Josiah Wedgwood
"Josiah Wedgwood was born into a family of potters on 12 July 1730, at Burslem, Staffordshire. His father's death in 1739 led him to an early start working as a 'thrower' in the pottery of his eldest brother, Thomas, to whom he was later apprenticed. An attack of smallpox seriously weakened Josiah, and in 1768 he had to have his right leg amputated. This meant he was forced to abandon throwing, but he subsequently gained a wider insight into the potter's craft - for example the work of the 'modeller' - and this encouraged his love of experimentation.
Thomas refused Josiah a partnership in the business, so the younger man moved first to a small pottery run by John Harrison, then more happily to the firm of Thomas Wheildon of Fenton. From there, he opened works of his own, first at his cousin's Ivy House and later at the Brick House factory. At these works, Wedgwood made many models himself, and also prepared clay mixes. In June 1769, he opened a new factory at Etruria, near Stoke-on-Trent, in partnership with Thomas Bentley. Attached to the factory was a village where Wedgwood's workmen and their families could live in decent surroundings.
Wedgwood greatly improved the clumsy ordinary crockery of the day, introducing durable, simple and regular wares. His cream coloured earthenware was christened 'Queen's Ware' after Queen Charlotte, who appointed him queen's potter in 1762. Other eminent patrons included Empress Catherine II of Russia, who ordered 952 such pieces in 1774.
Wedgwood experimented with barium sulphate (caulk), and from it produced jasper, in 1773. Jasperware, which is used for a whole host of ornaments, blends metallic oxides, often blue, with separately moulded reliefs, generally white. Some such reliefs were designed for Wedgwood by John Flaxman. Other wares included black basaltes, frequently enhanced by 'encaustic' colours like red, to imitate Greek vases.
Wedgwood was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1783, primarily for inventing the pyrometer to measure oven temperatures. He took a keen interest, too, in efficient factory organisation, and in improving the transport of raw materials and finished wares by canals, such as the Grand Trunk Canal, and by road.
In 1780, when Wedgwood's long-term business partner died, he asked his friend Erasmus Darwin for help. Darwin's son would later marry Wedgwood's daughter, and they were the parents of Charles Darwin, the naturalist who formulated the theory of evolution. Charles would himself, in turn, marry a Wedgwood.
When Wedgwood died on 3rd January 1795 he left a thriving business and a fortune to his children."
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The Statue
The original idea for erecting the statue of Wedgwood was Joseph Mayer's. On 24 January 1859 a Statue Committee was formed following a meeting chaired by the Mayor of Hanley, John Ridgway.
The reason for siting the work in front of the railway station rather than anywhere more central was that it would therefore be on the boundary of Hanley and Stoke-on-Trent, both of whom laid claim to being the home of Wedgwood.
It was the Statue Committee's decision rather than the artist's that Wedgwood should be depicted together with his famous achievement, the Portland vase. The artist initially submitted a model with the vase standing on a pedestal next to Wedgwood, but this was changed in favour of the current design showing him in the pose he had adopted when lecturing about his production after it was decided that the figure should be in bronze rather than stone.
The inauguration of the statue was delayed for about a year while it was shown at the International Exhibition of 1862. A contemporary critic from the London Illustrated News described it as 'a thoroughly sound and manly work of art, the likeness being founded on a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds'. He spoke of the great novelty of the design lying in the absence of any conventional pedestal depicting 'pitchers, pillar, pile of books, stump of tree, heap of machines, hanging drapery of cloak or what not - an innovation which cannot be too highly commended'.
The unveiling ceremony for the statue included processions from each of Stoke-on-Trent's six towns, and an extravagant meal for the gathered dignitaries at the North Stafford Hotel.
The statue was unveiled by the Earl of Harrowby."
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The Inscription On Rear of the Statue
ERECTED
BY
PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION
INAUGURATED
BY THE RIGHT HON
THE EARL OF HARROWSKY. K. C.
24 FEB 1863
The Earl of Harrowby
"Dudley Ryder, 2nd Earl of Harrowby KG, PC, FRS (19 May 1798 – 19 November 1882), styled Viscount Sandon between 1809 and 1847, was a British politician. He held office under Lord Palmerston as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1855 and as Lord Privy Seal between 1855 and 1858.
Harrowby was born in London, the son of Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby, and Lady Susan (d. 1838), daughter of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He was an officer of the Staffordshire Yeomanry, resigning his captain's commission in March 1831.
Harrowby was elected Member of Parliament for Tiverton in 1819, a seat he held until 1831 before switching to represent Liverpool until 1847. He served as a Lord of the Admiralty in 1827 and as Secretary to the Board of Control under Lord Grey between 1830 and 1831. He remained out of office for a long time, but in 1855, eight years after he had succeeded his father as Earl of Harrowby, he was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster by Lord Palmerston, becoming a Privy Counsellor at the same time. In a few months he was transferred to the office of Lord Privy Seal, a position which he resigned in 1858. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1859.
Harrowby was also three times President of the Royal Statistical Society (1840–1842, 1849–1851, 1855–1857), chairman of the Maynooth commission and a member of other important royal commissions. He was regarded as among the most stalwart and prominent defenders of the Church of England.
Lord Harrowby married Lady Frances, daughter of John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute, in 1823. She died in March 1859. Harrowby remained a widower until his death at Sandon Hall on 19 November 1882, aged 84. He was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, Dudley."
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