Misplaced Pages

#88911

55-399: Wedgwood is an English fine china , porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd . It was rapidly successful and was soon one of the largest manufacturers of Staffordshire pottery , "a firm that has done more to spread the knowledge and enhance

110-773: A dedicated trust, closed in 2000 and on 24 October 2008, it reopened in a new multimillion-pound building. In June 2009, the Wedgwood Museum won a UK Art Fund Prize for Museums and Art Galleries for its displays of Wedgwood pottery, skills, designs and artefacts. In May 2011, the archive of the museum was inscribed in UNESCO 's UK Memory of the World Register . The collection with 80,000 works of art, ceramics, manuscripts, letters and photographs faced being sold off to help satisfy pension debts inherited when Waterford Wedgwood plc went into receivership in 2009. The Heritage Lottery Fund ,

165-548: A distant cousin with a sizable dowry , helped him launch his new venture. Wedgwood led "an extensive and systematic programme of experiment", and in 1765 created a new variety of creamware , a fine glazed earthenware , which was the main body used for his tablewares thereafter. After he supplied her with a teaset for twelve the same year, Queen Charlotte gave official permission to call it "Queen's Ware" (from 1767). This new form, perfected as white pearlware (from 1780), sold extremely well across Europe, and to America. It had

220-570: A further firing. Small figurines and other decorative pieces have often been made in biscuit, as well as larger portrait busts and other sculptures; the appearance of biscuit is very similar to that of carved and smoothed marble , the traditional prestige material for sculpture in the West. It is hardly used in Chinese porcelain or that of other East Asian countries, but in Europe became very popular for figures in

275-547: A light second firing to fix the enamels in a small muffle kiln ; this work was also later moved to Stoke. There was also a showroom and shop in Portland House, 12 Greek Street , Soho, London . Painting included border patterns or bands and relatively straightforward floral motifs on tableware. Complicated figure scenes and landscapes in painted enamels were generally reserved for the most expensive "ornaments" like vases, but transfer printed items had these. The Frog Service

330-777: A name never used by the main firm. He then joined William Tomlinson & Co., a firm in Yorkshire, who promptly dropped their own name, using "Wedgwood & Co" until he left in 1801. That name was revived by Enoch Wedgwood (1813–1879), a distant cousin of the first Josiah, who used Wedgwood & Co, starting in 1860. It was taken over by Josiah Wedgwood & Sons in 1980. Other potters used blatantly misleading marks: "Wedgewood", "Vedgwood", "J Wedg Wood", all on inferior wares. In 1968, Wedgwood purchased many other Staffordshire potteries including Mason's Ironstone , Johnson Brothers , Royal Tuscan, William Adams & Sons, J. & G. Meakin and Crown Staffordshire. In 1979, Wedgwood purchased

385-523: A number of ways of using colour in the technique. Jasperware, developed by Wedgwood in the 1770s and soon very popular all over Europe, is usually classed as stoneware rather than porcelain, but the style of using two contrasting colours of biscuit was sometimes used in porcelain. The Real Fábrica del Buen Retiro in Madrid made a porcelain room in the Casita del Principe, El Escorial decorated with 234 plaques in

440-625: A single colour, that were far cheaper than hand-painting. Hand-painting was still used, the two techniques often being combined, with painted borders surrounding a printed figure scene. From 1761 wares were shipped to Liverpool for the specialist firm of Sadler and Green to print; later this was done in-house at Stoke. From 1769 Wedgwood maintained a workshop for overglaze enamel painting by hand in Little Cheyne Row in Chelsea, London , where skilled painters were easier to find. The pieces received

495-668: A studio in Rome, where young Neoclassical artists were in abundance, producing wax models for reliefs, often to designs sent from England. The most famous design is Wedgwood's copy of the Portland Vase , a famous Roman vase now in the British Museum , which was lent to Wedgwood to copy. Wedgwood developed other dry-bodied stonewares, meaning that they were sold unglazed. The first of these was what he called "basaltes", now more often "black basalt ware" or just basalt ware, perfected by 1769. This

550-508: A way of measuring kiln temperatures accurately, and several new ceramic bodies including the "dry-body" stonewares, "black basalt" (by 1769), caneware and jasperware (1770s), all designed to be sold unglazed, like " biscuit porcelain ". In 1766, Wedgwood bought a large Staffordshire estate, which he renamed Etruria , as both a home and factory site; the Etruria Works factory was producing from 1769, initially making ornamental wares, while

605-511: Is a large dinner and dessert service made by Wedgwood for Empress Catherine the Great of Russia , and completed in 1774. The service had fifty settings, and 944 pieces were ordered, 680 for the dinner service and 264 for the dessert. Although Wedgwood was already transfer printing many tablewares, this was entirely hand-painted in Chelsea in monochrome, with English views copied from prints and drawings;

SECTION 10

#1732869868089

660-513: Is all biscuit. Biscuit porcelain could also be painted with unfired paint rather than the enamels normal overglaze decoration uses, the lack of a shiny surface giving a strikingly different effect in the best examples. This rare technique is called "coloured biscuit", and is found from the 19th century onwards. As with 18th-century pieces painted over the glaze, the paint may peel if not well looked after. A piece could be made with some areas left as biscuit while others are glazed and enamelled in

715-637: Is clear from their correspondence. As with other potteries, the designs of prints were very often copied. Josiah Wedgwood was also a patriarch of the Darwin–Wedgwood family . Many of his descendants were closely involved in the management of the company down to the time of the merger with the Waterford Company: Ralph Wedgwood, presumably a cousin, made high quality wares in Burslem from c. 1790 until probably 1796, marked "Wedgwood & Co",

770-404: Is probably the best-known Wedgwood relief, the abolitionist design Am I Not a Man and a Brother ? , the basic design of which is usually credited to Wedgwood, although others drew and sculpted the final versions. This appeared in many formats in print and pottery from about 1786, and was very widely distributed, often given away. In addition plaques of varying sizes, most in jasperware, caught

825-602: Is sometimes called "Portland Blue"), an innovation that required experiments with more than 3,000 samples. In recognition of the importance of his pyrometric beads, Josiah Wedgwood was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1783. In recent years, the Wedgwood Prestige collection continued to sell replicas of the original designs, as well as modern neo-classical style jasperware. The main Wedgwood motifs in jasperware, and

880-707: The Franciscan Ceramics division of Interpace in the United States. The Los Angeles plant closed in 1984 and production of the Franciscan brand was moved to Johnson Brothers in Britain. In 1986, Waterford Glass Group plc purchased Wedgwood plc, forming the company Waterford Wedgwood plc. In 1986, Waterford Glass Group plc purchased Wedgwood plc for US$ 360 million, with Wedgwood delivering a US$ 38.7 million profit in 1998 (while Waterford itself lost $ 28.9 million), after which

935-651: The New York –based private equity firm KPS Capital Partners had purchased certain Irish and UK assets of Waterford Wedgwood, and the assets of its Irish and UK subsidiaries. KPS Capital Partners placed Wedgwood into a group of companies known as WWRD, an abbreviation for "Waterford Wedgwood Royal Doulton". In 1995 Royal Doulton commissioned a new factory just outside Jakarta , Indonesia . From 2006 to 2008, Wedgwood began to offshore most production to Indonesia to reduce costs, while Waterford production moved to Eastern Europe. By 2009

990-534: The "useful" tablewares were still made in Burslem. In 1769 Wedgwood established a partnership with Thomas Bentley , who soon moved to London and ran the operations there. Only the "ornamental" wares such as vases are marked "Wedgwood & Bentley" and those so marked are at an extra level of quality. The extensive correspondence between Wedgwood and Bentley, who was from a landowning background, show Wedgwood often relied on his advice on artistic questions. Wedgwood felt

1045-661: The 18th century many were still well-modelled and carefully painted. Instead Wedgwood concentrated on more sculptural figures, and produced many busts or small relief portrait plaques of celebrities, both types of high quality. The subjects were generally notably serious: politicians and royalty, famous scientists and writers. Many were small, with the oval shape usual in the painted portrait miniature ; others were larger. They were probably generally intended for framing; many examples still retain their frames. Many subjects reflected Wedgwood's religious and political views, Unitarian and somewhat Radical respectively, in particular what

1100-558: The Art Fund , various trusts and businesses contributed donations to purchase the collection. On 1 December 2014, the collection was purchased and donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum . The collection will continue to be on display at the Wedgwood Museum on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Minton Archive comprises papers and drawings of the designs, manufacture and production of

1155-527: The Jakarta factory employed 1,500 persons producing bone china under both Wedgwood and Royal Doulton brands. Annual production was reported to be 5 to 7 million pieces. In order to reduce costs the majority of production of both brands has been transferred to Indonesia, with only a small number of high-end products continuing to be made in the UK. In May 2015, Fiskars , a Finnish maker of home products, agreed to buy 100% of

SECTION 20

#1732869868089

1210-544: The Waterford Wedgwood group assets. Assets including Wedgwood, Waterford and Royal Doulton were placed into WWRD Holdings Limited. On 5   January 2009, following years of financial problems at group level, and after a failed share placement during the 2007–2008 financial crisis , Waterford Wedgwood was placed into administration on a "going concern" basis, with 1,800 employees remaining. On 27   February 2009, Waterford Wedgwood's receiver Deloitte announced that

1265-623: The Wedgwood complex in Barlaston . China (material) Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.150 via cp1114 cp1114, Varnish XID 495848764 Upstream caches: cp1114 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 08:44:28 GMT Biscuit porcelain The term " biscuit " refers to any type of fired but unglazed pottery in

1320-463: The additional advantage of being relatively light, saving on transport costs and import tariffs in foreign markets. It caused considerable disruption to the makers of European faience and delftware , then the main European tableware bodies; some went out of business and others adopted English-style bodies themselves. Wedgwood developed a number of further industrial innovations for his company, notably

1375-596: The company's works, and he began to do so. The first formal museum was opened in May 1906, with a curator named Isaac Cook, at the main (Etruria) works. The contents of the museum were stored for the duration of the Second World War and relaunched in a gallery at the new Barlaston factory in 1952. A new purpose-built visitor centre and museum was built in Barlaston in 1975 and remodelled in 1985, with pieces displayed near items from

1430-407: The course of manufacture, but only in porcelain is biscuit or bisque a term for a final product. Unglazed earthenware as a final product is often called terracotta , and in stoneware equivalent unglazed wares (such as jasperware ) are often called "dry-bodied". Many types of pottery, including most porcelain wares, have a glaze applied, either before a single firing, or at the biscuit stage, with

1485-489: The deaths of Bentley in 1780 and the retirement of Josiah Wedgwood in 1790 (he died in 1795). By 1800 it had about 300 employees in Staffordshire. The Napoleonic Wars made exporting to Europe impossible for long periods, and left export markets in disarray. Thomas Byerley , Josiah's nephew, became a partner and was mainly in charge for some years, as Josiah's sons John, known as Jack , and Josiah II ("Joss") , who joined

1540-615: The defunct pottery company Mintons . It was acquired by Waterford Wedgwood in 2005 along with other assets of the Royal Doulton group. In the event, the Archive was presented by the Art Fund to the City of Stoke-on-Trent, but it was envisaged that some material would be displayed at Barlaston as well as the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery . Wedgwood railway station was opened in 1940 to serve

1595-591: The end of the 18th century other Staffordshire manufacturers introduced bone china as an alternative to translucent and delicate Chinese porcelain. By 1811 Byerley, as manager of the London shop, wrote back to Stoke that "Every day we are asked for China Tea Ware—our sales of it would be immense if we had any—Earthenware Teaware is quite out of fashion...", and in response in 1812 Wedgwood first produced their own bone china, with hand-painting. However West End taste did not perhaps represent all of Wedgwood's markets, and it

1650-431: The factory had 445 employees. As well as updated versions of wares from the previous century, bathroom ceramics such as sinks and lavatories had been important in recent decades, and Wedgwood's reputation for technical and design innovation had sunk considerably. However, they did introduce porcelain (see below), lustre ware by 1810, a form of Parian ware they called "Carrara" in 1848, and a "Stone China" from about 1827,

1705-421: The fashion for Neoclassicism , with a great variety of classical subjects, but mostly avoiding nudity. The smaller ones were intended to be set in jewellery, sometimes in steel by Matthew Boulton 's factory, and larger sizes might be framed for hanging, or inset in architectural features like fireplace mantels, mouldings and furniture. Smallest of all were many button designs. The firm lost some momentum after

Wedgwood - Misplaced Pages Continue

1760-542: The final appearance was not dissimilar to transfer printing, but each image was unique. Also at Catherine's request, each piece carries a green frog. Although Wedgwood was paid just over £2,700 he barely made a profit, but milked the prestige of the commission, exhibiting the service in his London showroom before delivery. Wedgwood's best known product is Jasperware, created to look like ancient Roman cameo glass , itself imitating cameo gems . The most popular jasperware colour has always been "Wedgwood blue" (a darker shade

1815-539: The firm only on Josiah I's retirement, had developed other interests, in particular horticulture . After Waterloo in 1815, there was a dramatic drop in the vital exports to America. Byerley's death in 1810 forced the brothers to confront the reality of the financial situation, as they needed to buy out his widow. Between the partners and other debtors, the firm was owed some £67,000, a huge sum. Joss bought Jack out, and continued as sole owner. Wedgwood continued to grow under Jack and his son Francis Wedgwood , and by 1859

1870-607: The glaze off; this is a fairly common feature of Longquan celadon (which is porcelain in Chinese terms), and also found in Ming dragons. Some Chinese pieces are described as "porcelain with polychrome enamels on the biscuit" – that is, using the normal "overglaze" technique on biscuit, but with no actual glaze, often a revivalist style evoking earlier sancai wares (which were not in porcelain). The laborious and mostly 19th-century pâte-sur-pâte technique often uses biscuit for at least one of

1925-510: The group was renamed Waterford Wedgwood plc. From early 1987 to early 1989, the CEO was Patrick Byrne, previously of Ford , who then became CEO of the whole group. During this time, he sold off non-core businesses and reduced the range of Wedgwood patterns from over 400 to around 240. In the late 1990s, the CEO was Brian Patterson. From 1   January 2001, the Deputy CEO was Tony O'Reilly, Junior , who

1980-524: The holdings of WWRD. On 2 July 2015, the acquisition of WWRD by Fiskars was completed, including the brands Waterford, Wedgwood, Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Rogaška. The acquisition was approved by the US antitrust authorities. In 2015 there were complaints of misleading labelling, in that products made in the company's Indonesian factory were sold labelled "Wedgwood England". Wedgwood's founder wrote as early as 1774 that he wished he had preserved samples of all

2035-489: The last of which was not especially successful. Neoclassicism was now less fashionable, and one response was to add floral enamels to black basalt wares from around 1805. Godfrey Wedgwood , Josiah I's great-grandson became a partner in 1859, and had considerable success reviving the firm in both these areas, in what was generally a successful period for British pottery. Wedgwood's first decades of success came from producing wares that looked very like porcelain, and had broadly

2090-423: The loss keenly when Bentley died in 1780. Wedgwood's slightly younger friend, William Greatbatch , had followed a similar career path, training with Whieldon and then starting his own firm around 1762. He was a fine modeller, especially of moulds for tablewares, and probably did most of Wedgwood's earlier moulds as an outside contractor. After some twenty years, Greatbatch's firm went under in 1782, and by 1786 he

2145-414: The most popular colours, though there are several others. Jasperware has been made continuously by the firm since 1775, and also much imitated. In the 18th century, however, it was table china in the refined earthenware creamware that represented most of the sales and profits. In the later 19th century, it returned to being a leader in design and technical innovation, as well as continuing to make many of

2200-425: The old factory works in cabinets of similar period. A video theatre was added and a new gift shop, as well as an expanded demonstration area, where visitors could watch pottery being made. A further renovation costing £4.5 million was carried out in 2000, including access to the main factory itself. Adjacent to the museum and visitor centre are a restaurant and tea room, serving on Wedgwood ware. The museum, managed by

2255-554: The older styles. Despite increasing local competition in its export markets, the business continued to flourish in the 19th and early 20th centuries, remaining in the hands of the Wedgwood family, but after World War II it began to contract, along with the rest of the English pottery industry. After buying a number of other Staffordshire ceramics companies, in 1987 Wedgwood merged with Waterford Crystal to create Waterford Wedgwood plc , an Ireland-based luxury brands group. In 1995 Wedgwood

Wedgwood - Misplaced Pages Continue

2310-515: The other dry-bodied stonewares, were decorative designs that were highly influenced by the ancient cultures being studied and rediscovered at that time, especially as Great Britain was expanding its empire . Many motifs were taken from ancient mythologies: Roman, Greek and Egyptian. Meanwhile, archaeological fever caught the imagination of many artists. Nothing could have been more suitable to satisfy this huge business demand than to produce replicas of ancient artefacts. From 1787 to 1794 Wedgwood even ran

2365-567: The reputation of British ceramic art than any other manufacturer", exporting across Europe as far as Russia, and to the Americas. It was especially successful at producing fine earthenware and stoneware that were accepted as equivalent in quality to porcelain (which Wedgwood only made later), though considerably less expensive. Wedgwood is especially associated with the "dry-bodied" (unglazed) stoneware Jasperware in contrasting colours, and in particular that in "Wedgwood blue" and white, always much

2420-531: The same qualities, though not quite as tough, nor as translucent. During Josiah's lifetime and some time afterwards Wedgwood did not make porcelain itself. European factories had increasing success with porcelain, both soft-paste in England and France, and hard-paste mostly in Germany, which were still competing with Japanese and Chinese export porcelain , which were very popular, though expensive, in Europe. Towards

2475-433: The second half of the 18th century, as Neoclassicism dominated contemporary styles. It was first used at Vincennes porcelain in 1751 by Jean-Jacques Bachelier . Biscuit figures have to be free from the common small imperfections that a glaze and painted decoration could cover up, and were therefore usually more expensive than glazed ones. They are also more difficult to keep clean. A popular use for biscuit porcelain

2530-403: The style, with a "Wedgwood blue" ground and the design in white biscuit porcelain in low relief . These were applied as sprigs , meaning that they made separately as thin pieces, and stuck to the main blue body before firing. The plaques are framed like paintings; they were made between 1790 and 1795. The figure by the same factory illustrated here uses elements modelled in a coloured paste, and

2585-501: The typical type of Staffordshire figures , white earthenware standing figurines of people or animals that by about 1770 were usually brightly painted, though sometimes sold in plain glazed white. These imitated rather successfully the porcelain figures pioneered by Meissen porcelain , a style which by about 1770 was being produced by the majority of porcelain factories, on the continent and in Britain. Though Staffordshire figures fell precipitously in price and quality after about 1820, in

2640-434: The usual way. A Chelsea-Derby figure of George II of Great Britain (1773–1774) leaning on a classical plinth and standing on a high base has only the figure in biscuit. This part-glazing also occurs in other types of pottery, and for example is very common in the earthenware Chinese Tang dynasty tomb figures . Other pieces "reserve" areas in biscuit, by giving them a temporary coating of wax or something similar to keep

2695-482: Was a Wedgwood employee, continuing for over twenty years until he retired in 1807, on generous terms specified in Wedgwood's will. In the early period he seems also to have acted as agent for Wedgwood on trips to London, and after Wedgwood's retirement he may have in effect managed the Etruria works. Wedgwood was an early adopter of the English invention of transfer printing , which allowed printed designs, for long only in

2750-447: Was a tough body in solid black, much used for classical revival styles. Wedgwood developed an attractive reddish stoneware he called rosso antico ("ancient red") This was often combined with black basalt. This was followed by caneware or bamboo ware, the same colour as bamboo and often modelled to look as though objects were made of the plant; first introduced in 1770, but mostly used between 1785 and 1810. Generally Wedgwood avoided

2805-575: Was acquired in July 2015 by Fiskars , a Finnish consumer goods company. Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795), came from an established family of potters, and trained with his elder brother. He was in partnership with the leading potter, Thomas Whieldon , from 1754 until 1759, when a new green ceramic glaze he had developed encouraged him to start a new business on his own. Relatives leased him the Ivy House in Burslem , Stoke-on-Trent, and his marriage to Sarah Wedgwood,

SECTION 50

#1732869868089

2860-581: Was appointed CEO in November of the same year and resigned in September 2005. He was succeeded by the then-president of Wedgwood USA, Moira Gavin, up until the company went into administration in January 2009. In 2001, Wedgwood launched a collaboration with designer Jasper Conran , which started with a white fine bone china collection then expanded to include seven patterns. In March 2009, KPS Capital Partners acquired

2915-435: Was granted a Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II , and the business was featured in a BBC Four series entitled Handmade by Royal Appointment alongside other Warrant holders Steinway , John Lobb Bootmaker and House of Benney . After a 2009 purchase by KPS Capital Partners , a New York–based private equity firm, the group became known as WWRD Holdings Limited , an initialism for "Waterford Wedgwood Royal Doulton". This

2970-479: Was not the huge commercial success promised, and after thinking of doing so in 1814, the firm finally stopped making it in 1822. But when revived in 1878 it eventually became an important part of production. From very early on Josiah Wedgwood was determined to maintain high artistic standards, which was an important part of his efforts to appeal to the top end of the market with pottery rather than porcelain wares. He relied considerably on Bentley in London in this, as

3025-402: Was the manufacture of bisque dolls in the 19th century, where the porcelain was typically tinted or painted in flesh tones. In the doll world, "bisque" is usually the term used, rather than "biscuit". Parian ware is a 19th-century type of biscuit. Lithophanes were normally made with biscuit. Although the great majority of biscuit figures (other than dolls) are entirely in white, there are

#88911