Wedgwood Looks To The Future

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31225, 24 November 1966, Page 10

Wedgwood Looks To The Future

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ATHENA CROSS)

The great English craft industries, of which Wedgwood china with more than 200 years of history behind it is a classic example, are always in some danger of being the victims of their own prestige and achievements.

For a manufacturer of fine China with roots in the 18th century, it would be fatally easy to adopt the attitude that since traditional design is not only beautiful and satisfying but is in continuing demand with the public—as classic Wedgwood is, in many countries —why not leave it at that and rest on these elegant laurels?

Yet another obstacle to any winds of change in the strata of the fine china industry is the fact that while the average woman renews her carpets and soft furnishing several times during the course of her married life, her main china services are filled in when breakages occur, and may well be handed down to her daughter. All these factors might be thought to add up to a very understable climate of complacency and conservatism on the part of a manufacturer, Yet Wedgwood’s managing director, Mr Arthur Bryant, said in a recent address to the Royal Society of Arts: “A successful manufacturing potter must be prepared to put on the market designs that area ahead of his time and must not seek an immediate return. Only by doing this can he build for the future ... a really good design lives on and becomes part of its maker’s tradition.”

This observation is no mere lip-service to the idea of artistic progress. In the Wedgwood factory at Barlaston, in the English Midlands, where the hedges and trees of the Staffordshire countryside practically brush the windows of the studios where the designers work, a group of young people are being given every opportunity to make what may be a lasting impact on a historic firm.

The young designers fall into two categories, the studio potters, working temporarily under the company’s wing, and those who form a part of Wedgwood’s permanent creative team. Wedgwood is unique among china manufacturers in inviting young studio potters to work at Barlaston, and in some ways this recreates in a modern industrial setting the conditions which the support of wealthy patrons provided for the artists of other centuries.

These young designers and craftsmen have complete independence to create individual pieces, often achieving results of great beauty, with all the technical resources of ceramic science at their disposal. By deliberate policy, they are left entirely free to fallow their own ideas and experiment with new designs, new glazes and techniques. That they themselves benefit enormously from the facilities they enjoy is enthusiastically agreed by them all, but according to Mr Bryant, who is a frequent visitor to the studios, the company is also enriched by their ideas and experiments, because they can work qjl-' inhibited by any considerations of the problems of mass production and current market requirements. Among the young studio potters now at Barlaston is a 21-year-nld Australian, Michael Dillon, an art student who specialised in pottery and painting at Bendigo Senior Technical College and won a studentship awarded

by the Victoria Education Department which required him to gain two years practical experience in industry. His eagerness to work at Wedgwood was such that, after making his application and sending examples of his work, he started off on his 12,000-mile journey to England without waiting for the answer.

Six months later some of: his works were included in! an exhibition at a London ; store of advanced designs, alongside those of senior Wedgwood designers. Although Michael has been concentrating mainly on ornamental pieces, he has also produced interesting designs for jugs, teapots and casseroles. When he leaves for home shortly, he will stop in the United States and hold exhibitions of his work there. His work, like that of David Puxley, who is also 21 and shares the same studio, is already known there. The work of both these young men seems to have something in common with early Oriental pottery. It is mostly undecorated, relying on beauty of shape and unusual glaze effects. Both these potters have experimented with different clays and glazes, and have had the benefit of the advice and encouragement of older craftsmen.

David Puxley, who studied at the Oxford School of Art and later taught there, worked as a free-lance potter before going to Barlaston. A oneunan exhibition of his pieces led to his being invited to work in the Wedgwood studios, where the results of the experience he has gained can be seen in his skilful and original designs. As he himself puts it: “From the very first day I was caught up in an atmosphere of perfection and this vastly affects one’s own standards.”

Suitable pieces by the studio potters are sometimes put into limited production in the factory, but they are primarily artists creating individual pieces. Freshness of Approach

While the studio potters produce mainly ornamental pieces, designers are working on ideas for the table and oven ware of the future. They have a freshness and vitality of approach which confirms their claim that they feel in no way hampered or overwhelmed by the Wedgwood tradition. Indeed, it is fascinating to see how they, as well as the senior designers, design in traditional materials such as black basalt or jasper, but with a feeling that is completely “modern” in the best sense of that misused word. This sense of continuity allied to progress is very evident in the company’s museum, which contains a superb collection of examples of-the'potter’s art from the heyday of Josiah Wedgwood in the mid-18th century right down to pieces which have won recent Council of Industrial Design awards. Black basalt was used for snuff boxes, the intaglios set as jewellery, and the masterpieces of John Flaxman, R.A. —one of the most famous of 18th century designers to work for Wedgwood. Wedgwood regards it as part of their function, as one of the great firms in their industry, to produce designs which anticipate the taste of the* future, while maintaining their fine traditions. This cannot be easy to achieve, but there is a lot of fresh air in those design studios, apart from the breezes blowing across the Staffordshire fields.