Quezi

Wedgwood's 18th century replica of an antique Roman vase - PD

Josiah Wedgwood was not only an innovator in ceramic techniques and design, he was also a managing director who insisted on high standards, and promoted his products energetically. In 1759 he founded an enterprise producing good quality, desirable tableware and ornamental ceramics that suited the fashions of the time.

Born into a family of potters, he was exceptionally talented and energetic. He discovered new ways of making stronger and more attractive ceramics, while also pursuing a love of Roman and Greek arts, in tune with a taste for neo-classical style during the Georgian period.

In the photo is a vase made of jasperware: stoneware with white pictures and patterns on a coloured background, invented by Wedgwood and perhaps his most distinctive achievement. In his later years he was possessed by the desire for his company to recreate the Roman Portland vase, originally glass, in his own jasperware. They eventually achieved a replica that satisfied him a few years before his death in 1795. As well as creating grand ornamental pieces in jasper, Wedgwood made tableware and simpler decorative items in the same style.

One of his earliest innovative products was creamware, also called queensware. This attractive, good quality earthenware helped establish his reputation, and attracted interest from royalty as well as from quite ordinary middle-income families. It was used for dinner and tea services, and relatively simple ornamental pieces.

Wedgwood now has a strong reputation for fine bone china, but this was not introduced during Josiah Wedgwood’s lifetime,. In the early 19th century they introduced their range, building on other potters’ experiments with bone china as well as their own, refining and developing earlier discoveries, just as they had with the creamware.

Other key types of Wedgwood from the 18th century period under the first Josiah Wedgwood’s management included black basalt ware that lent itself to ornamental ceramic pieces, some with an ancient Egyptian flavour.  Another Wedgwood type was biscuit-coloured caneware,  used for purely decorative ceramics but also for dinnerware like game pie dishes.

Wedgwood’s green-glazed ware built on traditional English earthenware styles, but with a brighter, better quality glaze. Pearlware was an advance on creamware, with a blue tint that made it look whiter and more like porcelain.