Antique English Staffordshire

27 Oct, 2005 in art pottery by admin

Antique English Staffordshire

Table Lamps in Wedgwood Jasper

The name “Wedgwood” is probably one of the most well known associated with porcelain and pottery in the Western world.

Josiah Wedgwood was born in 1730 into a family of potters at Burslem in Staffordshire, the great centre of English ceramics. Wedgwood was known as a man full of new ideas, a man who experimented tirelessly to develop and refine his product.

One of Wedgwood’s most outstanding achievements was his painstaking development of his famous jasper. Jasper would be best described as hard, fine grained, stoneware and was introduced in 1774, but it was not until 1779, that Wedgwood was able to successfully produce plaques and vases in the exquisite range of pastel colours known today, as Wedgwood Jasper.

Wedgwood’s years of trial and error with colours and firing techniques’, led to the superb range of colours that we know today. Colours such as sage green, yellow, lilac and the famous pale blue, all derived from metallic oxides discovered by Wedgwood.

To fully understand and appreciate the position of a man like Wedgwood in his 18th century world, we need to understand a little of “how society worked”.

His age was the age of the patron, or, one because of his social rank could smooth the way. Society was very clearly classified between the social classes, from the rural working class, the merchant class and the titled, aristocratic land owning class.

It was this upper class which men like Wedgwood needed to appeal to for patronage and support.Wedgwood went right to the top and through connections was received by theQueen. Queen Charlotte, consort to King George III. The Queen was delighted with Wedgwood’s presentation gift of rather plain and simple creamware, Wedgwood had done his homework! And knew that both the King and Queen had, what was considered, simple taste, so he knew exactly what to present.

His simple creamware was very quickly renamed “Queens’s ware” and promptly opened the door to the clients which were able to support his beautiful neo classic, expensive jasper.

Josiah Wedgwood died in 1795 and Inscribed on his monument in Stoke Parish church are the words

“He converted the English pottery industry from a rude and inconsiderable manufactory into an elegant art and an important part of the national commerce”.

The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co offers a treasure trove of antique lighting, with over 100 antique lamps on view. The current collection includes both antique and vintage Wedgwood jasper lamps, with antique examples dating from c1825 and vintage from c1950.

Please remember, that The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co ship lamps, ready wired for the U.S, the U.K and Australia.

You are invited to visit The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co’s web site at -

http://www.antiquelampshop.com

About the Author

Maurice Robertson, principal of The Antique and Vintage Table Lamp Co , has had a lifetime’s association with antique porcelain and pottery. From an early age he recalls picking up tea cups, looking for the mark on the base, discerning the maker.
He has extended his ceramics expertise into the quality table lamps seen on the company’s site, he is well known to local and international interior designers who have included many of his table lamps in their projects and has also supplied items of national interest to the official Sydney residence of the Australian Prime Minister.

Antique English Victorian Staffordshire porcelain group