Library Highlight: Josiah Wedgwood and His Pottery by William Burton

Pale “Wedgwood Blue” Jasperware. © Ruthmere Museum 2021. Photo by Steve Toepp, Midwest Photography

By now, many of you are likely aware of the upcoming exhibit at Ruthmere, Beyond Wedgwood Blue, which will be featured at the Havilah Beardsley House from July 6th through September 30th, 2021. For those of you who aren’t - hey, have you heard? We’re having an exhibit this summer called Beyond Wedgwood Blue. Wedgwood, an English company established in the mid-1700s by Josiah Wedgwood, has been producing exquisite, well-crafted pottery for centuries. Their most well-known type of ceramic is the pale blue Jasperware, identified by its neoclassical white reliefs. However, our chosen exhibit title should hopefully make it obvious that we are showcasing so much more than what is well-known Wedgwood - we are going Beyond the Wedgwood Jasper blue and exploring the breadth of Wedgwood’s rich history of ceramics.

The Arts Reference Library

Plaque for the R. B. B. Arts Reference Library, on the exterior wall of Ruthmere’s garage

This exhibit is a huge step for Ruthmere as we begin a (hopefully) long-lasting trend of hosting or creating temporary special exhibits. Creating an exhibit from scratch is a lengthy, complicated process with many working parts, so in our closed period and between tours, we’ve been collecting, curating, writing, and designing to make sure this exhibit is a strong debut. The research has undoubtedly been one of the best parts, and by now everyone on our exhibit team is a Wedgwood expert. Luckily, a lot of the necessary knowledge was already at our fingertips. The Robert B. Beardsley Arts Reference Library (above our little car collection in the garage) has a number of Wedgwood books, all of which have been invaluable resources. There is one book in particular that I’d like to highlight due to its rarity, age, and value: Josiah Wedgwood and His Pottery by William Burton.

When this book was published, Albert and Elizabeth Beardsley were still living at Ruthmere. It is an original edition from 1922, which its fragility makes quite apparent. Near the front of the book, there is an annotation that reads: “This Edition is limited to fifteen hundred copies (1,000 for England and 500 for the United States of America), of which this is No. 1354.” The number is hand-written in. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been invigorated by the feel of holding something older than me, my parents, my grandparents, and their parents. It’s part of the reason I became interested in museum work in the first place - the historical weight of objects and their ability to tell stories (in this case, literally). The fact that it is one of only 1,500 copies makes it all the more important to our library collection. It’s just so cool! I’m a book nerd, what can I say?

Burton, the author, states in an introduction that he was a chemist for the Josiah Wedgwood and Sons firm for about 5 years, making him uniquely qualified to talk about the different types of wares produced by the company over time. After doing some research, I found a few more tidbits of information about Burton online. After completing his education (studying at the Royal College of Science from 1885-1887) and getting married, he worked as a chemist at Wedgwood from approximately 1887-1891. He left Wedgwood to work as the Manager of the Pilkington’s Lancastrian Pottery & Tiles company (what a mouthful) in Clifton, England. Burton was heavily inspired by the Arts & Crafts Movement, and in particular the works of William Morris and John Ruskin. Between the two companies, Burton gained enough experience with the world of English pottery that he was prepared to write the book on the subject.

Burton wrote, “No title of honour was ever more fully earned or justly deserved than that of ‘Master Potter’ bestowed, by general acclaim, on Josiah Wedgwood.” In colorful language, Burton recites the history of Wedgwood’s beginnings as a company, and then proceeds to reveal how each type of ware was produced. Burton’s work as a chemist bleeds into his words as he describes the chemical processes, materials, and experimentation that went into making Wedgwood’s formulas. His narrative weaves seamlessly between the history of the company and the nitty gritty of the science behind it all, providing photos with excellent visual examples. 72 of the photos are black and white - but most of Wedgwood’s pieces are dependent on color for the full stunning effect of their appearance. To that end, the 32 color photographs were placed into the pages, glued into the book (they probably had to print it on a different printer), protected by tissue paper with the object label printed on. One must be careful, though, as many of the pictures have lost their adhesive. The objects shown in the book were (at the time) mostly owned by the British Museum or the V&A Museum in London. A few of them, such as a lavender ware coffee pot and sugar box, belonged to Burton himself.

An excerpt:

“The jasper body stands apart from the usual types of earthenware, stoneware, or porcelain because of the great proportion of the barytes minerals in its composition, but it has many merits as a material in which the potter can display the utmost refinements of his skill. These were utilized to the full by Wedgwood, for besides producing a fine white porcelain-like material from such mixtures as those just given, he found that it could be readily and uniformly stained by the ordinary mineral oxides which are used in colouring pottery, to various tones of blue, green, lilac and yellow, as well as to an intense black (richer and fuller in tone than the black basalt). Its invention and gradual perfection must be regarded as Josiah Wedgwood’s crowning achievement in a lifetime of experiment; he had arrived at it by unwearied research and as the result of endless trials, while no other potter is known to have produced it unless he had first acquired some knowledge of Wedgwood’s formula.” - p.69

We will similarly tell the story of Josiah Wedgwood and the history of his several different types of wares in Beyond Wedgwood Blue, but this book provides in-depth, more scientific details for history or pottery enthusiasts wishing to know more. Give us a call at (574) 264-0330 to make an appointment for the Robert B. Beardsley Arts Reference Library if you’d like to view this or any other book from our extensive collection of references relating to art and architecture.