position, density, glaze, and colours of his productions. This increasing business rendered it necessary for him to enlarge the accommodations for carrying it on, and he engaged two additional manufactories in Burslem, which he continued to occupy until his removal to Etruria. At one of them he put up a cupola, with a bell, being the first bell made use of in the district, for summoning the work people to their labours, previously to which the blowing of a horn was the common method of keeping them to their time. This manufactory hence acquired the name of the Bell Work-house, which it retained until recently. * At the time we have been speaking, the French pottery greatly surpassed that of Staffordshire, and was imported in large quantities into England, for the use of the opulent. Mr. Wedgwood now applied himself assiduously to the improvement of table-ware, and in the year 1763 introduced an article, which gave a turn to the market, and having received the notice and approbation of Queen Charlotte, obtained for its inventor the distinction of her Majesty's Potter, and, for the ware itself, the name of Queen's ware. It was a delicate cream-coloured article, formed of the whitest clays from Devonshire and Dorsetshire, mixed with ground flint, and covered with a brilliant vitreous glaze. The Royal Patronage opened to Mr. Wedgwood the high road to distinction and opulence. The orders of the nobility and gentry flowed in upon him rapidly, and he soon began to turn his attention to the business of exporting goods to the continent, whence this country had previously been supplied with the superior kinds of pottery. He was the most active promoter of the plan, then brought forward for making an inland canal, to connect the River Trent with the Mersey, and at a meeting of the Mr. Wedgwood presented a beautiful caudle-service to Her Majesty on the occasion of her accouchement, which was the happy means of obtaining her patronage. BIOGRAPHY OF MR. WEDGWOOD. 431 nobility and gentry, by whom the project was favoured, being forward to recommend the measure, he was asked by Earl Gower, what sum he was prepared to embark in it, on which he immediately replied he would subscribe £1000, and take a good proportion of shares besides. This so pleased the Earl and the other friends of the undertaking, that to Mr. Wedgwood was assigned the honour of breaking the first ground, for making the canal, as we have already mentioned.* The advantages presented by this undertaking were justly appreciated by Mr. Wedgwood, and during its progress he effected the purchase of a considerable estate, in the township of Shelton, intersected by the canal, called the Ridge House, and other adjoining property, determining to remove the seat of his manufactory to its banks, upon its completion. He accordingly, whilst the canal was in progress, commenced the building of his new manufactory, upon a scale and plan commensurate with his enlarged ideas of the capabilities of his trade, and commenced his first manufacturing operations there in the summer of 1769. He also erected a mansion, at a convenient distance from the manufactory, upon an elevated and well-chosen site, for his residence, to which he removed in 1771, and beautified the estate with extensive plantations. It was about this time that the antique vases, and other specimens of Italian terra cotta, collected by Sir William Hamilton, during his residence at Naples, as British envoy, were introduced to public notice. The beauty of their forms and embellishments, and the interest they excited with regard to their history and properties, afforded to the aspiring genius of Mr. Wedgwood the desire of rivalling these admired productions. They were called Etruscan vases, though not correctly, as they were principally obtained from catacombs, in Calabria, or that part of the * See page 254. kingdom of Naples called Magna Grecia by the Ancients, and were undoubtedly the works of Greek artists. The art of painting vases, in the manner of these reliques of antiquity, had been lost for ages. Mr. Wedgwood, by study, and repeated experiments, invented a set of encaustic colours, answering the purpose of a close imitation of them, affording every advantage of light and shade, not liable to run by the heat of the furnace, and possessing the advantages of enamel, without its essential defects, and he engaged in the manufacture of his imitation vases with great success. In allusion to the popular notion of these vases being fabricated in Etruria, and of the very ancient claim which that country undoubtedly possessed to excellence in the Potter's art, Mr. Wedgwood gave to his new seat the classical name of ETRURIA, which it still retains, and of which an elegant cotemporary poet thus speaks "Gnomes, as you now dissect with hammers fine derive "Whether, O friend of art! your gems (Darwin's Botanical Garden.) "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune," is a remark which was never more aptly verified than in the case of Josiah Wedgwood, for, from the period of his becoming the Queen's Patentee, his success was rapid and uninterrupted. He took into BIOGRAPHY OF MR. WEDGWOOD. 433 partnership Mr. Richard Bentley, son of Doctor Bent ley, the celebrated critic, and Archdeacon of Ely, a man of great ingenuity, taste, and learning, possessing, too a large circle of acquaintance among people of rank and science; to him, it is generally understood, Mr. Wedgwood was chiefly indebted for the classical subjects for which his establishment became so highly celebrated. Both partners actively co-operated in different departments, that of Mr. Bentley being chiefly in design; but we have it from undoubted authority, that the latter actually turned the lathe for Mr. Wedgwood, whilst he threw the first specimens of the black Etruscan vases, ornamented with figures, which were made at their new manufactory, in the year 1769. Besides the articles of ordinary formation in a Potter's workshop, every subject of history or antiquity, to which the figuline art could be made subservient, and every celebrated character and incident, was put into requisition to furnish models for imitation. Busts of antiquity, urns, vases, mythological, classical, and original compositions in imitation of cameos, intaglios of antique gems, or heads for seals and rings, full-sized heads of celebrated men, dead or living, or medallion likenesses, including complete series of the sovereigns of England and France, and of the Popes, from Linus to Clement XIII.(numbering 253, in progression)—all these interesting designs were executed for the purpose of attracting the attention of the wealthy and the curious in every part of Europe, where they were eagerly sought after, and obtained handsome prices. Scientific men were engaged, at liberal salaries, in the various departments of the business,-in chemistry, in design, in modelling, in painting, &c. The ingenious Mr. Chisholme, who had been employed in experimental chemistry by Dr. Lewis, the celebrated author of the "Commercium Philosophico-Technicum," was taken into Wedgwood and Bentley's service, in 1781, and for many years, under the decay of age, and up to the period of his death, enjoyed the bounty of Mr. Wedgwood. According to Dr. Bancroft, almost all the finely-diversified colours, applied by Mr. Wedgwood, to his Pottery, were produced by Oxyds of Iron. His beautiful Jasper-ware, wrought from the native sulphate of Barytes, which readily took the tints of metallic oxyds throughout its substance, and was particularly favourable for the display of delicate white cameo devices, cemented on its surface, obtained very extensive sale, and produced proportionate profit, until, by the treachery of one of his servants, the secret of its composition was disclosed, and other manufacturers started as his competitors, at inferior prices. Mr. Wedgwood, in conjunction with his partner, Mr. Bentley, who chiefly superintended the London business, established Exhibition Rooms for their goods in Greekstreet Soho, which became a fashionable lounging-place, and tended greatly to the extension of their sales, and to the introduction of the partners to the notice of men of rank, fortune, and science. Catalogues of their almost countless Stock were printed, both in the French and the English languages, with historical and descriptive observations upon many of the subjects, to create an interest in examining them. The Chef-d'œuvre of Mr. Wedgwood's productions is generally considered to be his imitation of the Barberini, or Portland Vase, of which 50 copies only, in the first instance, were executed, each of which, it is said, was sold for the price of 50 guineas. Concerning this gem of ancient art, and its mystical embellishments, Mr. Wedgwood published, in 1790, a short dissertation, which he commenced by speaking of the great difficulty he had experienced in bringing to perfection the work he had undertaken, and of the pleasure he felt in having overcome them; he then brought forward the testimony of the Duke of Portland, Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, the Earl of Leicester, President of the Antiqua |