Case No. 19/2016-17 Executive Summary 1/ Brief description A WEDGWOOD ‘BLACK BASALT’, ‘ENCAUSTIC’-DECORATED ‘FIRST DAY’S VASE’ Thrown by Josiah Wedgwood and Thomas Bentley at the Etruria factory and decorated in the Bentley and Wedgwood decorating workshop in London, 1769 Oviform with curved upright loop handles, decorated in orange-red encaustic enamel with three classical figures above a titled frieze inscribed Artes Etruriae and renascuntur., the other side inscribed in encaustic enamel JUNE XIII .MDCC.LXIX./One of the first Days Productions/at/Etruria in Staffordshire,/by/Wedgwood and Bentley., above a band of palmettes, the neck moulded with bosses and decorated with a band of grass, the cover with a band of anthemion around a knop finial (finial cracked and restuck, minute chipping to rims) 10 in. (25.4 cm.) high 2/ Context Provenance: Josiah Wedgwood and hence, passed through generations of the Wedgwood family and since 1979 on long-term loan to the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Sold on 7 July 2016 at Christie’s The Exceptional Sale 2016, London, King Street, from the collection of the granddaughter of Cecil Wedgwood, Anne Makeig-Jones. Bibliography: Robin Reilly, Wedgwood, two Vols., London, 1989 Alison Kelly, The Story of Wedgwood, London, 1975 Hilary Young, The Genius of Wedgwood, London, 1995 Christie’s The Exceptional Sale 2016, Lot 320, London, King Street, 7 July 2016 3/ Waverley Criteria History The first day vase is one of only four surviving vases made by Josiah Wedgwood in person, working in partnership with Thomas Bentley on the opening day of their new factory Etruria, on 13th June 1769. This iconic vase is of great National importance. Made by one of the country's great heroes of the industrial revolution, it can be seen to represent the birth of one of the Nation's most important industries, one which was to dominate the area around Stoke-on-Trent for over 200 years. Aesthetics The vase is a particularly fine and pure example of English Neo-Classicism and one of the very first of its kind made in ceramics. Both the shape and its decoration are based on ancient Greek pottery. The ceramic body and the enamelling technique were specifically developed by Wedgwood to emulate Greek red-figured vases. The very fine figure decoration on this vase is attributed to William Hopkins Craft, the most skilled enamel painter in Wedgwood and Bentley's London decorating workshop. Scholarship The first day vases are crucial for the understanding of Wedgwood's drive to modernise his production and to market his fine wares to a rapidly expanding, style conscious clientele. The vases are the only products, known to have been thrown by Josiah Wedgwood himself, and the very first vases made at his model factory Etruria. The decoration was painted by hand in Wedgwood and Bentley's London decorating workshop, and the design on each of the four remaining vases is slightly different. Detailed case Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) was the most famous and important potter of the 18th century in Britain. He was responsible for some of the most striking ceramics produced at the time. Furthermore, his many inventions and technical innovations, the organisation and success of his model factory Etruria, and his innovative approach to marketing have secured his reputation as one of the leading figures of the industrial revolution in Britain. Brought up in a family of potters, Josiah learned how to throw in the workshop of his older brother Thomas. Josiah’s talent and ambition led him to various partnerships with leading potters of the time, before he started his own first factory around 1759. Wedgwood was a great innovator who kept detailed logs of his many ceramic trials and experiments. With an astute eye for commerce and publicity he managed to rise to ‘potter to Her Majesty’ in 1766 and he was able to rename his newly invented cream ware ‘Queen’s Ware’. It was in partnership of Thomas Bentley (1730-80) that Wedgwood reached his full creative and commercial potential. Bentley, a Manchester shipping agent, was a cultivated man with considerable knowledge of the arts of ancient Greece and Rome, and ideally suited to help to develop and market a new type of luxury product. It was in partnership with Bentley that Wedgwood developed his plans for a new factory at Etruria. It was the first truly modern ceramics factory in the country, set up on a scale hitherto unknown. The whole venture was impeccably timed and perfectly organised by Josiah. Described by a contemporary visitor as ‘a marvel of organisation’, it was a model works under one roof, stretching along 150 yards of the newly dug Trent and Mersey Canal, with the production of smart 'ornamental' wares at one end, and the production of his immensely successful, utilitarian wares at the other. To celebrate the opening of the Etruria factory on 13 June 1769, Josiah Wedgwood threw six ‘First Day’s Vases’ with the help of his partner Thomas Bentley who turned the great (potters’) wheel. The six vases were decorated in Bentley and Wedgwood’s decorating workshop in Chelsea. The figures were almost certainly painted by William Hopkins Craft (1735-1811), who was the most skilled decorator working there at the time, but the decorative borders could be by David Rhodes, the manager of the workshop. Unfortunately, only four vases survived the firing. The first day vases, made at the opening of the Etruria works, signify a fresh start and new ambition for Wedgwood in launching his smart, luxury products, in newly developed materials and in the brand new neo-classical style. It was through Etruria that Wedgwood, working in partnership with Bentley, managed to start off a veritable 'Vase Madness' amongst the elegant society of the time. Both decoration and shape of the four vases is based on engravings from P.H. d’Hancarville’s 1766-69 publication of Sir William Hamilton’s collection of Greek pottery. This publication in four volumes, of the most important collection of Greek vases of the time, was to have a huge influence on the development of Neo-Classicism in Britain. The decoration on all four vases is based on a vase illustrated in this publication and now in the British Museum. It is decorated with six figures representing Hercules in the garden of Hesperides. Three of these figures, representing Oineus, Demophon and Chrysis, are depicted on this specific vase. The same figures also occur on one other of the first day vases, in possession the Wedgwood family and on long-term loan to the British Museum. Details differ in the hand-painted decoration of these two vases, as well as in the decorative borders. This vase is the only one of the four to include ‘egg and dart’ design borders. Only four first day vases exist, and because of their great importance to the history of this country and to the Staffordshire area, all should remain in this country. When Josiah sent the blanks of these vases to the London decorating workshop, he wrote to Bentley that they: sho’d be finish’d [decorated] as high as you please but not sold, they being the first fruits of Etruria’. Josiah Wedgwood’s wishes were observed, and all four vases remained in the hands of the Wedgwood factory or family. Two are now part of the Wedgwood collection, owned by the V&A Museum and on long- term loan to the Wedgwood Museum. The third, still in the hands of the Wedgwood family, is on long-term loan to the British Museum. The fourth and final vase is the subject of this export licence reviewing committee meeting. This vase has previously been on long-term loan to the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, where it formed a crucial part of the central and most prominent display, illustrating the rise of Josiah Wedgwood and the Staffordshire industry. The four first day vases are the only ceramics known to have been thrown by Josiah Wedgwood himself. The Etruria factory building itself was destroyed in the 1960s, and the first day vases bring alive, better than any other object, one of the most important characters in the history of the potteries at a most crucial moment in the Nation’s illustrious industrial past. .