Josiah Wedgwood

Josiah Wedgwood (baptized July 12, 1730, Burslem [now in Stoke-on-Trent], Staffordshire, Eng.—died Jan. 3, 1795)[1] was an English potter, industrialist, and entrepreneur who revolutionized ceramic manufacturing and became one of the most influential figures of the Industrial Revolution. He is credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery[5] and created numerous innovations in both pottery techniques and business practices that transformed the industry.

Early Life and Education

The youngest child of the potter Thomas Wedgwood, Josiah came from a family whose members had been potters since the 17th century.[1] Born the thirteenth and youngest child of Thomas Wedgwood and Mary Wedgwood (née Stringer; d. 1766), Josiah was raised within a family of English Dissenters.[5] He attended dame school in Burslem and elementary school in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. (Dame schools were run by women, usually elderly, in their own homes).[2]

After his father's death in 1739, he worked in the family business at Churchyard Works, Burslem, becoming exceptionally skillful at the potter's wheel and, in 1744, an apprentice to his elder brother Thomas.[1] He was educated at a private school until aged about 9, when he began learning how to be a thrower in the pottery. In 1744, aged 14, he began a formal five-year apprenticeship to his older brother, Thomas, who was now owner of the Works.[7]

Impact of Smallpox and Early Career Development

An attack of smallpox seriously curtailed his work; the disease later affected his right leg, which was then amputated. The consequent inactivity, however, enabled him to read, research, and experiment in his craft.[1] Smallpox left Josiah with a permanently weakened knee, which made him unable to work the foot pedal of a potter's wheel. As a result, from age 10, he concentrated on designing pottery rather than making it.[5] This physical limitation proved fortuitous, as it directed his talents toward innovation and experimentation rather than traditional pottery production.

After Thomas refused his proposal for partnership about 1749, Josiah, after a brief partnership (1752–53) with John Harrison at Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, joined in 1754 with Thomas Whieldon of Fenton Low, Staffordshire, probably the leading potter of his day.[1] This became a fruitful partnership, enabling Wedgwood to become a master of current pottery techniques.[1]

Key Influences and Mentors

Thomas Whieldon Partnership

Josiah next formed a partnership with Thomas Whieldon (1719-1795), a well-respected figure in the industry. The two potters set up their business, still in Staffordshire, in 1754 and experimented with what exactly could be made using the very latest and brand-new techniques in their field.[4] Wedgwood and Whieldon are credited with several innovations, including "the division of labour, with men employed on different tasks - throwing, turning, handling, decorating, mixing slip." They paid their workers well and gave them regular presents of a shirt or a pair of shoes. As a result of this treatment they "exacted scrupulous obedience, respectful behaviour, and strict punctuality".[3]

Thomas Bentley Partnership

On one of his frequent visits to Liverpool, he met the merchant Thomas Bentley in 1762.[1] On a visit to Liverpool in May 1762, Josiah Wedgwood, the owner of the Ivy House Works, the first pottery factory in England, had an accident and was treated by the surgeon Matthew Turner. The two men were both Unitarians and Turner introduced Wedgwood to Bentley. They soon developed a very close relationship.[12]

In 1768 Bentley became his partner in the manufacture of ornamental items that were primarily unglazed stonewares in various colours, formed and decorated in the popular style of Neoclassicism, to which Josiah lent great impetus.[1] The firm of Wedgwood-Bentley, based in Etruria but with shops in London and major provincial cities, capitalized on the complementary talents of its partners. Bentley supplied the genteel education, fashionable connections, sense of current tastes, and commercial experience; Wedgwood supplied the technical expertise, experimental energy, ambition, and inventive genius.[17]

Professional Development and Innovations

Establishment of Independent Business

In 1760, free of his partnership, Josiah pressed on with his own business, which he established in the Ivy House Works, in Burslem. This was the first site that produced wares that can specifically be referred to as Wedgwood.[7] At the Ivy House he introduced his first distinctive and original ware with the invention of a brilliant clear green glaze which he used to decorate leaf and vegetable shapes.[16]

Queen's Ware and Royal Patronage

In the early 1760s he was asked to supply a creamware tea set for Queen Charlotte and, aware of the marketing potential, he included samples of other wares. The tactic paid off, leading to more orders and his naming a range of his products as Queen's Ware. The words 'Potter to Her Majesty' began to appear on his stationery.[7] He perfected a cream-colored earthenware that, with the sanction of Queen Charlotte in 1765, was called Queen's ware.[5]

Etruria Factory

For his ornamental vases, Wedgwood built a factory called Etruria, to which the manufacture of useful wares was also transferred about 1771–73 (there his descendants carried on the business until 1940, when the factory was relocated at Barlaston, Staffordshire).[1] The official opening of the Etruria factory takes place on the 13th June. The ideas behind this model factory were closely based on the Soho manufactory of Matthew Boulton whom Wedgwood had known for some time, as both were members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham.[2]

Technical Innovations

Chief among these wares were black basaltes, which by the addition of red encaustic painting could be used to imitate Greek red-figure vases; and jasper, a fine-grained vitreous body resulting from the high firing of paste containing barium sulphate (cauk).[1] The most famous of all Wedgwood's inventions, however was Jasper, an un-glazed vitreous fine stoneware which could be stained blue, green, lilac, yellow, maroon, of black to provide a suitable background for white classical reliefs or portraits in the same material. Jasper was prized by Wedgwood above all his productions.[16]

Wedgwood's experimentations with pottery lasted throughout his career, his invention of the pyrometer, a device that measured very high firing temperatures ultimately led to him becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society.[4] Josiah Wedgwood invents the pyrometer to measure the temperature of an object without touching it. The factory becomes the first in the country to introduce steam power in its production methods. He is elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.[2]

Personal Life

In January 1764, Josiah married a cousin, Sarah (often called Sally), the daughter of Richard Wedgwood who was a successful merchant operating from Burslem. The couple went on to have seven children (plus one who did not survive infancy). One daughter, Susannah, became the mother of Charles Darwin. Sarah's £4,000 dowry (nearly $700,000 today) was immediately invested into the potter's expensive experiments to find new types of wares.[4]

As a result of the close association that grew up between the Wedgwood and Darwin families, Josiah's eldest daughter, Susannah, would later marry Erasmus' son, Robert. One of the children of that marriage was Charles Darwin, the famous naturalist and creator of the theory of evolution. Charles Darwin would also marry a Wedgwood—Emma, his third cousin who was another granddaughter of Josiah. Their inheritance of Josiah's money permitted Charles the life of leisure that allowed him the time to travel and formulate his theory of evolution.[5]

Business Innovation and Marketing

Wedgwood is known as the inventor of modern marketing.[6] Many common sales techniques such as direct mail, money-back guarantees, free delivery, celebrity endorsement, illustrated catalogues and buy one get one free came from Josiah Wedgwood.[13] Wedgwood used several sales techniques to encourage wavering buyers: "He offered free carriage of his goods anywhere in the country, a money-back guarantee for dissatisfied customers, and free replacement for breakages" (Dugan, 57). Another new idea of Wedgwood's to boost sales of his wares was to send salesmen around Britain, Europe, and the United States, further cementing his place as the most fashionable and well-known of all pottery manufacturers.[4]

International Success

His wares appealed particularly to the rising European bourgeois class, and porcelain and faience factories suffered severely from competition with him. Surviving factories switched to the manufacture of creamware (called on the Continent faience fine or faience anglaise), and the use of tin enamel abated. Even the great factories at Sèvres, France, and at Meissen, Ger., found their trade affected.[1]

Perhaps Wedgwood's greatest-ever sale was to Catherine the Great of Russia (l. 1729-1796), who in 1774 bought a fine service set consisting of around 950 pieces. This incredible set was called the Frog Service after the green frog crest that appears on each piece in homage to the palace Catherine wished to use it in. Most of the items featured a hand-painted scene of English life.[4]

Social Reform and Abolition Activities

Josiah was deeply interested in the ideas of self-improvement, education and liberty. He supported schools and other educational institutions. He spent a lot of time with leading thinkers of his day, particularly as part of the Lunar Society of Birmingham.[7] He also becomes a Unitarian, a religious movement which had social reform at its heart. He supports universal male suffrage and annual parliaments and becomes friendly with other reformers such as Joseph Priestley.[2]

Anti-Slavery Campaign

Wedgwood was born in 1730 and was a Unitarian and prominent abolitionist, becoming a key member of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. His main contribution to the abolitionist cause was producing the first anti-slavery medallion in 1787, depicting a kneeling slave in chains, with the phrase "Am I Not a Man and a Brother". These medallions were mass produced and distributed and became widely worn and acknowledged, bringing public attention to the abolitionist movement.[18]

In 1787, entrepreneurial potter Josiah Wedgwood (1730 – 95) produced a ceramic medallion in support of the abolition of the slave trade. A forerunner of the protest badge, Wedgwood's anti-slavery medallions were distributed for free at abolitionist society meetings to promote the cause.[19] The archives of the Wedgwood Factory contain Wedgwood's correspondence with leading abolitionists, such as William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson and Olaudah Equiano, to whom he also offered financial support and protection from pro-slavery defenders.[21]

Legacy and Impact

Industrial and Economic Impact

Josiah Wedgwood, a leading innovator in the manufacture and marketing of ornamental earthenware, revolutionized the way English potters did business in the second half of the eighteenth century and elevated the production of pottery to an art that attracted the patronage of the social elite.[17] He built an internationally successful business based on scientific understanding, experimentation, and discoveries which, combined with an aesthetic imagination, created an enterprise that employed artists as well as artisans. Moreover the business was based on innovative methods in manufacturing - an early version of the assembly line where each worker honed and contributed a particular skill, rather than making a completed object from start to finish.[14]

Scientific Contributions

Wedgwood's motto was the Enlightenment dictum that "everything gives way to experiment," and he believed that his great achievement was to unite art with industry.[17] He was also keenly interested in the scientific advances of his day, and it was this interest that underpinned his adoption of new approaches and methods to revolutionize the quality of his pottery. His unique glazes began to distinguish his wares from anything else on the market.[5]

Social and Political Legacy

Against fierce opposition, and for all their contradictions, hypocrisies, and ill-informed sentiments, the British campaigners for the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and for the abolition of slavery, were astonishingly successful in achieving their aims. Strategies like widespread petitioning, the distribution of leaflets, pamphlets, and printed images, and the production of artifacts like this medallion, established the tactics for subsequent political and social pressure groups on local, national, and now on a global scale. The printed T-shirt, badges, and mugs distributed or sold today are the descendents of the Wedgwood medallion.[22]

He had made substantial gifts to his children during his lifetime but the total value of his estate nevertheless approached £500,000 (over £200 million in today's money).[3] Josiah Wedgwood died on 3rd February 1795 and is remembered as the Father of English Potters.[16] The Wedgwood company continues to operate today, maintaining his legacy of innovation and quality in ceramic manufacturing.