Wedgwood was born in the Staffordshire Potteries in 1739 and lived in
the area all his life. His family were all potters, working in
traditional ways, but Josiah was to revolutionise the industry. When he
started work, the local ware was either rather rustic, or made to look a
little more sophisticated by the addition of heavy glazes. He worked to
produce a lighter coloured body and to use designs made to appeal to
aristocratic tastes, convinced that where they led the rapidly growing
middle class would follow. The result was cream ware which, when a whole
service was ordered by the royal family, was soon christened queens
ware.
He needed to import new materials - flint from East Anglia, light clays
from the West Country, so he became an ardent promoter of the Trent and
Mersey Canal, and built a new factory and family home on its banks,
naming the area Etruria In the new works, he abandoned the old systems
where individual craftsmen produced whole pieces for an early form of
mass production. From these works came the ceramics that are still world
famous, such as the distinctive jasper ware.
He had many outside interests and was one of the earliest supporters of
the ant-slavery movement. He studied science and was made a Fellow of
the Royal Society for his work on high temperature thermometers. He was
a loving family man and an enthusiastic correspondent, and his many
letters reveal a character that was attractive, enthusiastic and always
eager to learn, He died in 1795.
