Wedgwood
JOSIAH, an English potter; born in Burslem, Staffordshire, England, July 12, 1730. He received little education, and went to work in his brother's factory at the age of 11. An incurable lameness, the result of smallpox, which subsequently compelled him to have his right leg amputated, forced him to give up the potter's wheel. He removed for a time to Stoke, where he entered into partnership with persons in his own trade, and where his talent for ornamental pottery was first displayed.
Returning in 1759 to Burslem, he set up a small manufactory of his own, in which he made a variety of fancy articles. His business improving, he turned his attention to white stoneware, and to the cream-colored ware for which he became famous; and he succeeded in producing works of art produced in it almost indestructible. His reproduction of the Portland Vase is famous. He also executed various paintings on pottery without the artificial gloss so detrimental to the effect of superior work. Josiah Wedgewood's numerous improvements in pottery created the great trade of the Staffordshire potteries. He died in Etruria, near Newcastle-under-Lyme, Jan. 3, 1795.
See POTTERY. a ware so hard and durable as to render