Teapot with cup and saucer

Josiah Wedgwood, Etruria Works, England, ca. 1800

Earthenware, black basalt, unglazed.

H: 12 cm (pot)

Markings: imprint “WEDGWOOD”

UMP 7720, UMP 7719

Josiah Wedgwood was the true founder of the English pottery industry. He established his workshop in Burslem in 1759, and later built a factory for mass production in the village of Etruria near Stoke-on-Trent. An outstanding potter, he introduced a whole new spectrum of products to the ceramics industry. He enjoyed enormous success with materials that imitated gemstones (agate, jasper, basalt), achieving the most success with his “jasperware”, which could incorporate various colours. With his novel colours and forms, Wedgwood dominated the market throughout Europe during the Neoclassical period; one would be hard pressed to find a ceramics factory that did not try to imitate the fashionable product. 

l Neoclassicism