Finger ring with the image of King George III.
Finger ring with the image of King George III. The ring was a gift from Josiah Wedgwood, founder of the porcelain manufactory named after him, to his collaborator and friend the sculptor J. Flaxman. Swiss National Museum / Alice and Louis Koch Collection

When industry meets arts and crafts…

It's amazing what a finger ring can tell you. For example, the life story of Josiah Wedgwood, who elevated pottery to an art form in the 18th century and did not shy away from industrialisation.

Beatriz Chadour-Sampson

Beatriz Chadour-Sampson

Based in England Beatriz Chadour-Sampson is an international jewellery historian. Her publications range from Antiquity to the present day, such as 2000 Finger Rings from the Alice and Louis Koch Collection, Switzerland (1994) of which she continues to be a consultant for the Swiss National Museum.

In the Alice and Louis Koch Collection is an English gold ring bearing a jasperware portrait cameo of King George III (1738-1820) surrounded by diamonds. Outwardly it appears to be a straightforward, elegantly classical design but look closer and it yields a fascinating story of industrial prowess and invention, of 18th-century business and friendship in the early years of the Industrial Revolution. The significance of the ring lies in a personal message engraved on the underside of the bezel: ‘Josiah Wedgewood/to his ed fd/J. Flaxman, 1786’ (Josiah Wedgwood to his esteemed friend John Flaxman 1786). The inscription records a close friendship between an influential entrepreneur and an acclaimed sculptor, artist and designer.
Finger ring given by Josiah Wedgwood, founder of the porcelain manufactory named after him, to his collaborator and friend, the sculptor J. Flaxman, 1786.
Finger ring given by Josiah Wedgwood, founder of the porcelain manufactory named after him, to his collaborator and friend, the sculptor J. Flaxman, 1786. Swiss National Museum / Alice and Louis Koch Collection
Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) was born to a family of potters in Burslem, now part of the city of Stoke-on Trent in Staffordshire, in an area known as the Potteries after its principal industry. After a brief partnership with Staffordshire potter Thomas Whieldon in 1754, Wedgwood decided to start his own business in 1759. Not only a designer and manufacturer, he also pioneered new techniques in working with clay and elevated the status of pottery from an artisanal craft to an art form. His wares attracted the attentions of the emerging wealthy middle classes and reached worldwide success, providing fierce competition for other potteries and porcelain factories across Britain and Europe.
Portrait of Josiah Wedgwood, 1806.
Portrait of Josiah Wedgwood, 1806. Wikimedia
In 1768, after entering a partnership with his great friend the Liverpool merchant Thomas Bentley, Wedgwood’s business expanded commercially, and the famous Etruria Works factory was built in 1769 on a newly purchased Staffordshire estate. The name and logo ‘Artes Etruriae Renascuntur’ (The Arts of Etruria are reborn) were inspired by the 1767 publication of the well-known collection of painted vases once belonging to Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), the British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples and Two Sicilies, which was later sold to the British Museum in 1772. The publication had erroneously described the painted vases as Etruscan but they are now known to be from ancient Greece.
Apotheosis of Homer vase from the Josiah Wedgwood manufactory, designed by John Flaxman, c. 1785.
Apotheosis of Homer vase from the Josiah Wedgwood manufactory, designed by John Flaxman, c. 1785. Wikimedia
Wedgwood employed many painters and modellers, the most famous being the sculptor John Flaxman (1755-1826) who had studied at the Royal Academy in London, after a childhood surrounded by the models and plaster casts of his father’s Covent Garden workshop, and joined the Wedgwood factory in 1775 aged 19. Flaxman remodelled the figures and scenes decorating Hamilton’s ancient vases to suit the Neoclassical taste of his day, the most notable of which was his Apotheosis of Homer relief of c. 1778. His design drawings, models and reliefs were translated onto wares of ‘black basalt’, a new fine-grained black stoneware developed by Wedgwood and occasionally decorated with red and white encaustic painting imitating the red-figure vases of Ancient Greece. Later, they were produced on jasperware, a hugely successful creation of Wedgwood’s made in varying shades of blue, green, lilac, yellow or black with scenes in white relief. Wedgwood experimented well over 5000 times between 1771 and 1774 in the process of perfecting this new ceramic, which he named after the gemstone jasper. The most well recognised of his jasperwares is undoubtedly Wedgwood Blue, seen here in the portrait cameo ring. By 1787 Flaxman had raised enough funds to visit Italy to study the arts, a trip that lasted seven years but during which he continued to send designs back to Wedgwood who had supported him throughout his career. The ring is likely to have been a farewell gift to Flaxman in 1786 before the sculptor embarked on his Italian adventure.
Portrait of John Flaxman, painted by Henry Howard.
Portrait of John Flaxman, painted by Henry Howard. Wikimedia
Wedgwood was at the forefront of his industry’s technological developments: he invented a type of clay pyrometer, a tool for measuring high temperatures, and in 1782 was one of the first manufacturers to install a steam-powered engine in his factories. He was a friend of the Birmingham industrialist Matthew Boulton (1728-1809), a designer and inventor and, like Wedgwood, a successful businessman. Boulton had partnered with James Watt to develop the Boulton & Watt steam engine which enabled factory mechanization and became the driving force behind the Industrial Revolution, revolutionizing transport and industry worldwide.
Portrait of Matthew Boulton, 1801.
Portrait of Matthew Boulton, 1801. Wikimedia
Boulton had previously been a Birmingham toy maker, producing buttons, buckles and silverware using cut-steel, a material consisting of metal plate decorated with closely riveted or screwed steel studs. He saw the potential of this industrial material for making jewellery by faceting the studs to imitate the sparkle of gemstones and collaborated with Wedgwood who provided decorative medallions in jasperware. Both men were members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, a group of industrialists, inventors, doctors and idealists who, as amateur experimenters united by a common love of science, met each month on the Monday closest to the full moon.
The shiny side of the cooperation between Boulton and Wedgwood: Noble button made of "Cut-Steel", around 1800.
The shiny side of the cooperation between Boulton and Wedgwood: Noble button made of "Cut-Steel", around 1800. V&A Collections
Like some of his fellow Lunar Men, Wedgwood applied his energies to issues of social conscience. From 1787 until his death in 1795, he was actively involved in the abolitionist movement to end slavery. He asked one of his talented artists, William Hackwood, to model a cameo for the seal of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade showing a kneeling black man in shackles and the inscription ‘Am I not a man or a brother?’. Wedgwood is thought to have made over 15,000 of these cameos for buttons, jewellery and snuffboxes and the design became an emblem of antislavery movements beyond Britain. The image is reminiscent of the gesture of taking the knee today in the light of the international human rights movement ‘Black Lives Matter’.
Cameo with a clear message: the abolition of slavery. Made around 1787.
Cameo with a clear message: the abolition of slavery. Made around 1787. V&A Collections
Less known is that Wedgwood is considered to be the first industrialist to fully exploit methods of publicity such as showrooms in London and a printed catalogue of his wares. He believed in ‘diffusing a good taste through the arts’, and his influence has been long lasting. Wedgwood jasperware and many of John Flaxman’s designs continue to be made today. The archives and collections of the Wedgwood Factory were saved for the nation and are known as the V&A Wedgwood Collection, now on long term loan to the Wedgwood Museum in Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent.

The collection

The exhibition showcases more than 7,000 exhibits from the Museum’s own collection, highlighting Swiss artistry and craftsmanship over a period of about 1,000 years. The exhibition spaces themselves are important witnesses to contemporary history, and tie in with the objects displayed to create a historically dense atmosphere that allows visitors to immerse themselves deeply in the past.

Published on: 01.12.2022

URL: https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2022/12/when-industry-meets-arts-and-crafts/

More of: Modern AgeEconomyCultureJewelryArticle

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