China Learn

Wedgwood - Silver and Gold Luster

Silver and gold luster were also manufactured at Etruria; of the former, three pieces are illustrated on Plate VIII. They are of beautiful quality, and, as will be seen in the picture, the texture is so fine and bright that they reflect like looking-glass, and are in this respect far superior to a great deal of the silver luster to be met with in these days.

In 1775, Wedgwood produced what is unquestionably his highest ceramic achievment -namely, his celebrated jasper ware. “The peculiarities of this beautiful substance were the result of the use of minerals containing barium-chiefly sulphate-as constituents of the paste. By mixing with various oxides, the jasper received a variety of tints, blue, sage green, and lilac being the most characteristic, though pink, yellow, and black were also used. The beautiful effect produced by applying ornaments of white jasper to colored grounds is well known, but Wedgwood made many other combinations of colors, and was untiring in his efforts to bring this ware to perfection. Sometimes the color permeated the body, whilst in others it was due to a wash of colored jasper dip.” * At first the bas-reliefs were formed, both ground and ornaments, in one mould, but as this was not always ’successful, being apt to show fire cracks, and lacking distinctness of outline, it was abandoned for separate modeling and firing, the ground and raised design being afterwards cemented together. Vases, plaques-many of them of large dimensions delicate cameos for seals, brooches, and other jewelry, beads for necklaces, snuff-boxes. plates, tea and coffee sets, cups and saucers, chess-men, and many other articles were made.

The bas-reliefs modeled by Flaxman, whose subjects were usually classical, appear on fine vases, tablets, and delicate cameos, the minutest details being most carefully studied. Indeed, for beauty of design, fine moulding, and exquisite modeling, the productions of the Etrurian works, during the latter years of Josiah Wedgwood’s life, are unrivalled.

In 1790, after three years’ labor, the copy of the celebrated Portland, or Barberini, vase was completed. This vase is ornamented in basreliefs in white jasper laid on a fine black ground polished like onyx. ” The original vase is of dark blue transparent glass with basreliefs laid on in white semi-opaque paste. It was discovered, between the years 1623 and 1644, in a marble sarcophagus buried beneath the mound called Monte de Grano, near Rome, which was opened by order of Pope Barberini (Urban VIII.). The sarcophagus was supposed to be that of the Emperor Severus and his mother Mamsea, who were slain in Germany A.D. 235.”

Sir William Hamilton brought the vase to this country in 1784, and it was purchased by the Dowager Duchess of Portland. At the sale of her museum in 1786 Wedgwood bid as high as £ IOOO for it, wishing to purchase it as a model for his jasper ware. The Duke of Portland, however, agreed that if Wedgwood would retire and let him buy it he would lend him the vase for the purpose required. It was accordingly sold to the duke for £ 1029.

The first fifty copies made by Wedgwood were subscribed for at £50 each. The original vase is now in the British Museum, where, in 1845, it was unfortunately broken by a fanatic, but it has since been admirably restored.

Of Wedgwood’s copies several are to be seen in our museums. They are distinguished, says Mr. Litchfield in his “Pottery and Porcelain,” “by their singular sharpness of outline, which was caused by their being recut by a lapidary after being fired.”

Wedgwood never made true porcelain, but some of his finer wares were very nearly allied to it, showing a closeness of texture and vitreous surface not met with in other pottery.

The works at Etruria are still carried on by the descendants of the great Josiah; the old moulds are still in use, and few new subjects have been added, so that it is often difficult for the uninitiated to distinguish between specimens made in Josiah Wedgwood’s time and the latter-day copies.

All pieces made during Wedgwood’s life are stamped with the name WEDGWOOD impressed in the clay, and the letters are clearly and sharply cut. Very occasionally a small workman’s mark or capital letter occurs beside the name, but few of these can be early pieces, as Wedgwood, who did not trouble to patent his own inventions, “suppressed,” according to Professor Church, “as far as possible any indication of their work which his artists might have wished to place upon their designs.”

The colored jasper of early days is distinguished from the modern by the sharpness of outline and careful modeling of reliefs, even in the minutest details of fingers and toes, and the delicate tint and smooth texture of the ground. After Wedgwood’s death the same mark was used, but the impression appears unfinished, and the more modern jasper ware is often fire cracked, the white ornamentation -which in the old days looked like carved ivory, has in the modern a dull chalky appearance.

During Bentley’s life his name was associated with that of Wedgwood in the mark. The amateur should beware of pieces which bear the mark Wedgewood-spelled with an e in the middle-and also of pieces marked Wedgwood & Co.

After the death of Josiah Wedgwood porcelain was manufactured at the E truria Works by his nephew Thomas Byerley, from 1805, for about eight or ten years. I t was, however, only produced in small quantities, and is now rarely met with. It was not always decorated in good taste, though some fine services richly gilt were made. In the Bethnal Green Museum are specimens with painted landscapes, flowers, and embossed designs in white in low relief.

The mark on this porcelain is almost invariably WEDGWOOD, transfer-printed in red, and (rarely) in blue. The mark in gold has also been found, and an impressed stamp of three human legs conjoined is sometimes found in addition to the transfer-printed mark.

Some Wedgwood Marks Josiah Wedgwood, 1759-1795. Wedgwood & Bentley, 1768-1780. Thomas Byerley Wedgwood porcelain, 1805-1814.