Object Literature
The impress mark of WEDGEWOOD in capitals and the accompanying letter ‘A’ indicates to us the date of 1872. The year of 1872 in England saw the first final of the FA cup football match, the publication of George Eliot’s Middlemarch and the births of Heath Robinson, Bertrand Russell and Ralph Vaughan Williams; whilst elsewhere Yellowstone becomes the world’s first national park.
The Wedgwood Company is a British pottery firm, originally founded by Josiah Wedgwood c1795, and possibly the most famous name ever associated with pottery. One of the highest pottery innovations of all time is the Wedgwood Black Basalt. Since its innovation, this fine porcelain has been a huge commercial success. It is developed from reddish brown clay that burned black in firing. The ceramic body is quite superior in appearance and its body owed its richer color to the inclusion of manganese. The creations were inspired by original antiques mostly from vases in the collections that had been amassed by early collectors. ‘Black Basalte’ wares were based on Roman, Greek and Etruscan originals, and fitted in perfectly with the neoclassical style that was the dominant fashion for interior design in the 1770s. They were decorated in classical style, too. Basalt wares had perhaps their greatest popularity in the first half of the 19th century
A timeless classical piece, and as Wedgwood himself claimed, ‘The black is sterling and will last forever’.