Josiah Wedgwood facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Josiah Wedgwood
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Josiah Wedgwood by George Stubbs, 1780, enamel on a Wedgwood ceramic tablet
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| Born | 12 July 1730 |
| Died | 3 January 1795 (aged 64) Etruria, Staffordshire, England
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| Resting place | Stoke-on-Trent, England |
| Occupation | Potter, entrepreneur |
Josiah Wedgwood (12 July 1730 – 3 January 1795) was an English potter and entrepreneur. He founded the Wedgwood company. He is credited with the industrialisation of the manufacture of pottery; "it was by intensifying the division of labour that Wedgwood brought about the reduction of cost which enabled his pottery to find markets in all parts of Britain, and also of Europe and America."
The renewed classical enthusiasms of the late 1760s and early 1770s were of major importance to his sales promotion. His expensive goods were in much demand from the nobility, while he used sales effects to market cheaper sets to the rest of society. Every new invention that Wedgwood produced – green glaze, cream-ware, black basalt and jasper – was quickly copied. Having once achieved perfection in production, he achieved perfection in sales and distribution. His showrooms in London gave the public the chance to see his complete range of tableware.
Meeting the demands of the consumer revolution and growth in wealth of the middle classes that helped drive the Industrial Revolution in Britain, Wedgwood is credited as the inventor of modern marketing. He pioneered direct mail, money back guarantees, travelling salesmen, carrying pattern boxes for display, self-service, free delivery, buy one get one free, and illustrated catalogues.
A prominent abolitionist, Wedgwood is remembered too for his "Am I Not a Man And a Brother?" anti-slavery medallion. He was a member of the Darwin–Wedgwood family, and he was the grandfather of Charles and Emma Darwin.
Biography
Wedgwood was born in Burslem, Staffordshire. He was the eleventh and last child of potter Thomas Wedgwood (d. 1739) and Mary Wedgwood (née Stringer; d. 1766). By the age of nine, he was proving himself to be a skilled potter.
He survived a childhood bout of smallpox, which left Josiah with a permanently weakened knee. This made it impossible for him to work the foot pedal of a potter's wheel. As a result, he concentrated from an early age on designing pottery and then making it with the input of other potters. The pottery created in his father's and brother's business was inexpensive and low quality, black and mottled in color.
In his early twenties, Wedgwood began working with the most renowned English pottery-maker of his day, Thomas Whieldon, who eventually became his business partner in 1754. Wedgwood also began to study the new science of chemistry, seeking to understand the materials science of fire, clay, and minerals and to develop better clays and glazes for potter-making.
He used his skills and knowledge to make one of the first pottery factories, Ivy Works, in Burslem, now part of Stoke-on-Trent.
Wedgwood was very interested in science and technology, and used new ideas to make good quality pottery. He became famous for making pottery for royalty, and became very rich. He spent money on civic works, things that would help businessmen and people in the city, for example canals.
He became friends with Erasmus Darwin, an important scientist and inventor. In 1780, Wedgwood and Darwin became business partners. Wedgwood's son married Darwin's daughter, who gave birth to Charles Darwin. Wedgwood and Darwin were also members of the 'Lunar Society', a group of important scientists, philosophers and businessmen.
By 1763, he was receiving orders from the highest levels of the British nobility, including Queen Charlotte. Wedgwood convinced her to let him name the line of pottery she had purchased "Queen's Ware".
In 1773, Empress Catherine of Russia ordered the Green Frog Service from Wedgwood; it can still be seen in the Hermitage Museum. An even earlier commission from Catherine was the Husk Service (1770), now on exhibit in Peterhof.
In the latter part of his life, Wedgwood's obsession was to duplicate the Portland Vase, a dark blue and white glass vase from the first century BC. For three years he worked on the project, eventually producing what he considered a satisfactory copy in 1789.
Together with his friends in the Lunar Society, Wedgwood worked for the abolition (ending) of slavery. Wedgwood produced medallions asking for the end of slavery. These medallions became very popular. The selling slaves became illegal (against the law) in 1807 in Britain, and having slaves became illegal in 1833.
Wedgwood died in Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, in 1795.
He was elected to the Royal Society in 1783 for the development of a pyrometer, a device to measure the extremely high temperatures that are found in kilns during the firing of pottery.
He was an active member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham often held at Erasmus Darwin House and is remembered on the Moonstones in Birmingham.
Marriage and children
In January 1764 Wedgwood married Sarah Wedgwood (1734–1815), his third cousin. They had eight children:
- Susannah Wedgwood (3 January 1765 – 1817) married Robert Darwin and became the mother of the English naturalist Charles Darwin. Charles married Emma Wedgwood, his cousin.
- John Wedgwood (1766–1844), joined the business rather reluctantly, mainly interested in horticulture
- Richard Wedgwood (1767–1768) (died as a child)
- Josiah Wedgwood II (1769–1843) (father of Emma Darwin, cousin and wife of Charles Darwin)
- Thomas Wedgwood (1771–1805) (no children), best known as a pioneer photographer
- Catherine Wedgwood (1774–1823) (no children)
- Sarah Wedgwood (1776–1856) (no children, very active in the abolition movement and founding member of Birmingham Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves, the first anti-slavery society for women)
- Mary Anne Wedgwood (1778–86) (died as a child)
Legacy and influence
One of the wealthiest entrepreneurs of the 18th century, Wedgwood created goods to meet the demands of the consumer revolution and growth in prosperity that helped drive the Industrial Revolution in Britain. He is credited as a pioneer of modern marketing, specifically direct mail, money back guarantees, travelling salesmen, carrying pattern boxes for display, self-service, free delivery, buy one get one free, and illustrated catalogues. Wedgwood is also noted as an early adopter/founder of managerial accounting principles in Anthony Hopwood's "Archaeology of Accounting Systems." Historian Tristram Hunt called Wedgwood a "difficult, brilliant, creative entrepreneur whose personal drive and extraordinary gifts changed the way we work and live."
He was a friend, and commercial rival, of the potter John Turner the elder; their works have sometimes been misattributed. For the further comfort of his foreign buyers he employed French-, German-, Italian- and Dutch-speaking clerks and answered their letters in their native tongue.
Wedgwood belonged to the fifth generation of a family of potters whose traditional occupation continued through another five generations. Wedgwood's company is still a famous name in pottery (as part of the Fiskars group), and "Wedgwood China" is sometimes used as a term for his Jasperware, the coloured pottery with applied relief decoration (usually white).
Abolitionism
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Wedgwood was a prominent slavery abolitionist. His friendship with Thomas Clarkson – abolitionist campaigner and the first historian of the British abolition movement – aroused his interest in slavery. Wedgwood mass-produced cameos depicting the seal for the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade and had them widely distributed, which thereby became a popular and celebrated image. The Wedgwood anti-slavery medallion was the most famous image of a black person in all of 18th-century art. The actual design of the cameo was probably done by either William Hackwood or Henry Webber who were modellers at his factory.
From 1787 until his death in 1795, Wedgwood actively participated in the abolition-of-slavery cause. His Slave Medallion brought public attention to abolition. Wedgwood reproduced the design in a cameo with the black figure against a white background and donated hundreds to the society for distribution.
The design on the medallion became popular and was used elsewhere: large-scale copies were painted to hang on walls and it was used on clay tobacco pipes.
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Images for kids
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Etruria Hall, the family home, built 1768–1771 by Joseph Pickford. It was restored as part of the 1986 Stoke-on-Trent Garden Festival and is now part of a four-star hotel.
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Vase on stand with inverted Neck, Josiah Wedgwood and Sons and Thomas Bentley, before 1780, black basalt. Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin.
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Teapot, Wedgwood 'caneware', c. 1780–1785. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Missouri.
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Wedgwood tea and coffee service, 1765, on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Wedgwood's creamware was hugely popular, as a cheaper equivalent of porcelain.
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Wedgwood, 1774, creamware. Plate from the Frog Service for Catherine II of Russia, Brooklyn Museum, New York
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Horse Frightened by a Lion Jasperware by Wedgwood and Thomas Bentley, after George Stubbs, 1780.
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See also
In Spanish: Josiah Wedgwood para niños
