[ FRESH TAKE ] Thrown for a Loop factory near his Staffordshire hometown, Stoke-on-Trent. Wedgwood married traditional craftsmanship with A RESILIENT POTTERY COMPANY FACES progressive business practices and contemporary design. TRYING TIMES He employed leading artists, including the sculptor John Flaxman, whose Shield of Achilles is in the Huntington by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell collection, along with his Wedgwood vase depicting Ulysses at the table of Circe. As sturdy as they were beautiful, Wedgwood products made high-quality earthenware available to the middle classes. his past winter, Waterford Wedgwood found itself teetering on the edge of bankruptcy like a ceramic vase poised to topple from its shelf. As the company struggles A mainstay of bridal registries, the distinctive for survival, visitors to The Tearthenware is equally at home in museums around the world, including The Huntington. Now owned by an Irish firm, the once-venerable pottery manufactory was founded Huntington can appreciate by Englishman Josiah Wedgwood in 1759. As the company struggles for survival, visitors to The Huntington can appre - what a great loss its demise ciate what a great loss its demise would be. A look at the firm’s history reveals that the current crisis is just the most recent would be. of several that Wedgwood has overcome in its 250 years. The story of Wedgwood is one of the great personal and Today, Wedgwood is virtually synonymous with professional triumphs of the 18th century. Born in 1730 into Jasperware, an unglazed vitreous stoneware produced from a family of potters, Josiah Wedgwood started working at the barium sulphate. It is usually pale blue, with separately age of nine as a thrower, a craftsman who shaped pottery on molded white reliefs in the neoclassical style. Jasperware’s a potter’s wheel. Smallpox weakened his right leg, ending distinctiveness and popularity meant that it was frequently his career as a thrower, for he could no longer operate the copied. The Huntington collection includes a French chest pedal of the wheel. Instead, Wedgwood took up modeling, of drawers decorated with blue and white imitation devising new forms so innovative and appealing that many Wedgwood plaques made by the Sèvres porcelain manu - of them still are produced today. In 1759, he opened his own factory in the early 1790s. The London showroom of Wedgwood and Byerley, as the firm was known from 1790 to 1810. From Repository of Arts, Literature, Fashions, Manufactures, etc. London: R. Ackermann, 1809–28. Vol. 1. [ FRESH TAKE ] While Jasperware continues to be quite popular and still over many years. A colossal red and gold jardinière (a kind is produced by Wedgwood, the pieces in The Huntington’s of ornamental flower pot) on a matching pedestal domi - collection are rare 18th-century examples. “The quality of nates the galleries of 19th-century British art. A plate in the early pieces is certainly superior in terms of the ren - the shape of a flounder, a strawberry dish ornamented dering of fine details,” says Curator of European Art with strawberry leaves, and a vase resembling an ear of Catherine Hess. “They were innovative in terms of design corn are just a few examples of the imaginative majolica as well as technique.” designs Wedgwood produced. Wedgwood’s black basalt wares, introduced in 1768, were In 1860, the firm hired the French painter Émile Aubert made from a reddish-brown clay that developed a fine- Lessore, a student of Ingres, who had worked for France’s grained, matte black surface when fired. The material tapped Sèvres porcelain manufactory before moving to England, into the popular passion for all things classical by imitating where he was briefly employed by Minton. At Wedgwood, ancient Greek pottery, and was sometimes even painted Lessore was free to experiment with new glazes, forms, and with classical friezes in red. Along with the Jasperware, The techniques; he was even allowed to sign his pieces, a first Huntington’s black basalt pieces capture the “nostalgia for for a Wedgwood artist. Lessore’s painting—characterized antiquity that you see throughout the galleries, often devel - by loose, visible brushwork—raised ceramics to the status oped on the Grand Tour,” the extended continental vacation of fine art, reviving Wedgwood’s fortunes and reputation. young Englishmen took to complete their educations, Hess The Huntington has two creamware plates designed by says. “The blue and white is evocative of ancient cameos, Lessore, one shaped like a shell and one decorated with and the black basalt pieces are decorated with ancient motifs scenes from Aesop’s Fables . like ram’s heads and acanthus leaves.” The Wedgwood pieces Wedgwood continued to expand its range of majolica also provide a fascinating British counterpoint to The to capitalize on the emerging market for art pottery, which Huntington’s extensive holdings of French Sèvres porcelain reflected contemporary art movements like Arts and Crafts vases and useful wares, Hess adds. and Art Nouveau. Around 1879, the firm introduced a new After Josiah’s death in 1795, the family firm struggled. line of majolica wares marketed under the name Argenta. At London’s Great Exhibition of 1851, it became obvious These pieces had a light ground color with modeled, nat - that Wedgwood had fallen behind its competitors in both uralistic motifs inspired by Japanese art, highlighted with taste and quality. Minton, a rival company, dominated the vivid glazes. The Kadison gifts include an Argenta ware exhibition with its majolica, a new type of earthenware in trefoil tray from the late 19th century. brilliant colors and whimsical shapes inspired by the maiolica Thanks to its readiness to adapt to changing tastes and ceramics of 15th- and 16th- clients, Wedgwood continued to thrive throughout the 20th century Italy and France. In a century, remaining in the hands of the founder’s descendants bid to boost sales, Wedgwood until 1986. In recent years, the company has followed its quickly added majolica to its founder’s example by enlisting the talents of a new gener - product line. ation of leading artists and designers, including Martha When the Huntington Art Stewart, Jasper Conrad, andVera Wang. Time will tell if the Gallery reopened last year, vis - company’s tradition of resilience and reinvention will sustain itors got their first glimpse of it through the current economic downturn. several newly acquired pieces of Wedgwood majolica from the Kadison family’s gift of some 50 choice pieces from the Wedgwood collection that Carita and Stuart Kadison assembled Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell was the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Curatorial Fellow Gifts from the Kadison Family Trust include two majolica items: a jardinière with its in French Art at The pedestal (left) and a quatrefoil cachepot. Huntington from 2003 to Both are tin-glazed earthenware manufac - 2007. She is currently a research tured in the late 19th century by Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, Ltd., in Stoke-on- scholar at the Los Angeles County Trent, England. Museum of Art . 6 Spring /Summer 2009.