|
|
The Story of Wedgwood & Majolica Pottery
During the second quarter of the 19th century, there was an explosion of interest in matters botanical and horticultural in Europe. The discovery of the process of plant reproduction by the botanist Robert Brown inspired English gardeners to construct greenhouses and fill them with a wonderful array of rare specimens. Minton & Company, one of Britain’s leading ceramic factories, created majolica urns, cachepots, garden seats and other [...] Click here to continue reading.
Wedgwood Carrara Ware
Parian was first marketed in 1846 by the British pottery firm of Copeland as a white porcelain-like body, slightly translucent. Named “Parian” by the Minton pottery, this ware was introduced by Wedgwood in 1848 as “Carrara Ware”. This pottery type has come to be known as Parian generically, regardless of manufactory, and in its pure white form, was used mainly for figures, groups and busts. Wedgwood also made other shapes in [...] Click here to continue reading.
Wedgwood played catch-up to the other Staffordshire potters in the manufacturing of a form of porcelain known as Bone China. Composed of china clay, feldspathic rock and bone ash (calcined animal bone), this porcelain was first introduced in 1799 by Josiah Spode. Bone china was a purer white in color, lighter in weight and less brittle than its oriental and continental European counterparts. Although factories at Chelsea, Derby and Lowestoft had been making a [...] Click here to continue reading.
Josiah Wedgwood & the Wedgwood Pottery
By Paul H. Lauer, New England p4A.com representative
Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795), with generations of potters behind him and generations to come, finished his apprenticeship and entered into business with one of the best potters of the time, Thomas Whieldon, in the early 1750′s for five years, producing among other things, the green glaze and mottled glaze tableware for which the partnership became known.
In 1768, Wedgwood went into [...] Click here to continue reading.
Origins of Pearlware
In 1779 Josiah Wedgwood invented “Pearl White,” which came to be known generically throughout the industry as pearlware, by tinkering with his creamware formula. Wedgwood added more white clay, flint and cobalt oxide to his glaze to achieve a whiter effect. He experimented with this body for five years before using it in production. Although he was never fully satisfied with the result, Wedgwood acceded to its use in order to [...] Click here to continue reading.
Jasperware
The formula for Jasper, a dense white stoneware, was Josiah Wedgwood’s most closely guarded secret. For the chemically-inclined, we know that it contains one part calcined flint, three parts purbeck clay, one quarter part fired and washed alabaster, and six parts sulfate of barium, all fired at about 1200-1250 degrees centigrade. When thinly potted and fired at slightly higher temperatures, Jasper becomes translucent and rings like porcelain.
“Invented” by Wedgwood after many [...] Click here to continue reading.
Creamware or Queensware?
Creamware was renamed Queen’s ware in 1766 after Josiah Wedgwood was appointed “Potter to Her Majesty,” Queen Charlotte. Wedgwood did not invent the body but found the clays and developed the glaze that gave it its warm white look. His two most famous commissions in the ware were the dinner set made for Queen Charlotte and a set for the Empress Catherine II of Russia, variously estimated between 952 and 1282 [...] Click here to continue reading.
Basalt-Black Stoneware
The English Potter Josiah Wedgwood developed Basalt, a black stoneware body, in 1768 using sifted ball clay to which manganese (and other minerals) was added and firing it at an extremely high temperature. Its use for production in the Wedgwood factory is rivaled only by that of Jasper. Wedgwood originally intended Basalt to be for the manufacture of cabinet vases for the 18th Century gentry. His design sources included illustrations from the [...] Click here to continue reading.
Caneware, a vitreous biscuit or dry body, was first produced in 1790 and was made largely from refined local marls. It was considered an unsatisfactory body by Wedgwood and was not used commercially until about 1776. Caneware was reconstituted again after 1783 and used for tea, coffee and chocolate services, dejeuner sets and cabinet pieces. A practical use of Caneware was found in the production of game-pie dishes, simulating pastry, which remained popular through [...] Click here to continue reading.
Rosso Antico is Wedgwood’s name for an unglazed dry-body red stoneware similar to Basalt and Caneware. Pieces other than tea sets, vases, plates, and jugs in this body are very rare, although from time to time it was used as decoration on other bodies such as Basalt and Caneware. Rosso Antico was made only sporadically because Josiah didn’t like it, as it reminded him of ‘redware’, an inexpensive body made by most of the [...] Click here to continue reading.
|
Recent Articles
- Charles Alfred Meurer – American Artist & Tromp L’Oeil Artist
- Sendak, Maurice – American Artist & Writer
- Godie, Lee – American Artist
- Davis, Vestie – American Artist
- Bartlett, Morton – American Artist
- Mackintosh, Dwight – American Artist
- Evans, Minnie Jones – African-American Artist
- Mumma, Ed (Mr. Eddy) – American Artist
- Nice, Don – American Artist
- Savitsky, John (Jack) – American Artist
- Gordon, Harold Theodore (Ted) – American Artist
- Dial, Thornton – African-American Artist
- Doyle Sam – American Artist
- Johnson, Lester Frederick – American Artist
- Finster, Howard – American Artist
|
|
