Wedgwood

Wedgwood is an English fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer. It was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter Josiah Wedgwood in Stoke on Trent. The firm was very successful in the eighteenth century. They had huge sales all over Europe and America, but his descendants were less successful. The firm was based in Etruria, next to the Trent and Mersey canal in Burslem until 1938 when Josiah Wedgwood V moved it to a new site in Barlaston, a few miles to the south.

The move was successful and the firm was turned into a limited company in 1967. It took over many other pottery firms in Stoke. In 1986 there were 12,000 people working for the company across the world and it had sales of £152 million. In 1987 the company merged with Waterford Crystal. The new company was called Waterford Wedgwood plc. It took over companies in other countries and by 1999 it had $300 million debts. After 2001 it started sacking workers. In 2005 it bought the Royal Doulton company, which had a factory in Tangerang, Indonesia. The pottery was all made there. In 2008 it had debts of £470 million and assets of only £50 million. Most of the remaining workers were sacked.

The business was bought by Fiskars Group, a Finnish company in 2015.

Wedgwood Media

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  Typical "Wedgwood blue" jasperware (stoneware) plate with white sprigged reliefs.

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  Wedgwood pieces, c. 1930, c. 1950, 1885

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  A transfer printed creamware Wedgwood tea and coffee service. c. 1775, Victoria & Albert Museum, in the "Liverpool Birds" pattern. Fashionable but relatively cheap wares like these were the backbone of Wedgwood's early success.

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  Four creamware plates, transfer printed with stories from Aesop's Fables, the other decoration hand-painted. 1770s.

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  Serving-plate from the Frog Service with Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, c. 1774. Unusually, this is creamware with the elaborate view hand-painted.

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  Wedgwood Portland Vase, black jasperware, c. 1790, copying the Roman cameo glass original.

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  Am I Not a Man and a Brother? medallion, c. 1786

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  Teapot, 1805–1815, Rosso Antico ware, Egyptian Revival style

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  Wedgwood & Byerley in St James's Square; the London showroom in 1809

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  George Stubbs, Reapers, enamels on an earthenware plaque, 1795.