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105-399: Wedgwood is an English fine china , porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd . It was rapidly successful and was soon one of the largest manufacturers of Staffordshire pottery , "a firm that has done more to spread the knowledge and enhance

210-512: A kiln to permanently set their shapes, vitrify the body and the glaze. Porcelain is fired at a higher temperature than earthenware so that the body can vitrify and become non-porous. Many types of porcelain in the past have been fired twice or even three times, to allow decoration using less robust pigments in overglaze enamel . Porcelain was invented in China over a centuries-long development period beginning with "proto-porcelain" wares dating from

315-547: A patent on a porcelain containing bone ash. This was the first bone china , subsequently perfected by Josiah Spode . William Cookworthy discovered deposits of kaolin in Cornwall , and his factory at Plymouth , established in 1768, used kaolin and china stone to make hard-paste porcelain with a body composition similar to that of the Chinese porcelains of the early 18th century. But the great success of English ceramics in

420-791: A dedicated trust, closed in 2000 and on 24 October 2008, it reopened in a new multimillion-pound building. In June 2009, the Wedgwood Museum won a UK Art Fund Prize for Museums and Art Galleries for its displays of Wedgwood pottery, skills, designs and artefacts. In May 2011, the archive of the museum was inscribed in UNESCO 's UK Memory of the World Register . The collection with 80,000 works of art, ceramics, manuscripts, letters and photographs faced being sold off to help satisfy pension debts inherited when Waterford Wedgwood plc went into receivership in 2009. The Heritage Lottery Fund ,

525-548: A distant cousin with a sizable dowry , helped him launch his new venture. Wedgwood led "an extensive and systematic programme of experiment", and in 1765 created a new variety of creamware , a fine glazed earthenware , which was the main body used for his tablewares thereafter. After he supplied her with a teaset for twelve the same year, Queen Charlotte gave official permission to call it "Queen's Ware" (from 1767). This new form, perfected as white pearlware (from 1780), sold extremely well across Europe, and to America. It had

630-661: A glaze applied, either before a single firing, or at the biscuit stage, with a further firing. Small figurines and other decorative pieces have often been made in biscuit, as well as larger portrait busts and other sculptures; the appearance of biscuit is very similar to that of carved and smoothed marble , the traditional prestige material for sculpture in the West. It is hardly used in Chinese porcelain or that of other East Asian countries, but in Europe became very popular for figures in

735-554: A light second firing to fix the enamels in a small muffle kiln ; this work was also later moved to Stoke. There was also a showroom and shop in Portland House, 12 Greek Street , Soho, London . Painting included border patterns or bands and relatively straightforward floral motifs on tableware. Complicated figure scenes and landscapes in painted enamels were generally reserved for the most expensive "ornaments" like vases, but transfer printed items had these. The Frog Service

840-403: A major European factories producing tableware, and later porcelain figurines. Eventually other factories opened: Gardner porcelain, Dulyovo (1832), Kuznetsovsky porcelain, Popovsky porcelain, and Gzhel . During the twentieth century, under Soviet governments, ceramics continued to be a popular artform, supported by the state, with an increasingly propagandist role. One artist, who worked at

945-782: A name never used by the main firm. He then joined William Tomlinson & Co., a firm in Yorkshire, who promptly dropped their own name, using "Wedgwood & Co" until he left in 1801. That name was revived by Enoch Wedgwood (1813–1879), a distant cousin of the first Josiah, who used Wedgwood & Co, starting in 1860. It was taken over by Josiah Wedgwood & Sons in 1980. Other potters used blatantly misleading marks: "Wedgewood", "Vedgwood", "J Wedg Wood", all on inferior wares. In 1968, Wedgwood purchased many other Staffordshire potteries including Mason's Ironstone , Johnson Brothers , Royal Tuscan, William Adams & Sons, J. & G. Meakin and Crown Staffordshire. In 1979, Wedgwood purchased

1050-531: A number of ways of using colour in the technique. Jasperware, developed by Wedgwood in the 1770s and soon very popular all over Europe, is usually classed as stoneware rather than porcelain, but the style of using two contrasting colours of biscuit was sometimes used in porcelain. The Real Fábrica del Buen Retiro in Madrid made a porcelain room in the Casita del Principe, El Escorial decorated with 234 plaques in

1155-514: A paste composed of kaolin and alabaster and fired at temperatures up to 1,400 °C (2,552 °F) in a wood-fired kiln, producing a porcelain of great hardness, translucency, and strength. Later, the composition of the Meissen hard paste was changed, and the alabaster was replaced by feldspar and quartz , allowing the pieces to be fired at lower temperatures. Kaolinite, feldspar, and quartz (or other forms of silica ) continue to constitute

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1260-638: A single colour, that were far cheaper than hand-painting. Hand-painting was still used, the two techniques often being combined, with painted borders surrounding a printed figure scene. From 1761 wares were shipped to Liverpool for the specialist firm of Sadler and Green to print; later this was done in-house at Stoke. From 1769 Wedgwood maintained a workshop for overglaze enamel painting by hand in Little Cheyne Row in Chelsea, London , where skilled painters were easier to find. The pieces received

1365-561: A source of imperial pride. The Yongle emperor erected a white porcelain brick-faced pagoda at Nanjing , and an exceptionally smoothly glazed type of white porcelain is peculiar to his reign. Jingdezhen porcelain's fame came to a peak during the Qing dynasty. Although the Japanese elite were keen importers of Chinese porcelain from early on, they were not able to make their own until the arrival of Korean potters that were taken captive during

1470-686: A studio in Rome, where young Neoclassical artists were in abundance, producing wax models for reliefs, often to designs sent from England. The most famous design is Wedgwood's copy of the Portland Vase , a famous Roman vase now in the British Museum , which was lent to Wedgwood to copy. Wedgwood developed other dry-bodied stonewares, meaning that they were sold unglazed. The first of these was what he called "basaltes", now more often "black basalt ware" or just basalt ware, perfected by 1769. This

1575-515: A way of measuring kiln temperatures accurately, and several new ceramic bodies including the "dry-body" stonewares, "black basalt" (by 1769), caneware and jasperware (1770s), all designed to be sold unglazed, like " biscuit porcelain ". In 1766, Wedgwood bought a large Staffordshire estate, which he renamed Etruria , as both a home and factory site; the Etruria Works factory was producing from 1769, initially making ornamental wares, while

1680-484: A wider range of colours. Like many earlier wares, modern porcelains are often biscuit -fired at around 1,000 °C (1,830 °F), coated with glaze and then sent for a second glaze -firing at a temperature of about 1,300 °C (2,370 °F) or greater. Another early method is "once-fired", where the glaze is applied to the unfired body and the two fired together in a single operation. In this process, "green" (unfired) ceramic wares are heated to high temperatures in

1785-520: Is a large dinner and dessert service made by Wedgwood for Empress Catherine the Great of Russia , and completed in 1774. The service had fifty settings, and 944 pieces were ordered, 680 for the dinner service and 264 for the dessert. Although Wedgwood was already transfer printing many tablewares, this was entirely hand-painted in Chelsea in monochrome, with English views copied from prints and drawings;

1890-520: Is a very common shape in Korea. Korean celadon comes in a variety of colors, from turquoise to putty . Additionally, in the late 13th century, the Inlay technique of expressing pigmented patterns by filling the hollow parts of pottery with white and red clay was frequently used. The main difference from those in China is that many specimens have inlay decoration under the glaze. Most Korean ceramics from

1995-513: Is all biscuit. Biscuit porcelain could also be painted with unfired paint rather than the enamels normal overglaze decoration uses, the lack of a shiny surface giving a strikingly different effect in the best examples. This rare technique is called "coloured biscuit", and is found from the 19th century onwards. As with 18th-century pieces painted over the glaze, the paint may peel if not well looked after. A piece could be made with some areas left as biscuit while others are glazed and enamelled in

2100-655: Is clear from their correspondence. As with other potteries, the designs of prints were very often copied. Josiah Wedgwood was also a patriarch of the Darwin–Wedgwood family . Many of his descendants were closely involved in the management of the company down to the time of the merger with the Waterford Company: Ralph Wedgwood, presumably a cousin, made high quality wares in Burslem from c. 1790 until probably 1796, marked "Wedgwood & Co",

2205-416: Is determined by measuring the increase in content of water required to change a clay from a solid state bordering on the plastic, to a plastic state bordering on the liquid, though the term is also used less formally to describe the ease with which a clay may be worked. Clays used for porcelain are generally of lower plasticity than many other pottery clays. They wet very quickly, meaning that small changes in

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2310-542: Is now made worldwide, including in China. The English had read the letters of Jesuit missionary François Xavier d'Entrecolles , which described Chinese porcelain manufacturing secrets in detail. One writer has speculated that a misunderstanding of the text could possibly have been responsible for the first attempts to use bone-ash as an ingredient in English porcelain, although this is not supported by modern researchers and historians. Traditionally, English bone china

2415-404: Is probably the best-known Wedgwood relief, the abolitionist design Am I Not a Man and a Brother ? , the basic design of which is usually credited to Wedgwood, although others drew and sculpted the final versions. This appeared in many formats in print and pottery from about 1786, and was very widely distributed, often given away. In addition plaques of varying sizes, most in jasperware, caught

2520-622: Is sometimes called "Portland Blue"), an innovation that required experiments with more than 3,000 samples. In recognition of the importance of his pyrometric beads, Josiah Wedgwood was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1783. In recent years, the Wedgwood Prestige collection continued to sell replicas of the original designs, as well as modern neo-classical style jasperware. The main Wedgwood motifs in jasperware, and

2625-857: The Baranovsky Porcelain Factory and at the Experimental Ceramic and Artistic Plant in Kyiv, was Oksana Zhnikrup , whose porcelain figures of the ballet and the circus were widely known. The pastes produced by combining clay and powdered glass ( frit ) were called Frittenporzellan in Germany and frita in Spain. In France they were known as pâte tendre and in England as "soft-paste". They appear to have been given this name because they do not easily retain their shape in

2730-734: The Franciscan Ceramics division of Interpace in the United States. The Los Angeles plant closed in 1984 and production of the Franciscan brand was moved to Johnson Brothers in Britain. In 1986, Waterford Glass Group plc purchased Wedgwood plc, forming the company Waterford Wedgwood plc. In 1986, Waterford Glass Group plc purchased Wedgwood plc for US$ 360 million, with Wedgwood delivering a US$ 38.7 million profit in 1998 (while Waterford itself lost $ 28.9 million), after which

2835-530: The Islamic world , where they were highly prized. Eventually, porcelain and the expertise required to create it began to spread into other areas of East Asia. During the Song dynasty (960–1279 CE), artistry and production had reached new heights. The manufacture of porcelain became highly organised, and the dragon kilns excavated from this period could fire as many as 25,000 pieces at a time, and over 100,000 by

2940-525: The Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598) . They brought an improved type of kiln, and one of them spotted a source of porcelain clay near Arita , and before long several kilns had started in the region. At first their wares were similar to the cheaper and cruder Chinese porcelains with underglaze blue decoration that were already widely sold in Japan; this style was to continue for cheaper everyday wares until

3045-652: The Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) are of excellent decorative quality. It usually has a melon shape and is asymmetrical. Imported Chinese porcelains were held in such great esteem in Europe that in English china became a commonly used synonym for the Italian-derived porcelain . The first mention of porcelain in Europe is in Il Milione by Marco Polo in the 13th century. Apart from copying Chinese porcelain in faience ( tin glazed earthenware ),

3150-660: The New York –based private equity firm KPS Capital Partners had purchased certain Irish and UK assets of Waterford Wedgwood, and the assets of its Irish and UK subsidiaries. KPS Capital Partners placed Wedgwood into a group of companies known as WWRD, an abbreviation for "Waterford Wedgwood Royal Doulton". In 1995 Royal Doulton commissioned a new factory just outside Jakarta , Indonesia . From 2006 to 2008, Wedgwood began to offshore most production to Indonesia to reduce costs, while Waterford production moved to Eastern Europe. By 2009

3255-781: The Porcelain Tower of Nanjing . More recent examples include the Dakin Building in Brisbane, California and the Gulf Building in Houston, Texas, which when constructed in 1929 had a 21-metre-long (69 ft) porcelain logo on its exterior. Biscuit porcelain Biscuit porcelain , bisque porcelain or bisque is unglazed, white porcelain treated as a final product, with a matte appearance and texture to

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3360-530: The Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BCE). By the time of the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE) these early glazed ceramic wares had developed into porcelain, which Chinese defined as high-fired ware. By the late Sui dynasty (581–618 CE) and early Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), the now-standard requirements of whiteness and translucency had been achieved, in types such as Ding ware . The wares were already exported to

3465-539: The "useful" tablewares were still made in Burslem. In 1769 Wedgwood established a partnership with Thomas Bentley , who soon moved to London and ran the operations there. Only the "ornamental" wares such as vases are marked "Wedgwood & Bentley" and those so marked are at an extra level of quality. The extensive correspondence between Wedgwood and Bentley, who was from a landowning background, show Wedgwood often relied on his advice on artistic questions. Wedgwood felt

3570-661: The 18th century many were still well-modelled and carefully painted. Instead Wedgwood concentrated on more sculptural figures, and produced many busts or small relief portrait plaques of celebrities, both types of high quality. The subjects were generally notably serious: politicians and royalty, famous scientists and writers. Many were small, with the oval shape usual in the painted portrait miniature ; others were larger. They were probably generally intended for framing; many examples still retain their frames. Many subjects reflected Wedgwood's religious and political views, Unitarian and somewhat Radical respectively, in particular what

3675-615: The 18th century was based on soft-paste porcelain, and refined earthenwares such as creamware , which could compete with porcelain, and had devastated the faience industries of France and other continental countries by the end of the century. Most English porcelain from the late 18th century to the present is bone china. In the twenty-five years after Briand's demonstration, a number of factories were founded in England to make soft-paste tableware and figures: Porcelain has been used for electrical insulators since at least 1878, with another source reporting earlier use of porcelain insulators on

3780-604: The 20th century. Exports to Europe began around 1660, through the Chinese and the Dutch East India Company , the only Europeans allowed a trading presence. Chinese exports had been seriously disrupted by civil wars as the Ming dynasty fell apart, and the Japanese exports increased rapidly to fill the gap. At first the wares used European shapes and mostly Chinese decoration, as the Chinese had done, but gradually original Japanese styles developed. Nabeshima ware

3885-573: The Art Fund , various trusts and businesses contributed donations to purchase the collection. On 1 December 2014, the collection was purchased and donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum . The collection will continue to be on display at the Wedgwood Museum on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Minton Archive comprises papers and drawings of the designs, manufacture and production of

3990-622: The French Jesuit father Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles and soon published in the Lettres édifiantes et curieuses de Chine par des missionnaires jésuites . The secrets, which d'Entrecolles read about and witnessed in China, were now known and began seeing use in Europe. Von Tschirnhaus along with Johann Friedrich Böttger were employed by Augustus II , King of Poland and Elector of Saxony , who sponsored their work in Dresden and in

4095-604: The German state of Saxony , the search concluded in 1708 when Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus produced a hard, white, translucent type of porcelain specimen with a combination of ingredients, including kaolin and alabaster , mined from a Saxon mine in Colditz . It was a closely guarded trade secret of the Saxon enterprise. In 1712, many of the elaborate Chinese porcelain manufacturing secrets were revealed throughout Europe by

4200-529: The Hewelke factory, which only lasted from 1758 to 1763. The soft-paste Cozzi factory fared better, lasting from 1764 to 1812. The Le Nove factory produced from about 1752 to 1773, then was revived from 1781 to 1802. The first soft-paste in England was demonstrated by Thomas Briand to the Royal Society in 1742 and is believed to have been based on the Saint-Cloud formula. In 1749, Thomas Frye took out

4305-535: The Jakarta factory employed 1,500 persons producing bone china under both Wedgwood and Royal Doulton brands. Annual production was reported to be 5 to 7 million pieces. In order to reduce costs the majority of production of both brands has been transferred to Indonesia, with only a small number of high-end products continuing to be made in the UK. In May 2015, Fiskars , a Finnish maker of home products, agreed to buy 100% of

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4410-497: The Ming dynasty, and in 1598, Dutch merchants followed. Some porcelains were more highly valued than others in imperial China. The most valued types can be identified by their association with the court, either as tribute offerings, or as products of kilns under imperial supervision. Since the Yuan dynasty , the largest and best centre of production has made Jingdezhen porcelain . During the Ming dynasty, Jingdezhen porcelain had become

4515-552: The Waterford Wedgwood group assets. Assets including Wedgwood, Waterford and Royal Doulton were placed into WWRD Holdings Limited. On 5   January 2009, following years of financial problems at group level, and after a failed share placement during the 2007–2008 financial crisis , Waterford Wedgwood was placed into administration on a "going concern" basis, with 1,800 employees remaining. On 27   February 2009, Waterford Wedgwood's receiver Deloitte announced that

4620-635: The Wedgwood complex in Barlaston . China (material) The manufacturing process used for porcelain is similar to that used for earthenware and stoneware , the two other main types of pottery, although it can be more challenging to produce. It has usually been regarded as the most prestigious type of pottery due to its delicacy, strength, and high degree of whiteness. It is frequently both glazed and decorated. Though definitions vary, porcelain can be divided into three main categories: hard-paste , soft-paste , and bone china . The categories differ in

4725-468: The additional advantage of being relatively light, saving on transport costs and import tariffs in foreign markets. It caused considerable disruption to the makers of European faience and delftware , then the main European tableware bodies; some went out of business and others adopted English-style bodies themselves. Wedgwood developed a number of further industrial innovations for his company, notably

4830-511: The basic ingredients for most continental European hard-paste porcelains. Soft-paste porcelains date back to early attempts by European potters to replicate Chinese porcelain by using mixtures of clay and frit . Soapstone and lime are known to have been included in these compositions. These wares were not yet actual porcelain wares, as they were neither hard nor vitrified by firing kaolin clay at high temperatures. As these early formulations suffered from high pyroplastic deformation, or slumping in

4935-436: The ceramic body approaches whiteness and translucency. In 2021, the global market for porcelain tableware was estimated to be worth US$ 22.1 billion. Hard-paste porcelain was invented in China, and it was also used in Japanese porcelain . Most of the finest quality porcelain wares are made of this material. The earliest European porcelains were produced at the Meissen factory in the early 18th century; they were formed from

5040-612: The company's works, and he began to do so. The first formal museum was opened in May 1906, with a curator named Isaac Cook, at the main (Etruria) works. The contents of the museum were stored for the duration of the Second World War and relaunched in a gallery at the new Barlaston factory in 1952. A new purpose-built visitor centre and museum was built in Barlaston in 1975 and remodelled in 1985, with pieces displayed near items from

5145-429: The composition of the body and the firing conditions. Porcelain slowly evolved in China and was finally achieved (depending on the definition used) at some point about 2,000 to 1,200 years ago. It slowly spread to other East Asian countries, then to Europe, and eventually to the rest of the world. The European name, porcelain in English, comes from the old Italian porcellana ( cowrie shell ) because of its resemblance to

5250-498: The content of water can produce large changes in workability. Thus, the range of water content within which these clays can be worked is very narrow and consequently must be carefully controlled. Porcelain can be made using all the shaping techniques for pottery. Biscuit porcelain is unglazed porcelain treated as a finished product, mostly for figures and sculpture. Unlike their lower-fired counterparts, porcelain wares do not need glazing to render them impermeable to liquids and for

5355-476: The craft into the native population in the Philippines , although oral literature from Cebu in the central Philippines have noted that porcelain were already being produced by the natives locally during the time of Cebu's early rulers, prior to the arrival of colonizers in the 16th century. Olive green glaze was introduced in the late Silla Dynasty . Most ceramics from Silla are generally leaf-shaped, which

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5460-496: The deaths of Bentley in 1780 and the retirement of Josiah Wedgwood in 1790 (he died in 1795). By 1800 it had about 300 employees in Staffordshire. The Napoleonic Wars made exporting to Europe impossible for long periods, and left export markets in disarray. Thomas Byerley , Josiah's nephew, became a partner and was mainly in charge for some years, as Josiah's sons John, known as Jack , and Josiah II ("Joss") , who joined

5565-639: The defunct pottery company Mintons . It was acquired by Waterford Wedgwood in 2005 along with other assets of the Royal Doulton group. In the event, the Archive was presented by the Art Fund to the City of Stoke-on-Trent, but it was envisaged that some material would be displayed at Barlaston as well as the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery . Wedgwood railway station was opened in 1940 to serve

5670-595: The end of the 18th century other Staffordshire manufacturers introduced bone china as an alternative to translucent and delicate Chinese porcelain. By 1811 Byerley, as manager of the London shop, wrote back to Stoke that "Every day we are asked for China Tea Ware—our sales of it would be immense if we had any—Earthenware Teaware is quite out of fashion...", and in response in 1812 Wedgwood first produced their own bone china, with hand-painting. However West End taste did not perhaps represent all of Wedgwood's markets, and it

5775-554: The end of the period. While Xing ware is regarded as among the greatest of the Tang dynasty porcelain, Ding ware became the premier porcelain of the Song dynasty. By the Ming dynasty , production of the finest wares for the court was concentrated in a single city, and Jingdezhen porcelain , originally owned by the imperial government, remains the centre of Chinese porcelain production. By

5880-431: The factory had 445 employees. As well as updated versions of wares from the previous century, bathroom ceramics such as sinks and lavatories had been important in recent decades, and Wedgwood's reputation for technical and design innovation had sunk considerably. However, they did introduce porcelain (see below), lustre ware by 1810, a form of Parian ware they called "Carrara" in 1848, and a "Stone China" from about 1827,

5985-421: The fashion for Neoclassicism , with a great variety of classical subjects, but mostly avoiding nudity. The smaller ones were intended to be set in jewellery, sometimes in steel by Matthew Boulton 's factory, and larger sizes might be framed for hanging, or inset in architectural features like fireplace mantels, mouldings and furniture. Smallest of all were many button designs. The firm lost some momentum after

6090-542: The final appearance was not dissimilar to transfer printing, but each image was unique. Also at Catherine's request, each piece carries a green frog. Although Wedgwood was paid just over £2,700 he barely made a profit, but milked the prestige of the commission, exhibiting the service in his London showroom before delivery. Wedgwood's best known product is Jasperware, created to look like ancient Roman cameo glass , itself imitating cameo gems . The most popular jasperware colour has always been "Wedgwood blue" (a darker shade

6195-539: The firm only on Josiah I's retirement, had developed other interests, in particular horticulture . After Waterloo in 1815, there was a dramatic drop in the vital exports to America. Byerley's death in 1810 forced the brothers to confront the reality of the financial situation, as they needed to buy out his widow. Between the partners and other debtors, the firm was owed some £67,000, a huge sum. Joss bought Jack out, and continued as sole owner. Wedgwood continued to grow under Jack and his son Francis Wedgwood , and by 1859

6300-510: The glaze off; this is a fairly common feature of Longquan celadon (which is porcelain in Chinese terms), and also found in Ming dragons. Some Chinese pieces are described as "porcelain with polychrome enamels on the biscuit" – that is, using the normal "overglaze" technique on biscuit, but with no actual glaze, often a revivalist style evoking earlier sancai wares (which were not in porcelain). The laborious and mostly 19th-century pâte-sur-pâte technique often uses biscuit for at least one of

6405-519: The group was renamed Waterford Wedgwood plc. From early 1987 to early 1989, the CEO was Patrick Byrne, previously of Ford , who then became CEO of the whole group. During this time, he sold off non-core businesses and reduced the range of Wedgwood patterns from over 400 to around 240. In the late 1990s, the CEO was Brian Patterson. From 1   January 2001, the Deputy CEO was Tony O'Reilly, Junior , who

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6510-527: The holdings of WWRD. On 2 July 2015, the acquisition of WWRD by Fiskars was completed, including the brands Waterford, Wedgwood, Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Rogaška. The acquisition was approved by the US antitrust authorities. In 2015 there were complaints of misleading labelling, in that products made in the company's Indonesian factory were sold labelled "Wedgwood England". Wedgwood's founder wrote as early as 1774 that he wished he had preserved samples of all

6615-526: The kiln at high temperatures, they were uneconomic to produce and of low quality. Formulations were later developed based on kaolin with quartz, feldspars, nepheline syenite , or other feldspathic rocks. These are technically superior and continue to be produced. Soft-paste porcelains are fired at lower temperatures than hard-paste porcelains; therefore, these wares are generally less hard than hard-paste porcelains. Although originally developed in England in 1748 to compete with imported porcelain, bone china

6720-489: The last of which was not especially successful. Neoclassicism was now less fashionable, and one response was to add floral enamels to black basalt wares from around 1805. Godfrey Wedgwood , Josiah I's great-grandson became a partner in 1859, and had considerable success reviving the firm in both these areas, in what was generally a successful period for British pottery. Wedgwood's first decades of success came from producing wares that looked very like porcelain, and had broadly

6825-423: The loss keenly when Bentley died in 1780. Wedgwood's slightly younger friend, William Greatbatch , had followed a similar career path, training with Whieldon and then starting his own firm around 1762. He was a fine modeller, especially of moulds for tablewares, and probably did most of Wedgwood's earlier moulds as an outside contractor. After some twenty years, Greatbatch's firm went under in 1782, and by 1786 he

6930-401: The most part are glazed for decorative purposes and to make them resistant to dirt and staining. Many types of glaze, such as the iron-containing glaze used on the celadon wares of Longquan , were designed specifically for their striking effects on porcelain. Porcelain often receives underglaze decoration using pigments that include cobalt oxide and copper, or overglaze enamels , allowing

7035-414: The most popular colours, though there are several others. Jasperware has been made continuously by the firm since 1775, and also much imitated. In the 18th century, however, it was table china in the refined earthenware creamware that represented most of the sales and profits. In the later 19th century, it returned to being a leader in design and technical innovation, as well as continuing to make many of

7140-425: The old factory works in cabinets of similar period. A video theatre was added and a new gift shop, as well as an expanded demonstration area, where visitors could watch pottery being made. A further renovation costing £4.5 million was carried out in 2000, including access to the main factory itself. Adjacent to the museum and visitor centre are a restaurant and tea room, serving on Wedgwood ware. The museum, managed by

7245-504: The older styles. Despite increasing local competition in its export markets, the business continued to flourish in the 19th and early 20th centuries, remaining in the hands of the Wedgwood family, but after World War II it began to contract, along with the rest of the English pottery industry. After buying a number of other Staffordshire ceramics companies, in 1987 Wedgwood merged with Waterford Crystal to create Waterford Wedgwood plc , an Ireland-based luxury brands group. In 1995 Wedgwood

7350-515: The other dry-bodied stonewares, were decorative designs that were highly influenced by the ancient cultures being studied and rediscovered at that time, especially as Great Britain was expanding its empire . Many motifs were taken from ancient mythologies: Roman, Greek and Egyptian. Meanwhile, archaeological fever caught the imagination of many artists. Nothing could have been more suitable to satisfy this huge business demand than to produce replicas of ancient artefacts. From 1787 to 1794 Wedgwood even ran

7455-480: The porcelain to a maximum of 1200 °C in an oxidising atmosphere, whereas reduction firing is standard practice at Chinese manufacturers. In 2018, a porcelain bushing insulator manufactured by NGK in Handa , Aichi Prefecture , Japan was certified as the world's largest ceramic structure by Guinness World Records . It is 11.3 m in height and 1.5 m in diameter. The global market for high-voltage insulators

7560-442: The properties of the porcelain, such as ASTM C515. A porcelain tile has been defined as 'a ceramic mosaic tile or paver that is generally made by the dust-pressed method of a composition resulting in a tile that is dense, fine-grained, and smooth with sharply formed face, usually impervious and having colors of the porcelain type which are usually of a clear, luminous type or granular blend thereof.' Manufacturers are found across

7665-572: The reputation of British ceramic art than any other manufacturer", exporting across Europe as far as Russia, and to the Americas. It was especially successful at producing fine earthenware and stoneware that were accepted as equivalent in quality to porcelain (which Wedgwood only made later), though considerably less expensive. Wedgwood is especially associated with the "dry-bodied" (unglazed) stoneware Jasperware in contrasting colours, and in particular that in "Wedgwood blue" and white, always much

7770-671: The research was still being supervised by Tschirnhaus; however, he died in October of that year. It was left to Böttger to report to Augustus in March 1709 that he could make porcelain. For this reason, credit for the European discovery of porcelain is traditionally ascribed to him rather than Tschirnhaus. The Meissen factory was established in 1710 after the development of a kiln and a glaze suitable for use with Böttger's porcelain, which required firing at temperatures of up to 1,400 °C (2,552 °F) to achieve translucence. Meissen porcelain

7875-431: The same qualities, though not quite as tough, nor as translucent. During Josiah's lifetime and some time afterwards Wedgwood did not make porcelain itself. European factories had increasing success with porcelain, both soft-paste in England and France, and hard-paste mostly in Germany, which were still competing with Japanese and Chinese export porcelain , which were very popular, though expensive, in Europe. Towards

7980-433: The second half of the 18th century, as Neoclassicism dominated contemporary styles. It was first used at Vincennes porcelain in 1751 by Jean-Jacques Bachelier . Biscuit figures have to be free from the common small imperfections that a glaze and painted decoration could cover up, and were therefore usually more expensive than glazed ones. They are also more difficult to keep clean. A popular use for biscuit porcelain

8085-510: The soft-paste Medici porcelain in 16th-century Florence was the first real European attempt to reproduce it, with little success. Early in the 16th century, Portuguese traders returned home with samples of kaolin, which they discovered in China to be essential in the production of porcelain wares. However, the Chinese techniques and composition used to manufacture porcelain were not yet fully understood. Countless experiments to produce porcelain had unpredictable results and met with failure. In

8190-412: The start of the 19th century, and as Japan opened to trade in the second half, exports expanded hugely and quality generally declined. Much traditional porcelain continues to replicate older methods of production and styles, and there are several modern industrial manufacturers. By the early 1900s, Filipino porcelain artisans working in Japanese porcelain centres for much of their lives, later on introduced

8295-403: The style, with a "Wedgwood blue" ground and the design in white biscuit porcelain in low relief . These were applied as sprigs , meaning that they made separately as thin pieces, and stuck to the main blue body before firing. The plaques are framed like paintings; they were made between 1790 and 1795. The figure by the same factory illustrated here uses elements modelled in a coloured paste, and

8400-635: The surface of the shell. Porcelain is also referred to as china or fine china in some English-speaking countries, as it was first seen in imports from China during the 17th century. Properties associated with porcelain include low permeability and elasticity ; considerable strength , hardness , whiteness, translucency , and resonance ; and a high resistance to corrosive chemicals and thermal shock . Porcelain has been described as being "completely vitrified, hard, impermeable (even before glazing), white or artificially coloured, translucent (except when of considerable thickness), and resonant". However,

8505-509: The telegraph line between Frankfurt and Berlin. It is widely used for insulators in electrical power transmission system due to its high stability of electrical, mechanical and thermal properties even in harsh environments. A body for electrical porcelain typically contains varying proportions of ball clay, kaolin, feldspar, quartz, calcined alumina and calcined bauxite. A variety of secondary materials can also be used, such as binders which burn off during firing. UK manufacturers typically fired

8610-540: The term "porcelain" lacks a universal definition and has "been applied in an unsystematic fashion to substances of diverse kinds that have only certain surface-qualities in common". Traditionally, East Asia only classifies pottery into low-fired wares (earthenware) and high-fired wares (often translated as porcelain), the latter also including what Europeans call "stoneware", which is high-fired but not generally white or translucent. Terms such as "proto-porcelain", "porcellaneous", or "near-porcelain" may be used in cases where

8715-486: The time of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 CE), porcelain wares were being exported to Asia and Europe. Some of the most well-known Chinese porcelain art styles arrived in Europe during this era, such as the coveted " blue-and-white " wares. The Ming dynasty controlled much of the porcelain trade, which was expanded to Asia, Africa and Europe via the Silk Road . In 1517, Portuguese merchants began direct trade by sea with

8820-577: The touch. It has been widely used in European pottery , mainly for sculptural and decorative objects that are not tableware and so do not need a glaze for protection. The term " biscuit " refers to any type of fired but unglazed pottery in the course of manufacture, but only in porcelain is biscuit or bisque a term for a final product. Unglazed earthenware as a final product is often called terracotta , and in stoneware equivalent unglazed wares (such as jasperware ) are often called "dry-bodied". Many types of pottery, including most porcelain wares, have

8925-483: The town of Meissen . Tschirnhaus had a wide knowledge of science and had been involved in the European quest to perfect porcelain manufacture when, in 1705, Böttger was appointed to assist him in this task. Böttger had originally been trained as a pharmacist; after he turned to alchemical research, he claimed to have known the secret of transmuting dross into gold, which attracted the attention of Augustus. Imprisoned by Augustus as an incentive to hasten his research, Böttger

9030-501: The typical type of Staffordshire figures , white earthenware standing figurines of people or animals that by about 1770 were usually brightly painted, though sometimes sold in plain glazed white. These imitated rather successfully the porcelain figures pioneered by Meissen porcelain , a style which by about 1770 was being produced by the majority of porcelain factories, on the continent and in Britain. Though Staffordshire figures fell precipitously in price and quality after about 1820, in

9135-605: The unfired material is "body"; for example, when buying materials a potter might order an amount of porcelain body from a vendor. The composition of porcelain is highly variable, but the clay mineral kaolinite is often a raw material. Other raw materials can include feldspar, ball clay , glass, bone ash , steatite , quartz, petuntse and alabaster . The clays used are often described as being long or short, depending on their plasticity . Long clays are cohesive (sticky) and have high plasticity; short clays are less cohesive and have lower plasticity. In soil mechanics , plasticity

9240-434: The usual way. A Chelsea-Derby figure of George II of Great Britain (1773–1774) leaning on a classical plinth and standing on a high base has only the figure in biscuit. This part-glazing also occurs in other types of pottery, and for example is very common in the earthenware Chinese Tang dynasty tomb figures . Other pieces "reserve" areas in biscuit, by giving them a temporary coating of wax or something similar to keep

9345-617: The wet state, or because they tend to slump in the kiln under high temperature, or because the body and the glaze can be easily scratched. Experiments at Rouen produced the earliest soft-paste in France, but the first important French soft-paste porcelain was made at the Saint-Cloud factory before 1702. Soft-paste factories were established with the Chantilly manufactory in 1730 and at Mennecy in 1750. The Vincennes porcelain factory

9450-630: The world with Italy being the global leader, producing over 380 million square metres in 2006. Historic examples of rooms decorated entirely in porcelain tiles can be found in several palaces including ones at Galleria Sabauda in Turin , Museo di Doccia in Sesto Fiorentino , Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, the Royal Palace of Madrid and the nearby Royal Palace of Aranjuez . and

9555-545: Was once-fired , or green-fired . It was noted for its great resistance to thermal shock ; a visitor to the factory in Böttger's time reported having seen a white-hot teapot being removed from the kiln and dropped into cold water without damage. Although widely disbelieved this has been replicated in modern times. In 1744, Elizabeth of Russia signed an agreement to establish the first porcelain manufactory; previously it had to be imported. The technology of making "white gold"

9660-487: Was a Wedgwood employee, continuing for over twenty years until he retired in 1807, on generous terms specified in Wedgwood's will. In the early period he seems also to have acted as agent for Wedgwood on trips to London, and after Wedgwood's retirement he may have in effect managed the Etruria works. Wedgwood was an early adopter of the English invention of transfer printing , which allowed printed designs, for long only in

9765-447: Was a tough body in solid black, much used for classical revival styles. Wedgwood developed an attractive reddish stoneware he called rosso antico ("ancient red") This was often combined with black basalt. This was followed by caneware or bamboo ware, the same colour as bamboo and often modelled to look as though objects were made of the plant; first introduced in 1770, but mostly used between 1785 and 1810. Generally Wedgwood avoided

9870-584: Was acquired in July 2015 by Fiskars , a Finnish consumer goods company. Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795), came from an established family of potters, and trained with his elder brother. He was in partnership with the leading potter, Thomas Whieldon , from 1754 until 1759, when a new green ceramic glaze he had developed encouraged him to start a new business on his own. Relatives leased him the Ivy House in Burslem , Stoke-on-Trent, and his marriage to Sarah Wedgwood,

9975-596: Was appointed CEO in November of the same year and resigned in September 2005. He was succeeded by the then-president of Wedgwood USA, Moira Gavin, up until the company went into administration in January 2009. In 2001, Wedgwood launched a collaboration with designer Jasper Conran , which started with a white fine bone china collection then expanded to include seven patterns. In March 2009, KPS Capital Partners acquired

10080-695: Was carefully hidden by its creators. Peter the Great had tried to reveal the "big porcelain secret", and sent an agent to the Meissen factory, and finally hired a porcelain master from abroad. This relied on the research of the Russian scientist Dmitry Ivanovich Vinogradov . His development of porcelain manufacturing technology was not based on secrets learned through third parties, but was the result of painstaking work and careful analysis. Thanks to this, by 1760, Imperial Porcelain Factory, Saint Petersburg became

10185-428: Was established in 1740, moving to larger premises at Sèvres in 1756. Vincennes soft-paste was whiter and freer of imperfections than any of its French rivals, which put Vincennes/Sèvres porcelain in the leading position in France and throughout the whole of Europe in the second half of the 18th century. Doccia porcelain of Florence was founded in 1735 and remains in production, unlike Capodimonte porcelain which

10290-506: Was estimated to be worth US$ 4.95 billion in 2015, of which porcelain accounts for just over 48%. A type of porcelain characterised by low thermal expansion, high mechanical strength and high chemical resistance. Used for laboratory ware, such as reaction vessels, combustion boats, evaporating dishes and Büchner funnels . Raw materials for the body include kaolin, quartz, feldspar, calcined alumina, and possibly also low percentages of other materials. A number of International standards specify

10395-435: Was granted a Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II , and the business was featured in a BBC Four series entitled Handmade by Royal Appointment alongside other Warrant holders Steinway , John Lobb Bootmaker and House of Benney . After a 2009 purchase by KPS Capital Partners , a New York–based private equity firm, the group became known as WWRD Holdings Limited , an initialism for "Waterford Wedgwood Royal Doulton". This

10500-409: Was made from two parts of bone ash , one part of kaolin , and one part of china stone , although the latter has been replaced by feldspars from non-UK sources. Kaolin is the primary material from which porcelain is made, even though clay minerals might account for only a small proportion of the whole. The word paste is an old term for both unfired and fired materials. A more common terminology for

10605-499: Was moved from Naples to Madrid by its royal owner , after producing from 1743 to 1759. After a gap of 15 years Naples porcelain was produced from 1771 to 1806, specializing in Neoclassical styles. All these were very successful, with large outputs of high-quality wares. In and around Venice , Francesco Vezzi was producing hard-paste from around 1720 to 1735; survivals of Vezzi porcelain are very rare, but less so than from

10710-479: Was not the huge commercial success promised, and after thinking of doing so in 1814, the firm finally stopped making it in 1822. But when revived in 1878 it eventually became an important part of production. From very early on Josiah Wedgwood was determined to maintain high artistic standards, which was an important part of his efforts to appeal to the top end of the market with pottery rather than porcelain wares. He relied considerably on Bentley in London in this, as

10815-399: Was obliged to work with other alchemists in the futile search for transmutation and was eventually assigned to assist Tschirnhaus. One of the first results of the collaboration between the two was the development of a red stoneware that resembled that of Yixing . A workshop note records that the first specimen of hard, white and vitrified European porcelain was produced in 1708. At the time,

10920-462: Was produced in kilns owned by the families of feudal lords, and were decorated in the Japanese tradition, much of it related to textile design. This was not initially exported, but used for gifts to other aristocratic families. Imari ware and Kakiemon are broad terms for styles of export porcelain with overglaze "enamelled" decoration begun in the early period, both with many sub-types. A great range of styles and manufacturing centres were in use by

11025-402: Was the manufacture of bisque dolls in the 19th century, where the porcelain was typically tinted or painted in flesh tones. In the doll world, "bisque" is usually the term used, rather than "biscuit". Parian ware is a 19th-century type of biscuit. Lithophanes were normally made with biscuit. Although the great majority of biscuit figures (other than dolls) are entirely in white, there are

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