Expat Vagabonds "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow mindedness." Mark Twain

You can be forgiven for not knowing the names Titus Salt or Richard Arkwright despite their contributions to the industrial revolution.  You don’t see the Salt label on woolen goods or find Arkwright’s name on your jeans.  But only a Luddite would be unfamiliar with Wedgwood china.

Josiah Wedgwood was apprenticed at age 12 to a potter and spent his entire life refining – and redefining – the trade.  He didn’t invent new machines.  Except for the power source, Wedgwood is made much as it was in the 18^th Century.  Josiah took a scientific approach to developing glazing techniques, quite natural when you realize his close friends were chemist Joseph Priestly and biologist Erasmus Darwin, father of Charles.  He carefully recorded the chemicals he added to the clay, the temperature it was fired at and the glazing materials he used to achieve the results.  When he realized the horse paths to and from the factory were unsatisfactory he lobbied successfully for the canal system that lasted until the development of the railroads.

Wedgwood was also quite an artist and studied many designs from antiquity.  He had no problem employing other artists to create what he envisioned.  He had a real flare for the business and his client list included Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, Catherine the Great, and Teddy Roosevelt.  The company succeeded through two world wars, turbulent business cycles, competition and issues of succession.  It merged with Waterford crystal in 1986 to become a major corporation.

We followed the Wedgwood designs from the earliest works to the present, always keeping abreast of changing styles and often setting them.  I liked the delicate white bas reliefs on Wedgwood’s signature “jasper” china but Josiah’s favorite piece was his Portland vase, which was inspired by a Roman specimen he had seen.

We also toured the workshops where employees demonstrated the processes as they actually produced new pieces.  The artists who were painting porcelain figurines and copying paintings onto china plates freely shared their stories with us.  All were Wedgwood “lifers,” the shortest term of employment was twelve years.  One guy was painting a scene from the Napoleonic Wars on a plate, a job that will take him 3 weeks, was apprenticed at the age of sixteen, 25 years ago.  We also learned how to “throw” a pot, how it is turned on a lathe and the design transfer before it is glazed.  All in all it was a wonderful experience.