Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1910-09-23
JOSIAH wEDeEWooD, POTTER
And Perhaps the Best of All English
men of His Craft.


Perhaps the first earthenware ever
made which could remain quite clean
ly and pleasant to eat from was turn
er out at Burslem, by Josiah Wedge
wood, about the year 1862. 1t was he
who civilized and asepticized the uten-
sils which people who could not pur-
chase porcelain might use at table.
Till then any dinner service not made
of gold or silver or china had been
open to sanitary reproach. Majolica
chargers and Delft platters would
scratch, scarify, crack, chip Or peel
in the glaze by use, leaving assures
and depressions which the scullions
seldom completely cleansed; the salt
glazed dishes of white stoneware had
a pitted or an orange skin surface, up
on which spoons and forks would rat
tie and jar; even the smooth Whield-
on plates would harbor dirt in the
foriated reliefs, as did, still later, the
feather edged and openwork ware
made at Leeds.
Josiah Wedgewood, that typical man
of common sense and business, sought
after table utensils of simpler, palmer
and cleanlier kind; there was money
in that, he knew. So taking the best
clays procurable, he ported them into
plates and dishes and tureens of SIM
pie, even, thin and uniform shapes,
covered with a smooth and comely
glaze, uninterrupted and lasting, of
creamy or strawy or saffron tint, that
a wet dishclout could readily render
clean in a minute. And he put the
most perfect workmanship into the
making and baking. 1t was his boast
that twelve dozen can be piled up in
one bung without falling over" so
neatly did the plates match and fit.
"CreamW are" he called the new sort
at first; until, sending a caudle cup
of it to Queen Charlotte for her lying
in, he got the title of Queens pot
ter" and an order for dinner service
in return; whereupon queen s-ware"
the new sort was chistened. In max
ing his queen's-ware Josiah Wedge
WOOu IlGQS the Oh Tic put
teries, for the new dishes and pans
and tureens went abroad by the myr-
lad, and travellers returning from the
grand tour could attest their universal
use
Wedgewood was great potter, but
not great artist" says Prof. Church;
yet when it came to the bulk and
standby of his work, mo earthen-
ware, native or foreign, combined SO
many technical projections. Well
ground clays and fiints formed the
body. The pOtting was so good that
every part and piece was in complete
correspondence with every other,
while no more material was used than
Pate rested perfectly on plate, liGs
fitted perfectly on kettles, basins and
teapots. The colors of the wares
were refined and uniform, the firing
was complete and the glaze thin. And
the forms of the useful ware showed
an exact adaptation of their uses. The
spOuts and lips of milk ewers and jugs
and teapots permitted of their con-
tents being poured out with neatness;
the handles could be held; the lids did
not fall off" This master patter must
have everything he fathered be of the
best quality; pitilessly the mediocre
and merely passable were condemned.
/ see him stumping, wooden legged,
about his sheds and warehouses at Eft
ruria, lifting his stick and smashing
any nonexcellent bit of ware THAT
won't do for Josiah Wedgewood! he
growls. So that his queen's-ware car
ried England at its workmanlike best
abroad, England the skillful and pra-
tique and excelling, England the So
berly artistic and sensible, the Eng
land of quality as well as of the guam
tity. England the true aristocrat
among all industrial 1ands.-(J. H.
Foxall in the Cornhtll Magazine)