The Wedgwood story

Press, 15 November 1977, Page 5

The Wedgwood story

Wedgwood is a name famous throughout the world and synonymous with high quality pottery. The story of Wedgwood goes back to 1730, when Josiah Wedgwood was born in Burslern, Staffordshire, the youngest of 13 children At least three previous generations of the family had been potters, but the industry of the time was little more than a peasant craft, with small financial rewards. When he was nine he was apprenticed to his eldest brother, but when he had learned the art of pottery his brother refused him a partnership. In 1754 Wedgwood was taken into partnership by Thomas Whieldon the greatest English potter of his time. After five years Josiah was ready to start in business on his own, and in 1959 he founded the Wedgwood firm in Burslern,, where he began to produce in larger quantities the distinctive and original cream ware finished with a brilliant clear green glaze to decorate leaf and vegatable shapes suited to the taste of the times. In 1762, he moved to what became known as the Bell Works, because workmen were summoned by bell instead of the customary horn, and produced what he described as “a species of earthenware for the table, quite new in appearance, covered with a rich and brilliant glaze bearing sudden alterations of heat and cold, manufactured with ease and expedition and consequently cheap.” Later to be kown as Queen’s Ware by com-

mand of Queen Charlotte, this new beautiful tableware was Wedgwood’s greatest contribution to the British pottery industry. In 1774 Wedgwood completed his largest and most famous commission — a dinner and dessert service of 952 pieces decorated with freehand paintings of 1244 different English scenes for the Empress Catherine II of Russia. Until about 1764 Wedgwood had concentrated on making what he called “useful wares,” but he also made many experiments to improve the rather crude “Egyptian black” wares made by a number of Staffordshire potters. The new black basalt he developed was fine-grained, smooth and richer in hue. The most famous of all Wedgwood’s inventions was his Jasper, an unglazed vitreous fine stoneware which could be stained blue, green, lilac, yellow, maroon or black to provide a background for white classical reliefs or portraits in the same material. Josiah Wedgwood died in 1795, and is remembered as the “Father of English Potters." In the nineteenth century the company progressed in the use of new machinery and the manufacture of bone china, which today accounts for the most valuable part of Wedgwood's export trade. In the Depression of the 19305, when many potteries were closed down to await more favourable conditions, the Wedgwoods, led by the fifth Josiah Wedgwood, decided to build a new factory. A country estate of 382

acres (now 500) was bought near the village of Barlaston and a factory for about 800 employees with possible expansion to 1000 commissioned.

A garden village with 100 houses for key workers was also put in hand. Shortly after the Second World War the building was completed and the new factory is fired by six electric tunnel ovens, a far cry from the smoke and grime associated with potteries of the past. Mr Arthur Bryan, who became managing director in 1963 and chairman in 1968, was the first man outside the Wedgwood family to head the business; but two direct descendants of the founder were members of the company’s board. Early in 1966 Wedgwood acquired the businesses of William Adams, Royal Tuscan and Susie Cooper and in the next year the company’s shares were introduced to the London stock exchange. Another acquisition, that of Coalport, a famous name in fine china since 1750, followed; and in 1968 the size of Wedgwood was doubled by the acquisition of the longestablished earthernware manufacturing business of Johnson Brothers. The group made its entry into the glass industry in 1969, and in the 1970 s the Meakin and Midwinter companies were acquired, to make the Wedgwood Group one of the largest fine china arid earthernware manufacturers in the world, employing 7500 persons and accounting for 20 per cent of the British ceramic tableware industry’s output and 25 per cent of its exports.