The English pottery firm of Wedgwood have been making fine dinner and ornamental ware for over two centuries. Perhaps best known for its characteristic blue and white jasper and the finest bone china, Wedgwood's fame and fortune were built upon the "Queen's Ware,' Josiah Wedgwood's greatest achievement and today, Wedgwood's most exclusive ware.

The revolution Josiah Wedgwood produced in dinnerware is one we rarely consider. When we think of him we recall his famous blue "jasper" wares; his role in the abolition of the slave trade; the part he played in establishing England's canal system; his pioneering of the division of labour in his factories; and for Australians, his production of the "Sydney Cove Medallion". All of these are his, but his contemporary fame and his fortune (he was worth half a million pounds when he died in 1796) were built on his "Queen's Ware" tableware, developed in the early 1760s.

Through a long and continuing series of experiments, Josiah produced "a species of earthenware... quite new in its appearance covered with a rich and brilliant glaze, bearing sudden alterations of heat and cold, manufactured with ease and expedition, and consequently cheap..." By the mid 1780s, his Queen's Ware was, in both body and glaze, as white as the earthenware being produced by most potteries of today

The modern ceramic expert, William Burton, paid tribute to Wedgwood's work with the words: "His influence was so powerful, and his personality so dominant, that all other English potters worked on the principles he had laid down, and thus a fresh impulse and a new direction was given to the pottery of England and of the civilized world. He is the only potter of whom it may truly be said that the whole subsequent course of pottery manufacture has been influenced by his individuality, skill and taste."

Wedgwood was an astute businessman. In so many ways he was considerably ahead of his time, pioneering many sales techniques which are still practised by businessmen and women in the 1990s. Recognizing that sales to the aristocracy depended on acceptance and recognition by others in the same social strata, he went to the top. In mid 1765 he took an order from Queen Charlotte for a tea service "with a gold ground and raised flowers upon it in green". Her obvious satisfaction and approval was expressed by granting Wedgwood the title of "Potter to the Queen" and allowing him to call his unique range "Queen's Ware".

Having established this connection with the Royal Family, he maintained it through his life, continuing to supply the Queen with tableware (including replacements for broken items) as well as ornamental wares. By 1790, to "Potter to the Queen" he could add "potter to their Royal Highnesses the Duke of York and Albany and the Duke of Clarence". He also supplied wares to the Prince of Wales and the Princess Dowager.

After the Royal Family, the nobility and the gentry were assiduously courted, and they responded to the flattery from Wedgwood by ordering services in many designs and combinations. Joseph Banks (later Sir Joseph, and the President of the Royal Society) ordered and received from Wedgwood two complete dinner services to take on Captain James Cook's second Pacific Voyage in 1772. (Banks did not go - he withdrew when the accommodation for himself and his entourage did not meet with his satisfaction.) One service was of plain Queen's Ware, and the cost 6/11/1; the second was of Queen's Ware decorated "in purple flowers", for 25/1/57. At that period, a typical dinner service might consist of:

2 Oval Dishes (19 inches)

2 Oval Dishes (17 inches)

2 Round Dishes (17 inches)

2 Round Dishes (15 inches)

4 Oval Dishes (13 inches)

4 Oval Dishes (11 inches)

4 Oval Dishes (11 inches)

4 Round Dishes (11 inches)

4 covered dishes

2 Terrines for Soup

2 Sauce Terrines

4 Sauce Boats

2 Salad dishes

6 Salts

2 Mustard Pots

4 Pickle dishes

6 Dozen Flat Plates

2 Dozen Soup Plates

To this could be added a bewildering array of "Dish Drainers, Root Dishes, Gravy Cups, Ice Pails, Herring Dishes, Egg Baskets, Egg Spoons, Bread Basket, Cheese Toasters, Asparagus Plans," etc, etc, etc.

Wedgwood's successes in this field were not to be without complications. It was the fashion particularly with the nobility and increasingly with the moneyed gentry, to have the family coat-of-arms or crest emblazoned on tableware. This had been previously satisfied by the medium of Chinese export porcelain, but although the ware may have been satisfactory and attractive, the waiting time was (naturally) extreme long - up to two years was not unusual, and if any mistakes were made...

Naturally, Wedgwood had been approached to satisfy some of this market, but he wrote in September, 1766, to his future partner, Thomas Bentley:

"Crests are very bad things for us (potters) to meddle with and I never take any orders for services so ornamented. Plain ware, if it should not happen to be firsts, you will take off my hands as seconds, which if crested would be as useless as most other Crests".

Wedgwood's views on the matter hardly changed during the following ten years, but economic factors (ever a persuasive matter with Wedgwood) forced him to give the matter greater attention. He wrote to Bentley in September, 1776, (by this time Bentley had become his partner, but only in the ornamental side of the business, although Wedgwood constantly discussed all aspects of the business with him, seeking his advice on thorny problems)

"I have many reasons to believe there will be a great demand for services with Arms if they can be done at a moderate expense, and I am losing my best customers, one after another as well for plain ware as painted, because I have either refused such orders or have been obliged to ask such prices as has driven them to other Potters, who have painted them at much lower prices...

The painting of Arms is now become a serious business, and I must either lose or gain a great deal of business by it. Howsoever, I must, at all events, come into it. The question now with me is, whether they shall be done in London or Liverpool. I should prefer the former on many accounts, but the enormous difference in the prices, not less than as 6 to 1, puts it out of my power, unless a method can be hit upon of coming something near the Liverpool prices.

Emerging evidence now supports the view that it was not too long before Wedgwood took up his own challenge, probably handling the printing and painting of the arms in London. At the London Wedgwood Museum, three old reference books from the factory illustrate crests and coats-of-arms that were printed on to Wedgwood's Queen's Ware, usually for later hand-colouring. Many of the illustrations are dated, indicating conceivably the first year that they were used, but more likely, considering the writing of the dates is in a different hand to the writing of the owner's name, the date of some subsequent re-use. Although the earliest date shown is 1786, there are strong indications, on stylistic grounds and also including the glaze characteristics of various pieces, that Wedgwood must have started to print his own crests shortly after 1776.

A considerable part of the fascination of Wedgwood armorial ware is not only finding out who it was made for, but their family connections - this is particularly interesting with eighteenth century pieces - the "Establishment" in England at that time was quite remarkably intertwined.

The bowl shown (figure 1) is from this early period and was made for Sir Harbord. Sir Harbord was on cordial terms with Wedgwood, several times visiting his showrooms and the factory. In 1772 he made purchases from Wedgwood's showrooms in Bath, and in 1774 he visited the factory at Etruria, placing further orders with Wedgwood. It is likely that the service, of which this bowl forms a part, was ordered shortly after this period. On this piece, as on most of Wedgwood's early armorial items, only the crest is used as opposed to the full coat-of-arms - obviously a considerable difference in costs would be involved. The outline of the crest here is printed in brown and over-enamelled by hand in blue. The remainder of the border is completely hand-painted. Sir Harbord Harbord's great-granddaughter, Cecilia Margaret, married Lord Carrington, the Governor of New South Wales from 1885 to 1890, and in her honour the Sydney seaside suburb of Harbord was named.

From the same period comes the small dish (figure 2) with the crest and motto "In Deo Omnia" of the Huxleys - this was ordered by a forebear of T.H. Huxley (well-known defender of evolution in the nineteenth century) and of Aldous Huxley (twentieth century mystic and author of the well-known "Brave New World"). Once again, the outline of the crest is printed in brown, and washed over with brown, with a simple brown line border to the plate. this shade so frequently used for printing crests and coat-of-arms in outline that it was referred to at the factory as "crest brown" its neutral tint is ideal for over-enamelling in any colour.

The stand for a tureen (figure 3) was part of an extensive service made for Sir John Duntze, parbably in the late 1780s. The 'bloody hand" on the crest was a distinctive emblem often added to a family's crest when the subject was made a baronet - Sir John Duntze received this distinction in 1774.

Many armorial services were commissioned on the occasion of a marriage, particularly when both the partners were titled and their coats-of-arms could be combined on the wares. The soup plates shown in figure 4 are examples of this practise. On October 20th, 1795, Samuel Isted of Econ in Northamptonshire married, at St. George's Hanover Square, Barbara, daughter of the Right Reverend Thomas Percy, Lord Bishop of Dromore St. George's Hanover Square was (and still is) a very "social" church for weddings - rather as St. Mark's Darling Point in Sydney or St. John's Toorak in Melbourne.

Figure 5 shows another plate also commissioned on marriage and bearing the full coat-of-arms. In 1809, Joseph Andrew de Lautour married Caroline Young, and the arms of both families are shown as "impaled". Some plates from this service have been inscribed on the back, "Capt. Lautour May 16th 1810" - so this sets the date for their production. Captain Lautour was a relative of the Australian "wool" Macarthurs, and since several plates from this service have come to light in Australia, it is possible that the Macarthurs at some stage were given part of the service.

In 1821, the Duke of Clarence, younger brother of King Geroge IV and later himself to become King William IV, commissioned from Wedgwood a complete dinner service to bear his coat-of-arms. A service plate from this service is seen in figure 6. Although the coat-of-arms is only some 40 mm high, it shows clearly the Duke's full armorial bearings, complete with three Orders hanging below.

In the following year the Crown Prince of Denmark, later to become King Christian VIII, visited Wedgwood's London showrooms and ordered a dinner service with his arms. This was to be in "drab-ware", the arms simply printed in black with a plain gold line border. (figure 7) In about 1830, a service was supplied to Fath Ali, Shah of Persia from 1797 to 1834. Since the Shah had no "coat-of-arms" as such, and since Islam forbade the representation of any animal or human form, the service took the decoration shown by the bowl in figure 8. Flowers and foliage are printed underglaze in blue on the outside and inside of the bowl, heightened with gold; the Shah's name, in script, is added within a further gold oval frame.

As the century progressed, fewer private individuals were able to afford to commission services, and most of the business came from corporate groups - university colleges, city corporations and guilds, hotels and companies. And of course, with the new century and the rapid decrease in kings and queens and increase in presidents and prime ministers, official functions continued and so official dinnerware was still needed. Figure 10 shows a teacup a saucer from the full service of over 1000 pieces ordered from Wedgwood by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902. Surprisingly, he had been unable to find an American pottery willing to accept his order! The United States Great Seal on each piece of the service is hand-enamelled in nine different colours, as well as silver and gold. In more recent times, specially commissioned items have been supplied bearing the names or 'logos' of Qantas (figure 11), Australian Airlines, International hotels in both Sydney and Melbourne, and both State and Commonwealth Parliaments throughout Australia. Although it is now many years since Wedgwood produced a specially decorated dinner service for an Australian family, you can be quite sure they would be happy to start doing it again. Why not be the first!?

The Wedgwood company has the rare distinction of having been directly associated with Australia since 1789. The tradition can be traced back to the arrival of the First Fleet at the penal colony at Sydney Cove. A special exhibition - "Wedgwood: the Australian Heritage" - was held at Grace Bros., Sydney, and Myer, Melbourne, celebrating Wedgwood's long and prominent association with Australia. VIVE spoke with the special guest for the exhibition, the fourth Lord Wedgwood, direct descendant of Josiah.

"The exhibition was Wedgwood's gift to the people of Australia for your Bicentenary," said Lord Wedgwood. "We have built up a special relationship with Australia since the days of Governor Phillips and are now in a unique trading situation. And the truth of the matter is that more Wedgwood is sold in Australia per capita than anywhere else in the world. This exhibition is the most significant Wedgwood exhibition to be staged outside Britain. On a personal basis it is very exciting for me to be involved in something that is a continuation of a relationship with a country that was begun by my great-great-great-great-great grandfather."

It was through Josiah Wedgwood's friendship with many eminent men of this day - including Joseph Priestly, Matthew Boulton, Erasmus Darwin, Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Joshua Reynolds and George Stubbs - that the relationship with the new settlement began. When samples of clay from the infant colony at Sydney Cove were found to resemble china clay or pipe clay. Governor Arthur Phillips forwarded samples to Joseph Banks, the noted English naturalist and then President of the Royal Society. a shipment was received by Banks in may, 1789, and was immediately forwarded to Josiah Wedgwood to carry out experiments on the suitability of the clay for ceramic manufacture. In a letter to Sir Joseph Banks in March, 1790, Josiah Wedgwood was able to proclaim that the clay was an "Excellent Material for Pottery", A medallion commemorating the new settlement was made from the clay and decorated with the design, "Hope encouraging art and labour under the influence of peace to pursue the employments necessary to give security and happiness to an infant settlement". Josiah shortened the name to "Hope of Sydney Cove" and today, the medal is now more widely referred to as "The Sydney Cove Medallion".

The first batch of medallions was sent to Australia on 19th January, 1790, and were received by Governor Phillips in June of that year. He remarked: Wedgwood has shown the world that our Welsh clay is capable of receiving an Eligant (sic) impression and I return thanks for the cup and medallions." Josiah Wedgwood's analysis of the clay from Australia was published in the philosophical transactions (1790) under the title "On the Analysis of Mineral Substance from New South Wales".

With the interest in the founding of Australia various portrait medallions of people associated with exploration were produced by Josiah Wedgwood. Two Wedgwood portrait medallions of Captain Cook were modelled by John Flaxman. The first, a three-quarter profile, was adapted from the portrait by William Hodges who accompanied Cook on the voyage of 1772-1775. The second portrait medallion depicts Cook's profile and was produced about 1784, and adapted from the Royal society medallion executed by Lawrence Pingo in 1779.

These portrait medallions were, at the time, more significant than mere commemoratives pieces as Lord Wedgwood explains: "These wonderful portrait medallions, in the days when there was no such thing as photographic news services, took the stories of the great explorers to the world in a way that had never been done before."

Of all the figures associated with Captain Cook and the exploration of Australia, none are mentioned more frequently in the letters and records of Josiah Wedgwood than Dr. Daniel Charles Solander and Sir Joseph Banks. In a memo from Josiah Wedgwood to Thomas Bentley dated 17th September, 1771, he says "I rejoyce (sic) and enjoy with you all good doings of the most exciting items is the Jasper vase generally referred to as the "The Australian Vase" manufactured in 1906. Made of solid blue Jasper, the vase has a medallion of Captain James Cook on one side and a Sydney Cove Medallion on the other. Around the shoulders is a ribbon bearing the names of Captain Cook, Phillips, Banks and Solander.

Other ornamental items included miniature bas-relief ware in dark blue Jasper dip, generally referred to as "Eutruria blue" or "sugar bag glue". These are decorated with coats-of-arms of the various Australian states and cities such as Sydney and Adelaide. Many items produced by Wedgwood, though not exclusively for the Australian market, have antipodian connotations. These include the figure of the kangaroo modelled by John Skeaping in 1927 which formed part of a series of ten animal modes by the artist. From 1930 onwards, numerous animals and birds were produced by Wedgwood in Black Basalt, modelled by Ernest Light, an art master at the local Hanley school In Stoke-on-Trent.

In the 1950s a Wedgwood company was set up in Australia as a distributive organisation. Since this event, Wedgwood's connections with Australia have naturally increased and various commemorative presentations pieces have been manufactured for the Australian market, or to mark an event in Australia's history. These have included the production of gold-crested dinner service for Government House, Canberra, and in 1965 a series of plates known as "Historical Australia" depicting scenes of special significance in the nation's history. The opening of the Sydney Opera House in 1973 was yet another event which prompted the production of a commemorative Wedgwood item. A plaque, based on the design of the Sydney Cove Medallion , was manufactured in Black Basalt with a pale blue and white medallion mounted in the centre. this now hangs in the main foyer of the opera house itself.

The "Living tradition of Wedgwood" has over the last 200 years closely paralleled the development of Australia, and it is appropriate that for the exhibition, Wedgwood gathered that most meaningful of items developed during our formative years; a truly magnificent Australian heritage as seen through the eye's of the world's most famous pottery firm.