He survived a childhood bout of smallpox to serve as an apprentice potter under his eldest brother Thomas Wedgwood IV. By the age of nine, he was proving himself to be a skilled potter. 1766), Josiah was raised within a family of English Dissenters he was the grandson of a Unitarian minister and was an active Unitarian. 1739) and Mary Wedgwood ( née Stringer d. It was restored as part of the 1986 Stoke-on-Trent Garden Festival and is now part of a four-star hotel.īorn in Burslem, Staffordshire, the eleventh and last child of potter Thomas Wedgwood (d. He was a member of the Darwin–Wedgwood family, and he was the grandfather of Charles and Emma Darwin.Įtruria Hall, the family home, built 1768–1771 by Joseph Pickford. Ī prominent abolitionist fighting slavery, Wedgwood is remembered too for his Am I Not a Man And a Brother? anti-slavery medallion.
#Wedgewood creamware free#
He pioneered direct mail, money back guarantees, self-service, free delivery, buy one get one free, and illustrated catalogues. Meeting the demands of the consumer revolution that helped drive the Industrial Revolution in Britain, Wedgwood is credited as a pioneer of modern marketing. He was an early adopter of transfer printing which gave similar effects to hand-painting for a far lower cost. He made great efforts to keep the designs of his wares in tune with current fashion. Wedgwood's company never made porcelain during his lifetime, but specialised in fine earthenwares and stonewares that had many of the same qualities, but were considerably cheaper. His showrooms in London gave the public the chance to see his complete range of tableware. Having once achieved efficiency in production, he obtained efficiencies in sales and distribution. Every new invention that Wedgwood produced – green glaze, creamware, black basalt, and jasperware – was quickly copied. His expensive goods were in much demand from the upper classes, while he used emulation effects to market cheaper sets to the rest of society. The renewed classical enthusiasms of the late 1760s and early 1770s were of major importance to his sales promotion. Founding the Wedgwood company in 1759, he developed improved pottery bodies by systematic experimentation, and was the leader in the industrialisation of the manufacture of European pottery. Yet it was so elegant that even Queen Charlotte had to have nine hundred pieces, including two toy tea sets and nine dog pans-and so it is called Queen's ware." Her royal support is what made Wedgwood a household name and sent sales booming.Josiah Wedgwood FRS (12 July 1730 – 3 January 1795) was an English potter, entrepreneur, and abolitionist. "Josiah's handsome creamware was tough and inexpensive. "Creamware existed in England long before Wedgwood, but the clays were so coarse and yellow that potteries tried to hide them under heavy, splashed glazes," describes Denhardt. It's called creamware because it looked like old-fashioned heavy cream, as explained by Jennaea Denhardt, a china buyer for department stores like Dayton's, Hudson's, and Marshall Field's. The hugely successful Queen's ware, for instance, named in 1766 and still made to this day, was a fine cream-colored earthenware and the result of many experiments. How did he do this? His wares were not porcelain. We can thank Josiah Wedgwood who came from a family of potters, had a humble education, and invented himself, around 1776, into a world-class, self-taught, entrepreneurial genius when he redefined the industry.
0 kommentar(er)
