is soon aware that more intellectual vocations befit her. Here her first three children are born; the eldest a daughter, whose noble destiny is to become the mother of an eminently gifted man. Here he celebrates the festival attendant on the cutting of the first sod of the Trent and Mersey Canal. Here he buries his second-born son Richard: and suffers the amputation of his long-diseased limb with a fortitude and courage inherent in the highest natures. Here he welcomes the great Erasmus Darwin, and confers with him on many topics of philosophic interest. Here he receives his dear friend Bentley with generous hospitality; and here unfolds to him, whilst the smoke of the homely pipe curls upwards, all his plans and projects; and here he receives the quaintest and worthiest though most prosaic of clerks, Peter Swift. In short, Josiah Wedgwood unravels, like all of us, much of the mingled web of Fate; its hopes and joys, its pains and sorrows! There are courtlier scenes to paint — visits from those of genius, rank, wealth, and beauty — days dedicated to science and to art, evenings to social communion and the sweetest music, when Tassie's sulphur casts from antique gems, Sir William Hamilton's loans of drawings and pottery, Hackwood's designs, Mrs. Landre's models, Flaxman's or Webber's latest works from Rome, are scattered on the tables, and his daughters play or sing the last sonata of Haydn, or the last song by Dr. Arne; but even such yield in vivid interest to the history of these more homely days of love, aspiration, and friendship. The Wedgwood Institute could have no more fitting site than the ground hallowed by associations so eminently characteristic of the great artist and generous Englishman it is raised to commemorate and honour.

When Wedgwood threw his energies into his business again, he turned his attention to the engine-lathe, which he considerably improved. There was a good deal of discussion as to the developments in the use of the lathe. It seems certain that one Baddeley made great improvements in it, and that a turner named Greatbach suggested certain concentric movements which added greatly to its value; but Wedgwood further improved this useful implement, and to him also is undoubtedly due the discovery of the method of fluting slightly hardened bodies. Plumier's work on ‘L'Art de Tourner’ had afforded him many valuable suggestions, but its illustrations had to be so altered and adapted to another and a wholly different art, as ultimately to bear upon them the impress of original inventions. Improved lathes were brought from Paris to London, and it is said that Wedgwood paid the possessor the sum of five guineas, in order to be present whilst one of them was put through its various working capabilities. One thing is certain he left no stone unturned to advance his mechanical knowledge in this respect. The first application of his engine-lathe was to 'red china' tea and coffee pots, of which large numbers were consigned to his brother in London for export.

All during this time the great scheme of inland navigation was closely occupying Wedgwood's thoughts. The idea eventually attained fruition in the great work of James Brindley, the Grand Trunk Canal. The struggle was long and fierce, however, before an Act of Parliament could be obtained authorising the scheme. When this important step had been gained, the honour of cutting the first sod was accorded to Wedgwood, its most prominent, most energetic, and most liberal promoter. The ceremony was performed with all due formalities on the 26th of July, 1766, the first sod being cut on the declivity of Brownhills, the event being celebrated at Burslem with great rejoicings in the evening.

A private manuscript furnishes many interesting details respecting Wedgwood's connection with the Grand Trunk Canal. It is related that when he once fairly took up the matter, business, family, everything, gave place to this important subject, for many months in the year 1765. Drawing around him the few that then thought with him on the subject, or were inclined to take an active part, they concerted on the means of gaining friends, and overcoming opposition. At this time the principle itself of the utility of canal navigation was disputed, and if any advantages were admitted, they did not appear to a very powerful class of the people as of sufficient importance to counterbalance the injuries they apprehended to themselves. Here was a great deal of intellectual ground to be cleared, and the contest was not for this or that modification, but whether the thing itself should exist at all. In this struggle Mr. Wedgwood was certainly the foremost and most active person, and for three months, during the progress of the Bill in Parliament, was nearly as much lost to his private connections as though he had been in China.

The canal in question was called the Grand Trunk because it was foreseen that many lesser ones would break out of it, as has since happened, It is upwards of ninety miles in length, joining the Trent about a mile below Cavendish Bridge, in Derbyshire, and terminating in the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal, at Preston Brook, in Cheshire. The internal passage through the hill at Harecastle is an object of great curiosity, being a mile and three-quarters in length, and crossing many veins of coal, which are got at a small expense, being thus laid dry, and the canal is greatly benefited by the supply of water. Mr. Brindley began this work on both sides at the same time, and his workmen met in the middle. The contrivances of this great man, by which he executed stupendous works in a short time that seem to have required ages, have been properly noticed in the account of his life in the Biographia Britannica, the materials for which were furnished by Mr. Wedgwood, who lived in habits of intimacy and friendship with him, and ever revered his memory. Mr. Wedgwood was the first treasurer of the canal, and an active member of the committee for making and carrying it on for more than twenty years.

The Grand Trunk Canal was finished by Mr. Henshall, brother-in-law to Brindley, in May, 1777, and it was immediately productive of the greatest benefit to the neighbourhood. Trade increased, freight of goods was lowered to about the rate of thirteen shillings per ton, where fifty shillings had before been paid, the despatch and receipt of goods was more rapid and more certain, and the whole district assumed a vitality which has gone on regularly increasing to the present day.

If for no other reason, the part he took in the carrying out to a successful issue the scheme of canal communication, to which undoubtedly the Staffordshire potteries owe their prosperous increase, would fully entitle Josiah Wedgwood to the thanks of his country, and to be ranked amongst the foremost benefactors of mankind.

It appears that one of Wedgwood's earliest friends and patrons was Sir William Meredith, Bart., M.P. for Liverpool. The master potter was often at Sir William's seat at Henbury, near Macclesfield, and this influential patron was indefatigable in securing the loan of gems, prints, and rare specimens of antique and other pottery for his friend, and sometimes he sent him as a gift prints representing vases and antique sculpture. When Wedgwood was unable to go over to Henbury he would send as his representative his brother Thomas, who discussed with Sir William commercial and artistic topics, and met under his friendly roof such patrons as Sir Henry Chairs and Lord Foley. It was for Sir William Meredith that Wedgwood completed the finest dinner-service that had as yet been sent out from the Potteries. He also executed commissions for the famous politician, Sir George Savile, and others.

In 1765 Wedgwood began a series of experiments for a white body and glaze, which promised very well. His wife who not long before had presented him with his first child, a daughter named Susannah was his chief helpmate in this and other matters. She had learnt to write her husband's secret characters for his ware. He had resolved not to make this new ware at Burslem, and was already looking out for an agreeable and convenient situation elsewhere. In one of his letters to Sir William Meredith, Wedgwood showed that he was unable to rise beyond the prevalent Protectionist ideas of the time. There was a project for establishing new pot-works in South Carolina, and he was alarmed lest this should lead to the spread of the manufacture elsewhere, with consequent loss to the English potteries. He could little dream that within a hundred years from the date of his complaint to Sir William, the English export trade in earthenware with America would be multiplied a thousand-fold, and that it still counts among our best foreign markets, and one to which the manufacturing firm he founded still contributes.

The Royal patronage was early extended to Wedgwood, but it is interesting to know that it was the potter who was applied to, and not he who applied for the Royal favour. Queen Charlotte required a beautiful tea-service in cream-ware, some specimens of which she had seen in the houses of the nobility, and as Wedgwood was the only person competent to execute the work satisfactorily, he received and accepted an invitation to undertake it. The complete set of tea things was duly made, with a gold ground and raised flowers in green. He followed this up by making a number of beautiful vases for Her Majesty, and on the occasion of the first Royal accouchement succeeding this patronage, he presented the Queen with a timely-executed caudle-service. Ware for the young Princess followed, and the interest which George III. and his Queen took in Wedgwood's productions made them still more widely and favourably known in influential circles.

The Duke of Marlborough, Lord Gower, Lord Spencer, and others visited the pottery works, and suggested that Wedgwood should have a London warehouse — an idea which had already occurred to the potter himself. The Duke of Bridgewater gave an order for the completest table-service of cream colour that Wedgwood could make, and he followed this up with many acts of kindness as well as patronage. 'From all we gather from the Wedgwood correspondence,' says Miss Meteyard, 'Francis Egerton, Duke of Bridgewater, seems to have been a kind man and a true friend a little wayward and eccentric in some things, but with an instinctive perception of truth and genius in others that led necessarily to his keen enjoyment of the society of two such men as Brindley and the great potter. What an illustrious trio it was, as they thus supped and smoked their pipes together in the old timbered hall at Worsley, or the more palatial building at Trentham — their chief talk about Inland Navigation, with now and then a little diversion on the subject of cream-colour ware or Roman antiquities, which only made the subject of the grand scheme still more weighty when it was renewed.'

When the Queen's patronage became fully known, commissions for cream-coloured services poured in upon Wedgwood, among his new patrons being Lady Broughton, the Duke of Grafton, Sir Charles Come, General Honeywood, etc. In November, 1765, Mr. and Mrs. Wedgwood visited London. Amongst those who hospitably entertained them was Griffiths, editor of the 'Monthly Review,' who 'feasted his friends and starved his authors.' Wedgwood transacted business at Court with Miss Chetwynd on behalf of the Queen, and we find him visiting the houses of many of the nobility, and at the Duke of Bedford's taking patterns from an elegant set of French china valued at £1,5009. He also spent an agreeable time at Blenheim House. In the midst of this he did not forget his friends, and he did whatever he could to give publicity to the works of Dr. Priestley, at a time when the writings of that distinguished man were very unpopular in certain quarters. He further took the deepest interest in his many relatives, and followed carefully and affectionately the course of a young nephew named Byerley, who had at first caused him some concern. Wedgwood's family affections were very strong.

Among Wedgwood's intimate friends was Erasmus Darwin, the celebrated physician, botanist, and philosopher. Darwin's house in Lichfield was the intellectual centre of the Midland districts; and it was in many senses a hospital as well, for its owner was ever ready to minister to the comfort and the needs of the suffering. Wedgwood probably became acquainted with him about 1756, and in ten years from this time these two remarkable men were on intimate terms of friendship.

'There can be no doubt,' remarks Wedgwood's biographer, 'that almost from its commencement the friendship of Mr. Wedgwood and Dr. Darwin partook of a strongly intellectual character. It was not mere meeting and feasting, but a mental attrition of great value to their respective characters; for though different they were yet alike. Both were men of great native genius, both had a taste for philosophical speculation and mechanical invention, and both were generous men.

The Doctor had stronger passions, some acerbity of temper, and a satirical vein that often wounded the truest of his friends; but Mr. Wedgwood appears to have received these little rubs and tokens of asperity as a giant would a blow from a child's hand. He laughed and thought no more about them; though others were not so philosophic. On more than one occasion Dr. Darwin had the felicity of saving Mrs. Wedgwood's life, a service which no one could so truly estimate as he who had found in her the most judicious and tender of wives. On the other hand, Mr. Wedgwood had no profounder admirer of his beautiful art than Erasmus Darwin. This is not only testified by direct eulogium, but by indirect evidence. In the pages of the Botanic Garden are many descriptions which are clearly drawn not so much from classical sources as from Mr. Wedgwood's interpretation in cameo of the antique gems - as in the passages descriptive of Cupid snatching the lightning from Jupiter, Venus rising from the sea supported by Tritons, the Nereid on the Sea-horse, and the marriage of Cupid and Psyche.

Of course the gems themselves were, if in the cabinets of our nobility, accessible to a man of Dr. Darwin's fame and position; but his life was one of incessant professional occupation, and it is thus more likely that his descriptions were drawn from his friend's exquisite interpretation of the originals. Darwin, like Wedgwood, owed as much to industry as to genius. He had sprung from a lettered and intellectual race, as his father, Robert Darwyn, Esq., of Elston, near Newark, was one amongst the early members of the celebrated Spalding Club; and he supplemented these advantages of genius and birth by a laborious culture which ended only with his life.

Darwin and Wedgwood were destined to be, the one the paternal and the other the maternal grandfather of one of the greatest men of the nineteenth century, the illustrious Charles Darwin.

In one of Erasmus Darwin's entertaining letters to Wedgwood, he mentioned a French Count named De Lauraguais, who had been to Birmingham and offered the secret of making the finest old china by a process as cheap as that for making the most ordinary pottery. The Count declared that the secret had cost him £16,000, but he was willing to sell it for £2,000. Darwin distrusted the Count's alleged passion for science, but thought there might be something in the secret. The Count had already taken out an English patent for his discovery, and it was afterwards demonstrated that one of the chief ingredients in this new porcelain was similar to that which Wedgwood was in search of for the purpose of fabricating a fine white terracotta body.

Wedgwood sought out the company of artists who could help him in his work, and among other distinguished men with whom he became acquainted was Roubiliac the sculptor. Roubiliac died before he could be of personal service to him, however, but his widow presented the potter with a book of her husband's sketches. This has been unfortunately lost, as were sketches by Flaxman, Webber, and Hackwood, but Roubiliac's designs proved serviceable to Wedgwood, and some of his articles of cream-ware, as well as later black Egyptian and crystalline ware, were designed or ornamented wholly or in part from the sculptor's sketches.

When on his visits to London, Wedgwood was several times sent for to Buckingham Palace. The King would want tiles or something new in milk-pans for the dairy at Frogmore, or the Queen wished to see the latest patterns in cream-ware. Wedgwood was handsomely dressed on these occasions: his sword — bought at the Sign of the Flaming Sword in Great Newport Street — was of the best make, his waistcoat was resplendent with lace, and the barber profited by both his chin and wig. He looked remarkably well, although time and thought had not yet illumined his strongly marked face with all that mingled expression of benevolence, refinement, goodness, and meditation, which sit enshrined on Sir Joshua's noble portrait of this great Englishman. Here is an extract from Miss Meteyard's Memoir touching this period:

A most charming anecdote has come down to our day in relation to one of these visits at Court. Mr. Wedgwood was summoned to the Palace, and, on arriving at the appointed hour on a sunny spring or summer's morning, was ushered into the royal presence.

The Queen stood with her ladies beneath an unshaded window, and here it was that Mr. Wedgwood advancing, made his obeisance, and, displaying the ware he had brought, answered the royal questions. But as her Majesty thus stood examining some exquisite specimen of the art, which years of ceaseless toil and unrepined obscurity had brought to this perfection, the sun's power increased, and its rays, falling on her face, caused her obvious annoyance. The possible etiquette was to have mentioned the matter to one of the unobservant ladies in attendance, who in turn would have summoned a page or a royal footman. But Mr. 'Wedgwood thought only of removing the intruding glare, and that speedily. He simply walked straight to the window, and pulled down the blind.

The Queen, aware in an instant of the relief and its cause, looked up from the object she was regarding, and, inclining her head, smiled her thanks. "Ladies," she said, addressing her attendants, "Mr. Wedgwood is, you see, already an accomplished courtier." It was courtesy, however, learnt in the school of nature the offspring of a manly and generous respect for woman and he would have shown as much to a peasant as to the Queen, who was his foremost patron.'

In the spring of 1766 Wedgwood's eldest son John was born, and it was about the same time that the great potter took his cousin, Thomas Wedgwood, into partnership. Thomas had not the original gifts of Josiah, but he was a skilful potter, and had gained valuable experience in the porcelain works of Worcester. Until the partnership was dissolved by death in 1788, Thomas Wedgwood was at the head of the useful works both at Burslem and afterwards at Etruria, and within this period the ware of this department reached its highest perfection. Wedgwood, who regarded his cousin Thomas with the affection of a brother, built him a house at Etruria, and seconded in every possible way the well-being of this able, yet gentle and unambitious man.

The business at Burslem had increased so much that Josiah Wedgwood was desirous of purchasing an estate in the immediate neighbourhood, and after a good deal of difficulty he secured the Ridge House estate — which was one of considerable extent, and admirably adapted to his purposes — for the sum of £3,000. The estate lay on the banks of the intended canal, and within two miles both of Burslem and Newcastle. Having obtained it he then began to plan out the future Etruria. On the recommendation of his friend Bentley, he engaged at this time as clerk, one Peter Swift, who was quite a character, and his wife and children settled down at Burslem, and Swift began what proved to be lifelong services to his master, who enjoyed to the last his undiminished affection and veneration. Mr. Bentley was now doing a large export trade, in which pottery had become the leading item, and Wedgwood, with his usual liberality, voluntarily gave him the most advantageous terms.

Meantime, Wedgwood was pursuing his unwearied researches and experiments, both to better the character of the materials in which he worked and the artistic nature of his productions. He purchased a copy of Count de Caylus's great work on Antiquities, and derived considerable assistance there from, although partial reproductions from this source were more abundant than direct ones. Antique gems, lamps, and borderings were pressed into service as models. Seeing great prospects ahead, he urged Bentley to join him as partner — an idea which he had long indulged, and although the former at first declined from honourable motives, and pleaded ignorance of the industry, Wedgwood at length conquered his scruples. A great sorrow which befell Wedgwood by the sad and mysterious drowning of his brother John in the Thames, off Westminster Bridge, was made the subject of a final appeal to Bentley which the latter could not resist, and from this time forth they were one in sympathy and action in all their noble undertakings. The firm of Wedgwood and Bentley witnessed a still larger expansion of business than before, and continued to acquire a wider fame.

Hearing that there was a fine porcelain clay to be obtained in South Carolina, Wedgwood went to great labour and expense in verifying the fact, and was not only successful in obtaining clay from that State, but also from Florida. He further completed his own crowning discovery as a philosophic chemist, viz., that of the use of the ‘terra ponderosa’, the ‘spath fusible’ of the French chemists, or the carbonate of baryta, and ultimately its sulphate, in the body of the pottery. The result soon achieved was an artistic perfection hitherto supposed impossible. Wedgwood had no guide in his researches, and the great merit therefore undoubtedly belongs to him of introducing, through the discovery of chemical affinities existing in nature, but previously unknown, a new porcelaneous substance of exquisite adaptability and beauty. Of the successive stages of his analyses and experiments we necessarily know nothing, as the results were written in cipher, and confided to none but his wife, to Darwin, or to Bentley. But from a portion of Plumier's treatise Wedgwood seems to have derived valuable assistance in relation to the turning of columnar forms in their three variations of plain, fluted, and twisted.

He then devoted his attention once more to perfecting his engine-lathes, picking up ideas at the famous works of Boulton and Watt, at Soho, Birmingham. Indeed, had it not been that that ingenious man, Matthew Boulton, was occupied closely with the steam-engine, Wedgwood might have found him a formidable rival in his mechanical possesses, though he lacked the strong artistic sense of Wedgwood. Advised by Bentley, and assisted by his own workmen, Wedgwood by the spring of 1768 — `had brought his improvements of the engine-lathe, considering them as referable to the potter's art, to a considerable degree of perfection. Combining these under one effective generalisation, he employed a skilful hand to prepare some new lathes for the furnishing of the ornamental works then fast progressing at Etruria.' Dr. Darwin also constructed for him at this time the model of a windmill, which was intended to grind colours. Wedgwood approved its principle, but as the buildings at Etruria were absorbing his attention, nothing further was done in the matter of the windmill until 1779, when Watt and Edgworth assisted in perfecting it, and it was set up in the new works. In course of time, however, the giant steam superseded other forces in the domain of the industrial arts.

In August, 1768, Wedgwood succeeded in another object he had long had in view, when he opened a London warehouse for his goods, for which purpose he secured commodious premises in a house at the corner of St. Martin's Lane and Newport Street.

During the spring of 1768 Wedgwood began to suffer excruciating pain in his leg. All that medical skill could do in alleviating it was tried but without avail, and the sufferer resolved to have the limb amputated. As we learn from Miss Meteyard, his fortitude under this operation was remarkable:-

As there was no relieving the pain without imperilling the patient's life, another surgeon was called in, with probably Dr. Darwin in consultation, and amputation of the limb was agreed to; indeed suggested by Wedgwood himself, who had long looked forward to this necessity with philosophic cheerfulness. His leg was like a dead branch on a vigorous tree, an incumbrance and a hindrance in every way; and even apart from this illness, which hastened the crisis, he had mentally resolved to have it removed prior to opening the works at Etruria. A master-potter is incessantly ascending and descending ladders and stairs to his various shops and rooms; and if Wedgwood had felt pain, difficulty, and fatigue in doing this in old-fashioned buildings of no altitude, such as those of the Brick House Works, how much more was he likely to suffer in traversing the ascents and descents of a vast manufactory. He knew full well that a true master's eye is everywhere, and must be everywhere if justice is to be done to his commands; and even into this question of physical suffering and danger, his calculations had entered, so that he might give force to the genius which prompted him, and the duties which lay before him. It is an extraordinary instance of moral courage and decision of character, in connection with a power to gather in and make subservient every effect necessary to a given end. The amputation took place on May 28th, 1768, two surgeons and Bentley, as is evident, being with him at the time. He would not be assisted, or have the operation hidden from his view; but seated in his chair, bore the unavoidable pain without a shrink or a groan. This power of endurance is the more remarkable, as there existed at that date none of our modern chemical agents for producing a temporary state of coma, and, consequently, an oblivion of physical suffering; and, what was more, operative surgery was still carried on with much of the barbarism of the Middle Ages.

In announcing the event to the London house, Wedgwood's clerk, Peter Swift, was laconic enough to please even the Duke of Wellington. The information was thus conveyed, in the middle of an invoice-note: 'Mr. Wedgwood has this day had his leg taken of (sic), and is as well as can be expected after such an execution.' Writing again a few days later to the London agent, the prosaic, but faithful, Peter said: 'I have now the pleasure to acquaint you that Mr. Wedgwood continues in a good way, his Leg was opened on Thursday for the first time, and both the Surgeons said it could not possibly be better, and he has every good Symptom, so that we have the greatest hopes of a perfect cure. Poor Master Dicky, after being violently sized (sic) with a Complaint in his Bowels for some time past, expired on Thursday morning, and was Inter'd last Evening. Indeed, I think Mrs. Wedgwood has had severe tryals of late, but the great hopes of Mr. Wedgwood's perfect recovery seems to keep her Spirits up in a tolerable degree.'

Mrs. Wedgwood's devotion was greater than even Peter was aware of. Although she had just lost her infant son Richard, and was weary with her vigils and full of grief that he was taken from her, she crushed down the burden of her sorrow. She dressed her husband's wound, administered his medicines, wrote his letters, warded off from him every possible business care, was his right hand in everything, and through her serene cheerfulness greatly hastened his recovery, Bentley also proved himself an incomparable friend during this time of trial. So great was the esteem in which Wedgwood was held, that in London the Dukes of Bedford and Marlborough, Lord Bessborough, the Russian Ambassador, Sir George Savile, the Hon. Mrs. Chetwynd, and many others sent for daily news of his condition, while the Duke of Bridgewater despatched a daily messenger from Trentham on the same errand.

Before the close of the year 1768 Wedgwood lost his aged mother. She had spent her closing years at the Bank House, Newcastle, with her daughter Katherine Willet. Mrs. Willet was Wedgwood's favourite sister. She had been his companion in childhood, and her union with the Rev. William Willet had been very beneficial from the intellectual point of view. Brother and sister, therefore, found much to interest them beyond the ordinary level of human thought. After the London warehouse in Newport Street had been opened, she generally travelled with the Wedgwoods to the Metropolis, and was deeply interested in the numerous attractions which London offered. When Wedgwood's children were ill, they would be sent to Aunt Willet at Newcastle to be nursed. Wedgwood had a deep attachment to his children — dearly as he loved his work, it could not shut them out. 'It is interesting to catch glimpses of the tender father shining through the graver aspect of the concise, determined, and austere man of business. The heavy duties of the day over, the occasionally long vigils of the night in chemical experiments, modelling, or letter-writing not begun, he rides away to see these little babes. How clearly he loves them! How, throughout his life, he loves his children! How in years to come we shall see him taking pride in the handsome presence and polished manners of his son Josiah, and in the great intellectual gifts of his son Tom; indeed, in all his children, for he had no favourites; and yet for the little maid "Sukey," his firstborn, there is a something not expressed in words, and yet apparent to us, that she was gathered up in the innermost folds of his deep affections. As after-life showed, there was something very much akin in their respective natures, though gentleness and consideration for others were perhaps intensified in their feminine expression.'

Nor did Wedgwood neglect any who were connected with him by the ties of blood. He provided a post in his works for Joseph Wedgwood, a young man descended from one of the elder branches of the family; and again and again we find him providing for his nephew, young Byerley, who seemed to be an unconscionable time in sowing his wild oats. However, his kindness was rewarded in this case, for, after some final bitter experiences in America, Byerley returned, to become a dutiful son to his mother, who had a business in Newcastle, and to repay his uncle by long and faithful service.

From the year 1768 onward Wedgwood's cream-ware was in great request. It was universally admired, and was exported to almost every part of the globe. The designs upon the ware were: mostly engraved by Sadler of Liverpool and his partner Guy Green. They were generally of a pastoral character, and were copied from a variety of sources. But, excellent as were the engravings, Wedgwood's originality of taste led him to incur great expense in commissioning entirely new designs. Amongst those who early worked for Wedgwood was Stothard, afterwards the R.A. Beautiful antique forms were also pressed into requisition, principally derived from the work of the Count de Caylus.

In addition to the popular cream-ware, a vast demand sprang up for ornamental vases. The names given to these vases the 'Bedford,' the' Oxford,' the 'Pope's,' etc. signified that they were modelled after specimens in the cabinets of those whose names were thus specified. Lord Cathcart, who was now an admirer and a patron of Wedgwood, was a friend of Mr., afterwards Sir William Hamilton, our representative at Naples. Sir William had purchased the famous Porcinari collection of ancient vases, and at great expense he had prepared a description of the treasures, with reproductions, in four folio volumes. It was a splendid undertaking, and as proofs of the plates were struck off, Sir William distributed a few amongst his friends. Lord Cathcart was among the recipients, and he entrusted some of his proofs to Wedgwood. The potter was inspired with new ideas, and made a resolve that he would rival the masterpieces of Etruscan and Grecian ceramic art. He also began at the same time his elaborate experiments for bronzing his vases. Boulton, too, proposed to decorate works in earthenware with metal ornaments. Although he thus stepped out of his own province into that of Wedgwood, the latter indulged only feelings of generous rivalry, and there was no diminution of friendship between the chiefs of Soho and Etruria. Yet 'it might have been different, had not Watt appeared and turned anew Boulton's Peculiar talent for metallurgic art into its legitimate channel.'

In November, 1769, Wedgwood took out his first and only patent. It was one for 'the purpose of ornamenting Earthern and Porcelaine Ware with an Encaustic Gold Bronze, together with a peculiar Species of Encaustic Painting in various Colours, in imitation of the Antient Etruscan and Roman Earthenware.' Competitors soon arose in the manufacture of bronze and Etruscan vases, the cleverest of whom was a potter named Palmer, of Hanky. His imitations of the Etruscan vases never reached the excellence of those of Mr. Wedgwood, but they were passable in the market, and led, as we shall subsequently see, to the overthrow of the patent, not through the verdict of a Court of Law — though there is reason to think that had the matter been brought to trial, the adjudication would have been in favour of Palmer — but by the generous relinquishment of the patentee. As soon as he saw the whole bearing of the question, and that Palmer's imitations, even though inferior to his own, and suspiciously indicative of processes surreptitiously obtained, evinced the ability and industry of an experienced potter, he resolved to throw up the patent, very wisely considering that he could hold his own; and, still more rightly judging that he, least of all men, who had such true opinions respecting art and its tendencies relative to civilisation, should not attempt to curtail its advance by an impossible monopoly, and stultify, as it were, the growing influences of recovered antiquity. To his lasting honour, he ceased to contend as soon as his strong understanding pointed out to him that contention was unworthy.'

The first pair of bronze antique vases finished by Wedgwood were presented to Miss Tarleton, daughter of one of the Members for Liverpool. In the public interests, Wedgwood was anxious to obtain Mr. Tarleton's interest with the Liverpool Corporation in behalf of that public scheme, the Runcorn aqueduct. The vases sent to Miss Tarleton were of the largest size, finished with satyrs' heads. Such vases sold at 18s. a pair, but they would now fetch £8 or £10. In June, 1768, the Etruscan Works at Etruria were opened, and Bentley's residence there was completed. Wedgwood engaged in London a perfect master of pottery in the antique style named John Foyer. He was sent down into Staffordshire, and a residence found for him. He was inclined to be a sot, however, but he did excellent work under the master's eye. At length he got into prison for some crime or other, and on coming out he soon proved to be a vindictive wretch, who betrayed his master. While receiving the pay of Wedgwood he worked for his rival Palmer, and even set up for himself, using the knowledge be had gained in the factories of Etruria.

Wedgwood was liberal-minded in his business course, and he entrusted some of his best work to female hands. Mrs. Landre modelled subjects for him, but he also employed, in 1769, a greater artist still — John Bacon the sculptor. His chief enameller was David Rhodes, who was Wedgwood's right hand in this department until the death of Rhodes in 1777. The ornamental vases produced at Burslem and Etruria are divided by Wedgwood's biographers into seven leading sections. These were: the cream-colour and its variations, as those with blue necks, and ornaments variously gilt; the black basaltes; the terra-cotta pebble and marbled bodies; the bronze antique; the encaustic Etruscan and Grecian; and the jasper. But there were variations again in the separate sections themselves. The last class produced was the jasper, which was first manufactured in 1775. This form was exquisitely and delicately finished.

The first day of labour at the new Etruria Works was a memorable one in the annals of the Potteries. It was on the 13th June, 1769, that the works were inaugurated, Wedgwood himself throwing the first productions. There were present his wife and two children, Mr. Bentley, Mr. Wedgwood of Spell Green, Mr. and Mrs. Willet from Newcastle, and other relatives and friends, together with a large body of workmen. The company being assembled in the throwing-room, Wedgwood threw off his hat and coat, put on a workman's apron, and began the labours of the day. Says Mr. Jewitt: 'Here sat the great Josiah Wedgwood — great in fame, great in reputation, great in worldly goods, but greater far in mind and intellect, and in nobleness of character — at the potter's bench, his bare arms encircling the ball of pliant clay, while his busy fingers and practised eye formed it into classic shape; and there stood his partner, Thomas Bentley, at the potter's wheel, which he turned with a care suited to the auspicious occasion and to the requirements of his great chief. Standing by, no doubt, and watching with pleasurable anxiety the progress of the work, were Mrs. Wedgwood and many friends; while on the board in front of the "father of potters would be ranged the urns as he produced them. The vases thus formed, of Etruscan shape, went through all the subsequent processes of baking, etc., and were ultimately painted in the purest Etruscan style, with figures, and each piece bore this appropriate inscription:- "June XIII. MDCCLXIX. one of the first day's productions at Etruria, in Staffordshire, by Wedgwood and Bentley. Artes Etruriae renascuntur." Three of these vases, the historical interest attaching to which, it is impossible to overrate, are in the possession of Mr. Francis Wedgwood, of Barlaston.'

The body of the vases was hard, of a slightly bluish tinge, with the surface, like the original Etruscan, black. On this the figures and inscriptions were painted in red. The vases were about ten inches in height, and each one bore a group - differing from the others — of Hercules and his companions in the Garden of the Hesperides. On the opposite side was the inscription given above, and around the lid and upper portion were characteristic and elegant borders. A few months after the ceremony just described, Bentley removed to London, and established himself at Chelsea. Near to his house in Little Cheyne Row the firm established workshops, where some of the orders which now poured in for every variety of ornamental ware were completed. Before the ensuing winter set in, Wedgwood and his family moved to Etruria. They occupied for a time Bentley's house, but left it in 1770 for Etruria Hall, Wedgwood's new and elegant residence. Just before the removal to Burslem a third surviving child, Josiah, was born to the Wedgwoods.

The demand for ornamental ware increased so enormously that, in a letter to Bentley, Wedgwood assured his partner he could sell £50 or £100 worth a day if he had them. There was a like demand for cream-ware services, even Quaker families becoming customers for them. Lord Bessborough rendered Wedgwood essential service, not only by permitting him to have casts taken from a fine cabinet of gems, which were afterwards sold to the Duke of Marlborough, but by introducing the vases amongst the Irish nobility, who became enthusiastic patrons. Another artistic and personal friendship sprang up with Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, and a large proportion of Wedgwood's list of intaglios was derived from Sir Watkin s gems. Nor were these solitary instances of friendly patronage. On some occasions there was no getting to the door of the warehouse in London for the line of coaches, and no getting into the rooms for the crowd of ladies and gentlemen who were vase-hunting.

The firm were threatened with piratical goods, which somewhat discomposed Bentley, but Wedgwood thus philosophically reassured him: 'We are far enough before our rivals, and whenever we apprehend they are treading too near our heels, we can at least manage them better than Lord Bute can manage the merchants, to compare great things with small.' We now see the firm of Wedgwood and Bentley employed over a vast variety of productions, including bas-reliefs, encaustic bronzes, statuettes of Mars, Venus, etc., small groups and single figures, vases in black basaltes, crystalline terra-cotta wares, Etruscan painted vases, lamps and other light-bearing ornaments, an incredible variety of flower-pots, bough-pots, and root-pots, articles studied from antique gems, Roman figures, Egyptian lions, sphinxes, Tritons, tripods, and other ornaments.

A dangerous disease of the eyes attacked Wedgwood towards the close of 1769. The affection seems to have been epidemic, and several persons died from it. Doctors were consulted: the active potter, who was always miserable when laid aside, was forbidden to use his eyes at all by artificial light. Referring to this and to his lameness, he plaintively wrote: 'I am learning to acquiesce, whatever may be the issue; as I would wish to do, in every unavoidable evil. I am often practising to see with my fingers, and I think I should make a tolerable proficient in that science for one who begins late in life; but shall make a wretched walker in the dark with a single leg.'

He became somewhat hypochondriacal, taking gloomy views of the future, and dreading the worst. But in the course of a few weeks, his eyesight began to improve under proper treatment, and life generally took on a brighter hue. He began to seek for superior enamel painters at Worcester, Liverpool, Derby, Birmingham Bow, and Lambeth, and many were engaged. Wedgwood's partner Bentley settled down handsomely at Chelsea, bought a carriage and pair, and kept up: useful but not extravagant hospitality. Soon after this settlement, Bentley, who was a widower, married Mary Stamford, daughter of the well-known smith and engineer of that name, of Derby. She was about twenty-five years of age, and was comely, cheerful, and vivacious. She took an interest in her husband's work, and was skilful in cutting out vases and other forms on paper. On the 15th of December, 1770, dating from Chelsea, Bentley thus wrote to his Liverpool partner Boardman: 'Last Monday Mr. Wedgwood and I had a long audience of their Majesties at the Queen's palace, to present some bas-reliefs Her Majesty had ordered and to show some new improvements, with which they were well pleased. They expressed in the most obliging and condescending manner their attention to our manufacture, and entered very freely into conversation on the further improvement of it, and on many other subjects. The King is well acquainted with business, and with the characters of the principal manufacturers, merchants, and artists; and seems to have the success of all our manufactures much at heart, and to understand the importance of them. The Queen has more sensibility, true politeness, engaging affability, and sweetness of temper, than any great lady I ever had the honour of speaking to.' Miss Meteyard adds: 'As time wore on, Mr. Bentley's popularity grew. His handsome person and polished manners were irresistible to otherwise haughty duchesses and ladies; and whilst he poised a vase, or showed bas-relief or cameo, and related the antique stories its designs sought to express, the ladies listened, smiled, bowed, and what was more to the purpose, bought. An aristocrat by nature, he was the most courtly of chapmen. "Be so good," writes Mr. Wedgwood soon after Mr. Bentley's settlement in Newport Street, "to let us know what is going forward in the Great World. How many Lords and Dukes visit your rooms, praise your beauties, thin your shelves, and fill your purses? and if you will take the trouble to acquaint us with the daily ravages in your stores, we will endeavour to replenish them." By degrees the popularity attracted to itself something worthier than the fashion of the hour; and by the close of 1772 Mr. Bentley reckoned among his friends, "Athenian Stuart," Dr. Solander, Mr. Banks (afterwards Sir Joseph), and others whose names live in the scientific and literary history of their time.'

The works at Etruria were likewise constantly visited by the great, many of whom were taken over by Wedgwood's able and accomplished friend Earl Gower, who frequently received the potter in turn at Trentham Hall. When the workrooms were completed at Chelsea, Wedgwood drafted off from Etruria thither some of his best assistants, including a clever painter, Mrs. Wilcox, Hutchins, a printer, and Cooper, an excellent flower painter. Then, as the great demand for enamelled table-services and vases still increased, other hands were obtained amongst the London fan, coach, and fresco painters. In 1770 Wedgwood learnt that cheap Etruscan painted vases were in the market, which, as far as possible, were copied from Sir William Hamilton's great work. The bodies were made in Staffordshire and the painting effected in London. The pirates were Palmer of Hanley, his wife, and Palmer's partner Neale, their London shop being in Shoe Lane. An injunction was served upon them, and a trial seemed inevitable, though Wedgwood saw clearly that a jury might be impressed by Palmer's plea that his vases were copied from the prints in Sir William Hamilton's work, and not from those made by the patentee. Palmer was a very unscrupulous fellow, and the manufacturers almost to a man were in favour of Wedgwood's right in his patent, which had been infringed; but rather than have all the harassing and expensive proceedings of a public trial, Wedgwood agreed to refer the matter to arbitration. The result was that both parties agreed to share in the patent, and to divide its cost between them, as well as the law charges. But originality and superiority always tell in the long run, and when Palmer was left at liberty to make Etruscan vases at will, their manifest inferiority both of form and design soon brought them to their true level in the market. Yet, when Palmer found that he could do little with the vases, he had the audacity next to pirate Wedgwood's seals and intaglios, making what harvest he could, and he reaped for a time considerable profit.

In April, 1771, Wedgwood's fourth and last son was born. He was named Thomas, after his paternal grandfather, uncle, and cousins; and he was the fifth Thomas Wedgwood in a direct line. From his earlier years he was a delicate child, and had within him the seeds of organic disease, which ultimately made life a weary burden to him. 'But when we first catch a glimpse of him,' remarks. Miss Meteyard, 'he was a merry little fellow, full of drollery and fun, and the life of the household. There were no indications then, that, before he was twenty, he would be poring into the deepest secrets of nature, particularly those relative to space, light, and heat; be the hardest of students, or, conjointly with his father's chemist, Alexander Chisholm, be rendering the laboratory at Etruria a place on which, for scientific reasons, the savans of our own day would cast back their gaze, to penetrate, if possible, into some of the early mysteries of the photographic art effected there. But, from the first, Dr. Darwin thought highly of the boy's mental powers; and happily Josiah Wedgwood had passed away before bodily disease had rendered all but useless his son's extraordinary mental powers, or unnerved the assiduous hand which had served him as devotedly in matters relative to art, as in chemical experiments.'

Wedgwood received from the Empress Catherine of Russia a commission of extraordinary magnitude. He was directed to make a very large service of Queen's ware for her Majesty's use, and 'to paint in black enamel upon each piece a different view of the palaces, seats of the nobility, and other remarkable places in this kingdom. Upon every piece there was also to be painted the image of a green toad or frog. He was very unwilling to disfigure the service with this reptile, but was told it was not to be dispensed with, because the ware was intended for the use of a palace that bore its name. The idea of such a service was well worthy the mind of a sovereign, but the undertaking seemed a great one for the powers of an individual manufacturer. The number of views necessary, to avoid a repetition of the same subjects, was about twelve hundred, and a great proportion of them were original sketches. He spent three years in making the collection and painting the views upon the pieces of this service, with all the correctness of design and drawing that is necessary to a good picture. The Empress, we have been told, was entirely satisfied with the execution of this work; and no doubt it conveyed to her mind a pretty just sentiment of our national splendour, ingenuity, and character.'

When this magnificent Russian service was completed in 1774, there was a great desire for it to be exhibited in London. Wedgwood demurred for a time, but at length consented, and when it was at length on view it caused quite a sensation. Mrs. Delaney, writing to Mrs. Port, says: 'I am just returned from viewing the Wedgwood ware that is to be sent to the Empress of Russia. It consists, I believe, of as many pieces as there are days in the year, if not hours. They are displayed at a house in Greek Street, Soho, called Portland House. There are three rooms below, and two above, filled with it, laid out on tables; everything that can be wanted to serve a dinner. The ground, the common ware, pale brimstone, the drawings in purple, the borders a wreath of leaves, the middle of each piece a particular view of all the remarkable places in the King's dominions, neatly executed. I suppose it will come to a princely price: it is well for the manufacturer, which I am glad of, as his ingenuity and industry deserve encouragement.'

The price which the Empress paid for the service is stated to have been £3,000, but even that afforded the makers 'no adequate remuneration for the incessant anxiety and immense labour involved in its production. But it served as a splendid advertisement to the whole continent of Europe, and spread Wedgwood & Bentley's fame to the most distant foreign Courts. Catherine was fond of using these services at her State dinners; and as she outwardly at least attached herself to the English policy, favoured Englishmen, and dealt in a liberal spirit with all that concerned the commerce of our country, there can be no doubt that in the abstract this generous spirit, which looked more to great worth than great gain, was richly and amply rewarded.' The Empress showed the service with great pride to Lord Malmesbury, when he visited the Grenouilliere Palace in 1779. It was used in the splendid entertainments which Catherine gave from time to time in the palace of Tzarsko-selo, and she preferred it to royal gifts of Berlin and Dresden porcelain. It has been remarked that the great service was in every sense a national work, and its fame was not only national but European.

In 1771 Wedgwood opened showrooms at Dublin and Bath. The Irish business was at first very promising, being stimulated by such patrons as the Duke of Leinster, Lords Charlemont and Bessborough, etc.; but social troubles, combined with the pecuniary embarrassments of the resident gentry, prevented a large trade from being developed. The business at Bath also suffered from 'bad seasons and the caprices of the fashionable world.

By the year 1774 the whole of the new works at Etruria had been finished; and they formed a noble pile of buildings, with the canal skirting the whole, and the green upland on which Etruria Hall stood rising beyond. In arrangement, the Etruria manufactories formed then, as now, two distinct groups, the useful and the ornamental, with separate ovens, yards, workshops, and rooms of every character. The showroom, when finished, was an important place. Here were displayed, from time to time, to the chief aristocracy of all countries, as they passed through or paid visits into Staffordshire, the finest masterpieces of the potter's art. The enamellers at the works in Chelsea, as afterwards in Greek Street, vied with each other in the several processes of their art, and the results were often returned to Etruria to decorate this room. With these in contrast were the labours of the gem setters of London, Birmingham, and Uttoxeter; enshrining as rings, buckles, brooches, earrings, or seals, cameo work after the finest models; and here were to be seen the noblest vases and the most exquisite bas-reliefs. Princes and potent dukes, lords and ladies, might well linger in this room, and tell Wedgwood, as they did, that neither Dresden nor Sevres had anything to show which bore comparison with his ornamental ware, either in beauty of form or chastity of design. But the room in which was laid the foundations of these masterpieces has a still greater degree of interest for all real lovers of Wedgwood's art. In the modelling-room the moulds were made or the modelling done from designs in clay or wax, supplied by Bacon, Flaxman, Tassie, Webber, Hoskins, Coward, Mrs. Landre, Theodore Parker, and various other English and Italian artists. Here Hackwood, the exquisite modeller of small things, passed the chief hours of his long service; and we catch glimpses of Webber, Tebo, Boot, and Massey. If Flaxman ever worked at Etruria for a brief season, this was the place of his labours and Wedgwood himself passed whole days here amidst his modellers. From hence came the Sleeping Boy, the statuettes in the fine white biscuit body, the life-like busts of the heroes of the old and modern world, the bas-reliefs which reflected the glories of antique art, and the vase, which, as a masterly reproduction of a great original, spread Wedgwood's fame far wider than any other of his multitudinous labours.'

The death of the great Brindley in September, 1772, affected Wedgwood deeply, and he poured out his feelings in a letter to Bentley. After referring to his deceased friend's personal character and virtues, he went on to observe that 'what the public has lost can only he conceived by those who best knew his character and talents - talents to which this age and country are indebted for works that will be the most lasting monuments to his fame, and show to future ages how much good may be done by one single genius, when happily employed upon works beneficial to mankind. Mr. Brindley had an excellent constitution, but his mind — too ardently intent upon the execution of the works it had planned wore down, at the age of fifty-five, a body which originally promised to have lasted a century, and might give him the pleasing expectation of living to see those great works completed for which millions yet unborn will revere and bless his memory.'

The loss of Wedgwood's brother, Thomas Wedgwood of the Overhouse, in February, 1773, brought much trouble and anxiety upon Josiah. Though on friendly terms always, the brothers had not been deeply attached; but Josiah loyally did all that was possible for the survivors. Thomas Wedgwood had been married twice, and by both wives had children; and he, unfortunately, left his affairs in a very unsettled state. The widow was a harsh and selfish woman, and her cruelty had done much to drive her step-son into evil courses. She ultimately lost her reason, but the son was reclaimed to an honourable rife by the good influence of Josiah Wedgwood, who established him in his father's works, and assisted him with loans of money.

In April, 1774, the firm of Wedgwood and Bentley opened new showrooms in Greek Street, Soho, and thither Mr. and Mrs. Bentley removed their household from Chelsea. Bentley and his enamellers were soon indefatigably at work, and on a grand scale. The number of hands was largely augmented, for the demand for household enamelled ware especially was increasing. Bentley supplemented his partner's labours with untiring zeal, searching around him everywhere for artists, books, and prints. He went to Boyden, Major, Cade11, and Hooper; employed Pye the engraver; while Mr. Pennant of Lichfield, as well as some others, sent him presents of prints. The Russian service was being pushed forward at this time, and Bentley had the honour of receiving a visit from the Queen and her Royal brother, who were most anxious to view it.

A change came over the fashionable taste for Queen's or cream ware, the fickle public asking for something whiter. Wedgwood was disinclined to yield to this caprice, but he improved his ordinary biscuit body, and began experiments for one still finer. The virtues of the terra ponderosa, or carbonate of baryta, had already been proved, and a further discovery was now made, viz., that the sulphate of baryta, or cawk, was a valuable ingredient in the new body. In fact, it began largely to take the place of the ‘terra ponderosa’. It was to be found on Middleton Moor, but the utmost circumspection had to be used in obtaining it, the cawk having to be disguised by pounding. In 1775 Flaxman began to model for Wedgwood, and the famous sculptor's first bill of charges, amounting to £12 18s. 9d., included basso-rellevos of Melpomene, Sappho, Apollo, Hercules, etc., as well as a pair of vases, one with a Satyr and the other with a Triton handle.

But Wedgwood was catholic in his tastes, and besides mythological subjects, produced a head of Shakespeare, medals of the Popes, and the heads of the English kings. His beautiful wares in jasper also began to be produced at this time. The first edition of Wedgwood and Bentley's Catalogue was published in 1773. It was a little insignificant-looking pamphlet of sixty pages. Various editions followed, the sixth, issued in 1787, being a remarkably full and handsome work. It was translated into French, German, Dutch, and Italian. These catalogues formed a kind of history of the art pursued by Wedgwood. During the time of his connection with the firm, Flaxman produced a long and varied list of noble antique designs and models. Before Flaxman's time, Wedgwood had employed, among others already specified, an able artist named Tassie, who subsequently acquired a great vogue for his imitated gems and medallion portraits; but there was no rival who could come up to Wedgwood's best work in any class of manufacture. By and by an enormous trade came to be done by Boulton, Wedgwood, and other manufacturers in such articles as cabinets and other pieces of furniture decorated with cameos, knife and fork cases, cane and bamboo wares, gold bronzes, inkstands, crucibles, retorts, evaporating baths, etc., etc.

Wedgwood was strongly opposed to the American War, which he regarded as fratricidal. He sympathised with the colonists; and from his trading relations with America he was likewise able to see the sacrifice which the mother-country was making in this senseless struggle. Just before the strife began Great Britain exported to North America nearly the whole of the surplus products of her industry; and between 1704 and 1774 the American trade had grown from £500,000 a year to £6,500,000. Wedgwood's view that it was 'a wicked and preposterous war with our brethren and best friends' was endorsed by many before the Americans achieved their independence.

The war in America drove Wedgwood's nephew, Thomas Byerley, to England again. He was warmly welcomed, and soon showed that his character was more stable than formerly. Wedgwood took him into his employment as traveller, and with the wares of Etruria he penetrated into every nook and corner of Great Britain. About this time John Wedgwood, son of Richard Wedgwood of Spen Green, was stricken down and died; and a few years later Richard Wedgwood himself Josiah's last brother also passed away. Of other domestic incidents, we may mention that three daughters, being his last children, were born to Josiah as follows: Catherine in 1774, Sarah in 1776, and Mary Ann in 1778. Wedgwood grieved sorely over the death of his learned brother-in-law, the Rev. William Willet, the Unitarian minister at Newcastle, in 1778. But in November, 1780, he was called upon to bear a still severer loss, and one that for a time seemed to overwhelm him. Bentley, his friend and partner - and between whom and himself there had existed an affection resembling that of David and Jonathan - died at his residence at Turnham Green. He had long been ailing, but the end came suddenly at last. Wedgwood raised a tablet to his memory in Chiswick Church. The inscription was furnished by their mutual friend, 'Athenian' Stuart, and the monument, with medallion of Bentley, was the work of Scheemaekers, the artist who executed the monument to Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey. Stuart's inscription runs thus: 'Thomas Bentley, born at Scrapton in Derbyshire, Jan. 1st, 1730. He married Hannah Oates, of Sheffield, in the year 1754: Mary Stamford, of Derby, in the year 1772, who survived to mourn her loss. He died Nov. 26th, 1780. Blessed with an elevated and comprehensive understanding; informed in variety of science; he possessed a warm and brilliant imagination, a pure and elegant taste; his extensive abilities, guided by the most expansive philanthropy, were employed in forming and executing plans for the public good. He thought with the freedom of a philosopher: he acted with the integrity of a virtuous citizen.' Judging from the testimony of his contemporaries, this estimate of Bentley appears to have been in no wise exaggerated.

After the death of Bentley, Wedgwood engaged the services of Alexander Chisholm, an able man, as secretary and chemical assistant; and some time afterwards Henry Webber, a modeller of uncommon ability, recommended by Sir William Chambers and Sir Joshua Reynolds, became the head of the ornamental department at Etruria. These and other changes gave Wedgwood more freedom, and saved him from a good deal of drudgery. In Chisholm the great potter found a kindred spirit, as well as a faithful friend and servant. Wedgwood invented a thermometer for measuring heat; and in May, 1782, his paper on 'The Pyrometer, or Heat-measuring Instrument' was read before the Royal Society. Some other experiments followed, in which he anticipated portions of the glacial theory; and in consideration of his valuable researches Wedgwood was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1783.

The condition of the rural districts of England in 1783 was lamentable. The American struggle had crippled us, trade was paralysed, and a bad harvest aggravated the situation. Riots took place in the Potteries amongst other places, and it was only owing to the energy and presence of mind displayed by Wedgwood that the works at Etruria were not sacked by the mob. When tranquillity had been restored, Wedgwood wrote and published a pamphlet entitled 'An Address to the Young Inhabitants of the Pottery,' in which he showed the folly of looking to such outbreaks for a redress of social wrongs. The writer admitted that provisions were dear, and recommended the opening of the ports to foreign food supplies, thus supporting the principle of free trade. He also showed that there had been still worse times, in the past, and pointed out that riots were the most foolish and expensive way of redressing grievances. The operation and the effects of economical laws could not he destroyed by violently breaking them, Wedgwood then made this stirring appeal, as he drew a picture of the past: 'Let me now beg of you who are approaching to manhood, and who by your future behaviour must stamp the character of the potters of the rising generation; let me entreat you, as you value your own reputation and happiness, and the welfare of your country, never to harbour a thought of following the fatal example which has been set you by men who have so greatly mistaken their own and your real interests; but when you labour under any real grievances make your case known in a peaceable manner to some magistrate near you, or to your employers, who are best acquainted with your situation, and I have not a doubt of your meeting in this way with speedy and effectual redress, which it would be impossible for you to procure for yourselves by the measures you have lately seen pursued, or any illegal ones whatever. Before I take my leave I would request you to ask your parents for a description of the country we inhabit when they first knew it; and they will tell you, that the inhabitants bore all the signs of poverty to a much greater degree than they do now. Their houses were miserable huts; the lands poorly cultivated, and yielded little of value for the food of man or beast; and these disadvantages, with roads almost impassable, might be said to have cut off our part of the country from the rest of the world, besides not rendering it very comfortable to ourselves. Compare this picture, which I know to be a true one, with the present state of the same country. The workmen earning nearly double their former wages — their houses mostly new and comfortable, and the lands, roads, and every other circumstance bearing evident marks of the most pleasing and rapid improvements. From whence and from what cause has thin happy change taken place? You will be beforehand with me in acknowledging a truth too evident to be denied by anyone. Industry has been the parent of this happy change — a well-directed and long continued series of industrious exertions, both in masters and servants, has so changed for the better the face of our country — its buildings, lands, roads, and notwithstanding the present unfavourable appearances, I must say the manner and deportment of its inhabitants too — as to attract the notice and admiration of countries which had scarcely heard of us before; and how far these improvements may still be carried by the same laudable means which have brought us thus far, has been one of the most pleasing contemplations of my life. How mortifying then is it to have this fair prospect endangered by one rash act! . . But I place my hopes, with some degree of confidence, in the rising generation, being persuaded that they will, by their better conduct, make atonement for this unhappy, this unwise slip of their fathers.'

Wedgwood further issued 'An Address to the Workmen in the Pottery on the Subject of Entering into the Service of Foreign Manufacturers.' In consequence of the great increase of the English trade in earthenware, certain German and French masters sent over spies to this country with a view to discover all the processes of manufacture, as also to bribe workmen to emigrate. Trenchantly dealing with the false representations, Wedgwood pointed out the fallacy of the bribes held out to his workmen, and the miseries and misfortunes of those who had already been tempted to leave their native country, and who were only too anxious to return. Acts of Parliament had been passed in this reign to prevent the emigration of workmen, and subsequently still more stringent efforts were made to stop the enticement of artisans from their employment in England for the purpose of mastering the methods of their respective trades. Such an interference with freedom on the part of workmen, however, was not justifiable, seeing that masters were at liberty to carry their trades out of the kingdom if they wished. Wedgwood's foreign trade rose greatly, notwithstanding the labour troubles, and after the signing of the Commercial Treaty with France in 1786, it increased still more enormously. He found his markets as far apart as North America, the West Indies, Amsterdam, Cadiz, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Leipsic, Genoa, Naples, Berlin, Turin, Lisbon, Bayreuth, etc.

Flaxman executed for Wedgwood beautiful cameo medallions of Mrs. Siddons, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Dr. Johnson, and many other works, including his celebrated set of chessmen. All these were very popular, at home and abroad. Jasper ornamental ware began to be extensively made in 1786, and Wedgwood also invented a jasper dip, or wash, as a substitute fur colouring in the mass, or for a body wholly jasper. Further, the jasper ornamental wares, such as tea things, were polished within in the manner in which agate and other stones were polished. Among the fine jasper vases executed at the period of their perfection were the bridal vase and those with bas-reliefs of Apollo and the Muses and the Dancing Houris. There were also ornamental vases in great variety. Wedgwood also showed his originality in personal ornaments.

The prohibition of ware to France and the duty on exports led Wedgwood to agitate earnestly for free trade, and it was owing to his untiring energy that a General Chamber of Manufacturers was established. He gave evidence before a Committee of Privy Council on the hindrances to English trade, and had several interviews with Pitt. He was also thrown into relations with the leaders of the Opposition, and Fox sent him designs from Lady Diana Beauclerk. Pitt, urged by Wedgwood and others, proposed wise and liberal measures with a view of giving Ireland commercial freedom, but the jealousy and opposition of traders and others in the House of Commons compelled him to abandon them. The Commercial Treaty with France, however, concluded in 1786, abolished most of the protective duties between France and England. It is pleasant to find that Wedgwood was not only engaged in the struggle for commercial freedom, but that from July, 1787, till the close of his life he was more or less active in the cause of the Abolition of Slavery. He was one of the Society's committee, and contributed largely to its funds. In 1790 this indefatigable man contributed his last paper to the Transactions of the Royal Society, on a new mineral substance which had been sent from New South Wales. He also formed from some clay despatched from the same colony a medallion showing the figure of Hope addressing Peace, Labour, and Plenty, which he sent out to the colonists for the purpose of encouraging the arts. Suffering at this time greatly from ill-health, he was ably assisted in the works at Etruria by his sons Josiah and Thomas.

Wedgwood was the liberal patron and friend of arts other than his own. His portrait and that of his wife were painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and he gave commissions to Wright of Derby for his well-known paintings, 'The Maid of Corinth,' a `Moonlight Scene with the lady in Corpus,' 'Penelope unravelling the Web,' and the fine portrait of Sir Richard Arkwright, which now hangs in the Manchester Royal Exchange.

The reproduction of the celebrated Barberini Vase is one of the greatest triumphs associated with the name of Wedgwood. 'The Barberini Vase was discovered between the years 1623 and 1644, during the pontificate of Urban VIII. (Barberini), beneath a mound of earth called Monte del Grano, about three miles from Rome, on the road to the ancient Tusculum. It was enclosed in a sarcophagus of excellent workmanship, and this in a sepulchral chamber. An inscription on the sarcophagus, which was otherwise covered with fine bas-reliefs, showed it to have been dedicated to the memory of the Emperor Alexander Severus and his mother, Julia Mammaea both of whom were killed in the year 235 during a revolt in Germany. The vase, in height ten inches, was deposited in the library of the Barberini family, and the sarcophagus in the museum of the capital. The material of which the former was composed was by Montfaucon and others conjectured to be a precious stone, but Mr. Wedgwood's examination proved it to be formed of glass, the ground being a dark blue, so nearly approaching black as to appear of that colour except when held in a strong light. The white bas-reliefs are of glass or paste; the material having been fused on in a mass, and then cut out by the skill and patience of the gem engraver into the designs required.

The subjects of these bas-reliefs, as also the age and place of production of the vase, are points so wholly unknown as to be still open to conjecture and criticism. With respect to the first, every critic has differed. The Italians and French first entered upon the discussion, and the introduction of the vase into England was a signal for the critics here. Mr. Charles Greville, who published some very fine engravings by Bartolozzi of the vase, considered the bas-reliefs typified the death and resurrection of Adonis. Darwin, who consulted Warburton's Divine Legation and many other works, thought the bas-reliefs bore reference to the Eleusinian mysteries, and this, with some trifling difference, was the view adopted by Wedgwood in his pamphlet on the vase.

Another critic, Dr. King, in entire ignorance of the arts of antiquity and their best periods, conjectured that these designs bore reference to the birth and acts of the Emperor Alexander Severus, whilst a far more learned and enlightened critic of our own day considers that one of the groups represents Peleus approaching Thetis. These critical differences might be repeated to a wearisome extent. It is, on the whole, perhaps safest to conclude that the subjects of the bas-reliefs are simply a heathen and poetised allegory on the trials of human life and its close.

Such vases, as in the case of the Greek encaustic vases prepared for the Olympian games, may have been designed with a view to a general purpose, rather than a particular one. Of the vase itself, if it does belong to the best period of Grecian art, that prior to the age of Alexander, it may have former a portion of those innumerable spoils which we learn from Livy, Plutarch, and other writers were poured into Rome, as proofs of subjugation and conquest. But it is questionable if the Greeks excelled as much in the art of the verrier as in that of the potter; whilst the Alexandrians, at a date when Rome was in its glory, supplied the most matchless specimens in glass and paste the world had yet seen. Wedgwood discovered that the Portland Vase had been broken previously and repaired, as also that the bas-relief head which forms the bottom had belonged originally to some other vase or fragment of antiquity, and that it had been ground down and then inserted by processes far inferior to those used by the original artist. A mould of the vase was made by Peckler the gem engraver, whilst it was in the possession of the Barberini family, and from this, on its first arrival in England, a certain number of copies were taken in plaster of Paris by Tassie, who afterwards destroyed the mould.

The Barberini, or, as it is sometimes called, the Portland Vase, was brought to England by Sir William Hamilton, and sold to the Duchess of Portland. Her Grace acquired it by the most secret negotiations, and at the sale of her museum it was purchased by her son. The Duke lent the vase to Wedgwood for the purposes of reproduction, and although the potter encountered unusual difficulties in his task, he ultimately triumphed. Webber was the moulder, under Wedgwood's direction. One of the finest copies of the vase was made in 1791, and conveyed to London. After being shown to the Queen, it was placed for some days in the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries, and whilst there its entire similitude to the original was certified by Sir Joshua Reynolds. It was afterwards removed to Greek Street, where it was viewed by hundreds of aristocratic connoisseurs, and then it was taken abroad, and exhibited before several crowned heads and many collectors. Subscribers were few, however, and owing to the difficulties attending the various processes and their great cost, it appears that not more than about fifty copies were made in Wedgwood's lifetime. Copies of the vase by Wedgwood are in the British Museum and the museums of Dresden and Rome, and there are twelve known copies in the possession of private persons in England.

In 1788 Wedgwood lost his partner and cousin, Thomas Wedgwood; and in less than two years afterwards he himself retired from the more active part in the business. Between January, 1790, and June, 1793, the firm consisted of Josiah Wedgwood, Sons, and Byerley. The eldest and youngest sons, John and Thomas, then retired, and the firm next consisted of Josiah Wedgwood, senior, Josiah Wedgwood, junior, and Thomas Byerley. The firm of Wedgwood and Sons has passed through other changes since that time, but it still continues to carry on the works; and it may be mentioned as an interesting fact that in 1854 an Etruria jubilee photograph was taken of nine workmen, whose average time of serving the firm was fifty-four and a half years. The manufacture of majolica was added to the other productions of Etruria in 186o, and a large and artistic business in this department is still carried on.

After his practical retirement from business, Josiah Wedgwood spent portions of the spring, summer, and autumn at Weymouth, Buxton, Blackpool, or the Lakes, where he would be joined occasionally by Dr. Darwin. When at home his favourite hobby was his garden. He lived on terms of great cordiality with his neighbours, and opened a bowling-green for their use. The hospitality of Etruria Hall was proverbial, and dinner would be daily laid for unexpected as for expected guests. English and foreign visitors loved to examine the choice works of art — vases, bas-reliefs, cameos, medallions, etc. - to listen to the newest music, or to read the newest books. Scarcely a day passed but the service of the table was changed, an endless variety of exquisite ware being constantly produced. On books, prints, and models Wedgwood spent immense sums, the love for collecting books especially growing upon him towards the last. He was a most generous supporter of noble and philanthropic causes. English societies of all kinds received from him liberal contributions. His benevolence was likewise cosmopolitan, and he contributed to the relief of the emigrant French clergy and laity, while in 1792 he and his sons subscribed 25o towards the succour of the people of Poland. He was a kind friend to his workmen, and to the poor of the Potteries. He supported Parliamentary Reform, as the true remedy for many social and political evils.

So highly esteemed was he in his personal character, that Dr. Darwin declared he never knew an instance of a man raising himself to such opulence and distinction who excited so little envy. Yet the more he gave the more he seemed to have, for he was able to bequeath to his widow, his sons, and his relatives half a million of money. His courage was indomitable, his energy untiring, while all were impressed by his simple modesty and his frank and unaffected demeanour. To a clear intellect he united high moral qualities, which gave an unmistakable elevation to his character.

Wedgwood was seized with alarming symptoms of illness in December, 1794. Besides suffering from great debility, and from pain and fever, a mortification set in in the mouth. Dr. Darwin and two other physicians and a surgeon sedulously attended him, but he passed away on Saturday, January 3rd, 1795, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. He was buried in the porch-way of the old parish church of Stoke-upon-Trent, and twenty years later his devoted wife was laid to rest beside him.

Flaxman executed a monument to Wedgwood, which was placed in the chancel of the church. The monument bears this happy inscription: 'Sacred to the memory of Josiah Wedgwood, F.R.S. and F.S.A., of Etruria, in this County,. born in August, 1730; died January 3, 1795, who converted a rude and inconsiderable manufacture into an elegant art and an important branch of national commerce. By these services to his country he acquired an ample fortune, which he blamelessly and reasonably enjoyed, and generously dispensed for the reward of merit and the relief of misfortune. His mind was inventive and original, yet perfectly sober and well-regulated; his character was decisive and commanding, without rashness or arrogance; his probity was inflexible, his kindness unwearied; his manners simple and dignified, and the cheerfulness of his temper was the natural reward of the activity of his pure and useful life. He was most loved by those who knew him best, and he has left indelible impressions of affection and veneration on the minds of his family, who have erected this monument to his memory.'

The Wedgwood Memorial Institute was projected at Burslem in 1863, in honour of the man who had done so much for the prosperity of the district. It was raised by public subscription, and dedicated to the uses of a Free Library, a School of Art, and a Museum. The foundation-stone was laid by Mr. Gladstone, who was then Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord Palmerston's Government, on the 26th of October, 1863. After the ceremony, Mr. Gladstone delivered an Address on Wedgwood, in which he ably, and with much insight, discussed the artistic value of the great potter's manufactures, and showed the noble position which the potter's art occupies among British industries. After some preliminary observations, Mr. Gladstone said: 'We may consider the products of industry with reference to their utility; or to their cheapness; or with regard to their influence upon the conditions of those who produce them; or, lastly, with reference to their beauty; to the degree in which they associate the presentation of forms and colours, agreeable to the cultivated eye, with the attainment of the highest aptitude for those purposes of common life for which they are properly designed. First, as to their utility and convenience, considered alone, we may leave that to the consumer, who will not buy what does not suit him. As to their cheapness, when once security has been taken that an entire society shall not be forced to pay an artificial price to some of its members for their productions, we may safely commit the question to the action of competition among manufacturers, and of what we term the laws of supply and demand. As to the condition of the work-people, experience has shown, especially in the case of the Factory Acts, that we should do wrong in laying down any abstract maxim as an invariable rule. Generally it may be said, that the presumption is in every case against legislative interference: but that upon special grounds, and most of all where children are employed, it may sometimes not only be warranted but required. This, however, though I may again advert to it, is not for to-day our special subject. We come, then, to the last of the heads which I have named; the association of beauty with utility, each of them taken according to its largest sense, in the business of industrial production. And it is in this department, I conceive, that we are to look for the peculiar pre-eminence, I will not scruple to say the peculiar greatness, of Wedgwood. Now do not let us suppose that, when we speak of this association of beauty with convenience, we speak either of a matter which is light and fanciful, or of one which may, like some of those I have named, be left to take care of itself. Beauty is not an accident of things, it pertains to their essence, it pervades the wide range of creation; and wherever it is impaired or banished, we have in this fact the proof of the moral disorder which disturbs the world. Reject, therefore, the false philosophy of those who will ask what does it matter, provided a thing be useful, whether it be beautiful or not: and say in reply that we will take one lesson from Almighty God, Who in His works hath shown us, and in His- Word also has told us, that "He hath made everything," not one thing, or another thing, but everything, "beautiful in His time." Among all the devices of creation, there is not one more wonderful, whether it be the movement of the heavenly bodies, or the succession of the seasons and the years, or the adaptation of the world and its phenomena to the conditions of human life, or the structure of the eye, or hand, or any other part of the frame of man, not one of all these is more wonderful, than the profuseness with which the Mighty Maker has been Pleased to shed over the works of His hands an endless and boundless beauty.'

Detailing next the personal claims of Wedgwood, the speaker said 'His most signal and characteristic merit lay, as I have said, in the firmness and fullness with which he perceived the true law of what is termed Industrial Art, or in other words, of the application of the higher Art to Industry; the law which teaches us to aim first at giving to every object the greatest possible degree of fitness and convenience for its purpose, and next at making it the vehicle of the highest degree of Beauty which, compatibly with that fitness and convenience, it will bear; which does not, I need hardly say, substitute the secondary for the primary end, but which recognises, as part of the business of production, the study to harmonise the two. To have a strong grasp of this principle, and to work it out to its results in the details of a vast and varied manufacture, is praise high enough for any man, at any time, and in any place. But it was higher and more peculiar, as I think, in the case of Wedgwood, than in almost any other case it could be. For that truth of Art, which he saw so clearly, and which lies at the root of excellence, was one of which England, his country, has not usually had a perception at all corresponding in strength and fullness with her other rare endowments. She has long taken a lead among the nations of Europe for the cheapness of her manufactures: not so for their beauty. And if the day shall ever come, when she shall be as eminent in true taste, as she is now in economy of production, my belief is that that result will probably be due to no other single man in so great a degree as to Wedgwood.'

On the practical branch of artistic workmanship, Mr. Gladstone remarked: 'I submit that considering all which England has done in the sphere of pure beauty on the one side, and in the sphere of cheap and useful manufacture on the other, it not only is needless, but would be irrational, to suppose that she lies under any radical or incurable incapacity for excelling also in that intermediate sphere, where the two join hands and where Wedgwood gained the distinctions which have made him, in the language of Mr. Smiles, the "illustrious " Wedgwood. I do not think that Wedgwood should be regarded as a strange phenomenon no more native to us and ours than a meteoric stone from heaven; as a happy accident, without example, and without return. Rare indeed is the appearance of such men in the history of industry: single perhaps it may have been among ourselves, for whatever the merits of others, such in particular as Mr. Minton, yet I for one should scruple to place any of them in the same class with Wedgwood; no one is like him, no one, it may almost be said, is even second to him.;

"Nec viget quicquam simile aut secundum;"

but the line on which he moved is a line, on which every one, engaged in manufacture of whatever branch, may move after him, and like him.

And, as it is the wisdom of man universally to watch against his besetting errors, and to strengthen himself in his weakest points, so it is the study and following of Wedgwood, and of Wedgwood's principles, which may confidently be recommended to our producers as the specific cure for the specific weakness of the ordinary products of English industry. Of imagination, fancy, taste, of the highest cultivation in all its forms, this great nation has abundance. Of industry, skill, perseverance, mechanical contrivance, it has a yet larger stock, which overtops our narrow fence, and floods the world. The one great want is, to bring these two groups of qualities harmoniously together; and this was the peculiar excellence of Wedgwood his excellence, peculiar in such a degree, as to give his name a place above every other, so far as I know, in the history of British industry; and remarkable, and entitled to fame, even in the history of the industry of the world.'

The energetic character of Wedgwood, and his determination to achieve success in his undertakings, are thus described: 'Here is a man who, in the well chosen words of his epitaph, "converted a rude and inconsiderable manufacture into an elegant art and an important branch of national commerce." Here is a man, who, beginning as it were from zero, and unaided by the national or the royal gifts which were found necessary to uphold the glories of Sëvres, of Chelsea, and of Dresden, produced works truer, perhaps, to the inexorable laws of art, than the fine fabrics that proceeded from those establishments, and scarcely less attractive to the public taste of not England only, but the world.

Here, again, is a man, who found his business cooped up within a narrow valley by the want of even tolerable communications, and who, while he devoted his mind to the lifting up of that business from meanness, ugliness, and weakness, to the highest excellence of material and form, had surplus energy enough to take a leading part in great engineering works like the Grand Trunk Canal from the Mersey to the Trent. These works made the law material of his industry abundant and cheap, supplied a vent for the manufactured article, and opened for it materially a way to what we may term its conquest of the outer world.

Lastly, here is a man who found his country dependent upon others for its supplies of all the finer earthenware, but who, by his single strength, reversed the inclination of the scales, and scattered thickly the productions of his factory over all the breadth of the continent of Europe.'

With respect to the personal tribute due to Wedgwood for the artistic beauty and practical usefulness of his productions, Mr. Gladstone said: 'It is plain that, in an enterprise so extended and diversified, there not only may, but must, have been, besides the head, various assistants, perhaps also various workmen, of merit sufficient to claim the honour of separate commemoration. As to the part which belongs to Flaxman, there is little difficulty: notwithstanding the distorting influence of fire, the works of that incomparable designer still in great part speak for themselves. To imitate Homer, Aeschylus, or Dante, is scarcely a more arduous task than to imitate the artist by whom they were illustrated. Yet I, for one, cannot accept the doctrine of those who would have us ascribe to Flaxman the whole merit of the character of Wedgwood's productions, considered as works of art. And this for various reasons. First, from what we already learn of his earliest efforts, of the labours of his own hands, which evidently indicate an elevated aim, and a force bearing upwards mere handicraft into the region of true plastic Art: as, again, from that remarkable incident, recorded in the history of the Borough of Stoke, when he himself threw the first specimens of the black Etruscan vases, while Bentley turned the lathe. Secondly, because the very same spirit which presided in the production of the Portland, or Barberini, Vase, or of the finest of the purely ornamental plaques, presided also, as the eye still assures us, in the production not only of dejeuners, and other articles of luxury, intended for the rich, but even of the cheap and common wares of the firm. The forms of development were varied, but the whole circle of the manufacture was pervaded by a principle one and the same. Thirdly, because it is plain that Wedgwood was not only an active, cheerful, clear-headed, liberal-minded, enterprising man of business, not only, that is to say, a great manufacturer, but also a great man. He had in him that turn and fashion of true genius, which we may not unfrequently recognise in our Engineers, but which the immediate heads of industry, whether in agriculture, manufactures, or commerce, and whether in this or other countries, have more rarely exhibited. It would be quite unnecessary to dwell on the excellences of such of the works of Wedgwood as belong to the region of Fine Art strictly so-called, and are not, in the common sense, commodities for use. To these all the world does justice. Suffice it to say, in general terms, that they may be considered partly as imitations, partly as reproductions, of Greek art. As imitations, they carry us back to the purest source. As reproductions, they are not limited to the province of their originals, but are conceived in the genuine, free, and soaring spirit of that with which they claim relationship. But it is not in happy imitation, it is not in the successful presentation of works of Fine Art, that, as I conceive, the speciality of Wedgwood really lies. It is in the resuscitation of a principle, of the principle of Greek art: it is the perception and grasp of the unity and comprehensiveness of that principle. That principle, I submit, lies, after all, in a severe and perfect propriety in the uncompromising adaptation of every material object to its proper end. If that proper end be the presentation of Beauty only, then the production of Beauty is alone regarded; and none but the highest models of it are accepted. If the proper end be the production of a commodity for use and perishable, then a plural aim is before the designer and producer. The object must first and foremost be adapted to its use as closely as possible; it must be of material as durable as possible; and while it must be of the most moderate cost compatible with the essential aims, it must receive all the beauty which can be made conducive to, or concordant with, the use. And because this business of harmonising use and beauty, so easy in the works of nature, is arduous to the frailty of man, it is a business which must be made the object of special and persevering care. To these principles the works of Wedgwood habitually conformed. He did not in his Pursuit of Beauty overlook exchangeable value or practical usefulness. The first he could not overlook, for he had to live by his trade; and it was by the profit derived from the extended sale of his humbler productions that he was enabled to bear the risks and charges of his higher works. Commerce did for him what the King of France did for Sevres, and the Duke of Cumberland for Chelsea; it found him in funds. And I would venture to say, that the lower works of Wedgwood are every whit as much distinguished by the fineness and accuracy of their adaptation to their uses, as his higher ones by their successful exhibition of the finest art.'

The Memorial Institute was duly completed, and opened in 1870. Erected in the place which gave Wedgwood birth, and on the site of his first factory, it has already served to stimulate the intellectual life of the district, and to encourage many a youth stepping forward to fight the battle of life, as Wedgwood fought it manfully and hopefully a century before. The building, in addition to the features already mentioned, has an excellent Laboratory, and a Free Public Lending Library. There was a peculiar fitness in this institution being reared within little more than a stone's throw of the birthplace of the great potter. Stoke and Hanley likewise commemorated their indebtedness to Wedgwood by raising a bronze statue to him near to the church where he is buried. Other memorials also, of a minor character, perpetuate his fame.

Wedgwood was a true leader of industry. Unlike the warrior, who makes a solitude and calls it peace, he raised a hive of workers in a place which before his time was almost desolate. Towns and villages may almost be said to owe their origin to him, and he was practically the creator of a noble and humanising art in England.

See Also

• Leaders of Modern Industry by G. Barnett Smith
• Josiah Wedgwood