Wedgwood, JOSIAH, the creator of British pottery as an art, was born at Burslem, Staffordshire, 12th July 1730. His father was a potter, and at ten he was set to work at the same business, his education being of the scantiest. After an abortive attempt to settle himself at Stoke with a partner named Harrison, in 1759 he returned to his native place, and there commenced business as a potter. From the first his ardour for the improvement of the manufacture was conspicuous. His earliest efforts were directed to the refining of the material, and in 1763 he took out a patent for a beautiful cream-coloured porcelain, which became popularly known as Queen's Ware, Queen Charlotte having much admired it, and extended her patronage to the manufacturer. Subsequently, other improved materials were produced. The attention of Wedgwood was not less assiduously directed to considerations of form and decoration; he busied himself in emulating the grace of the antique models; and the celebrated sculptor Flaxman was from 1775 employed to furnish designs for his 'Wedgwood ware'—white cameo reliefs on a blue ground and the like. In this way what he found a rude and barbarous manufacture he raised to the level of a fine art; and he found his reward in the amassing of a fortune of upwards of half a million. In 1769 he had removed his works some little way from Burslem; and to the new site he gave the fanciful name Etruria, as that of the country of old most celebrated for the beauty of its ceramic products. Here he built himself a splendid mansion; and here he died, 3d January 1795.
Apart from his eminence in the art to which he mainly devoted himself, Wedgwood was a man of considerable culture. Natural philosophy, in particular, he studied with much success. He was a fellow of the Royal Society, as also of the Society of Antiquaries; and to the Philosophical Transactions he from time to time contributed papers. He likewise interested himself deeply in all matters of public concernment; and mainly through his influence it was that the Grand Trunk Canal, uniting the waters of the Mersey, the Trent, and the Severn, was carried out. He was a man of much benevolence and of an almost princely liberality.
See Llewellen Jewitt, The Wedgwoods (1865); the Life by Eliza Meteyard (2 vols. 1860); three other works by her (1872-73); Mr Gladstone's Gleanings (1879); F. Rathbone, The Masterpieces of Old Wedgwood Ware (1892-93); the Life by S. Smiles (1894); also the articles POTTERY, p. 367, and PORTLAND VASE.