Josiah Wedgwood (1730 - 1795)
The Partnership Years
During the mid-1760s, a strong business relationship was being established between Wedgwood and Bentley, already the closest of friends. Bentley, a Liverpool merchant, was selling Josiah's wares, particularly Queen's Ware. After an enthusiastic courtship on Wedgwood's side, the partnership documents were eventually signed on 10th August 1769. Despite the success of his business, Josiah somehow found time during this period to pursue his experiments, discuss scientific, political and philosophical issues with the many friends he had made on his own account and through Bentley, and to enjoy his life at home with Sally and the children. All did not run completely smoothly, however. At the end of May 1768 the decision to amputate Josiah’s leg was taken and this was done midway between the knee and hip. Wedgwood endured the pain of an operation without anaesthetics remarkably well and made a swift recovery.
In 1766, Wedgwood had purchased the Ridgehouse estate in Staffordshire where his new factory, Etruria, was to be built as well as a Georgian mansion, Etruria Hall, for himself and his family. The opening of Etruria on 13th June 1769 was celebrated with the throwing of the now famous First Day’s Vases. Aware of the benefits of education, Wedgwood decided that his children should be educated. French, Latin, 'Writing and Accounts', drawing, English, exercise...all these and more were included in Josiah's instructions to the teachers he employed. In addition, each child had a plot of land in order that they could grow crops.
The years of the partnership with Bentley were probably Josiah's happiest and most prosperous. The two men complemented each other perfectly - the inventive, mercurial, ambitious and tireless Wedgwood tempered by the sensible and educated Bentley with his entrepreneurial ability. Along with his previous work to develop the Black Basalt body, Wedgwood developed the famous Jasper ware whilst at Etruria. In 1774 they received a major commission for the ‘frog’ service supplied to Empress Catherine II of Russia.
Alone Again
Then, in November 1780, Bentley died, aged 50. It was a bitter blow for Wedgwood. Josiah Wedgwood I had lost his closest friend and he turned to Thomas Byerley, a nephew whom he had taken into the business as a young lad in 1775 and who, after an extremely reckless adolescence, was maturing into a useful businessman - though no match for Bentley. As a personal confidant he chose Darwin, but this eccentric genius could never replace Bentley either.
Life had to go on, and Josiah became engrossed in the invention of the pyrometer, a device for measuring higher degrees of heat in the kilns. The paper was communicated by Josiah to the President of the Royal Society Sir Joseph Banks and was read to the Society at the meeting on the 9th May 1782. As a result, Josiah was elected to a Fellowship in January 1783.
The Later Years
Despite missing Bentley's flair, the business prospered, though there were to be no more innovations of the stature of Queen's Ware, Black Basalt and Jasper. But one last major ceramic achievement lay ahead - the Portland Vase. Creating a facsimile of this 25 BC cameo glass vase, originally known as the Barberini, in Jasper was a daunting challenge and as such it enthused Wedgwood. Although he first started work on the Portland Vase in 1786, the first copy that met Josiah's standards of perfection was produced in September 1789.
In 1790, Wedgwood took his sons Jos, Tom and John and Tom Byerley into partnership, although Tom and John left in 1793.
At the end of 1794 Josiah was diagnosed with 'mortification of the mouth' by Erasmus Darwin, having believed initially that he was suffering from nothing but a decayed stump of a tooth. His illness came on quickly and having gone into a coma, he died on the 3rd January 1795. Today Josiah Wedgwood is remembered today as the 'Father of English Potters'.
