WEDGWOOD - WOOD FAMILY BIBLE UP FOR AUCTION

UNFORTUNATELY THE BIBLE WAS PASSED IN AS NO ONE CAME FORTH WITH THE OPENING BID OF $10,000 - ITS FUTURE IS NOT KNOWN AT THIS TIME!

Next weekend, 8/28, a Wedgwood and Enoch Wood family Bible will be offered at auction in Maine. Click the post title to learn about the auction and see photos of the treasure for sale. What a shame its owner didn't just donate it to the City Museum in Stoke....if anything could ever be considered a National Treasure, this is one. Hopefully the winning bidder will be the Museum or someone whose plans are to donate it. Enoch Wood Sr. and Jr. were pivitol players in the potteries development, and the Bible originally belonged to Thomas Wedgwood...loads of history there! You can GO HERE to read about the Bible in more detail.

Did Ben Franklin invent Transferware?

As I age and read more and more history, and study genealogy, I find more and more questions about Ben Franklin. As an Adams descendant not all I find sheds a postive light on good ol' Ben, however, the Transferware Collectors Club has published an interesting article on the subject of the origins of the transfer printing process. Ben claims to have had the idea first, and approached a reluctant Josiah Wedgwood about the subject. Click on this post title to read the article, and be sure to check out TCC, a virtual treasure trove of information on transfer printed wares. Their annual meetings and newsletters are well worth our consideration. Their website is www.transcollectorsclub.org and I highly recommend it!

Harrods Revamps Wedgwood Rooms

Unfortunately the article telling about the opening of Harrods' beautifully revamped Wedgwood rooms has an incorrect title (see end of this post), but the pictures of the space are lovely. Certainly more welcoming than when we were last there, but an awful lot of space devoted to one tablescape! Click the post title to see the poorly-titled article from down under! Well well well, I sent a comment to the Inside Retailing site and lo and behold, they corrected their article...THANKS folks!

SO who KNEW?

that the 100th anniversary of the formation of Stoke on Trent from six pottery towns was yesterday? Well, perhaps not, as I google around I find that the actual date was in March apparently. Last night there was an event which was part of the 100th anniversary celebrations, click this post's title for that article. Perhaps there was an anticipatory souvenir (see post below for explanation) for this event? If there had been I think I'd want one! Wedgwood & Sons didn't have any such in their promo emails which I receive...maybe anticipatory souvenir is something newly created for the 2012 Olympics and it's NOT really a real category! Real category or not, I've had an interesting Sunday morning on the internet roaming around about my favorite ceramics! Here is one more article, from February, touting the Citizen of the Century in Stoke. Check out how many have something to do with Wedgwood! Who would YOU vote for?
See the article here.

UK Telegraph OLYMPICS 2012 feature article features WEDGWOOD

I enjoyed reading a UK point of view regarding the 2 year ramp up to the 2012 Olympics which begins today. But mostly I loved seeing that the writer used the Pre-Event souvenir (a new concept to this life-long souvenir collector) Wedgwood Mug as a starting point for his discussion.
Personally I can't imagine the splendor of London being subjected to hordes of sports enthusiasts from 'round the world in large groups. Londoners will be unable to carry on with their lives, but read the article, pessimism is NOT allowed! Large groups will be welcome ~ in fact, I guess that's the whole idea isn't it?

Googling around to find a photo of the London Olympics 2012 mug, I learned another heretofore unknown term, anticipatory souvenir! This opens up a whole new collecting field does it not?

Check out Seb Coe, Chair of the London Organizing Committee, with Josiah!

MEETING THIS WEEK REGARDING WEDGWOOD MUSEUM

From our friends in UK:

Dear All,

Thank you for your continued support.

I am writing to let you know that Hon. Dr Tristram Hunt (MP for Stoke Central), will be meeting Rt. Hon. Ed Vaizey Minister at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport this week to discuss the situation with the Wedgwood Museum.

Mr Vaizey has received many letters now from supporters but the more that he receives the more pressure will be applied - so please write to him and the Pensions Minister Steve Webb if you haven’t yet done so.

Full contact details, together with document and e-mail templates are available at: www.savewedgwood.org

Best wishes, The "Save the Wedgwood Museum" Campaign Team

AMIDST CHAOS GAYE BLAKE-ROBERTS FINDS SATISFACTION

Gaye Blake-Roberts has led the Wedgwood Museum for thirty years ~ through success and tribulations, through construction, blue prints, fund-raising and hair-raising she has presided over the treasures left to posterity by so many who have gone before us. Now, Keele University has bestowed upon her an Honorary Doctorate degree, a well deserved feather in a cap of many feathers. Congratulations Gaye from your many USA admirers and friends. May the error of their ways sink those who are trying to undo all your efforts! May you and Josiah and the new Museum prevail! Congratulations on a well-deserved honour. [click this post title to read Gaye's kudos.]

FINE BONE CHINA may be making a comeback!

Check out this article (CLICK POST TITLE) for insight into the current bone china market. Unfortunately we haven't raised a generation of "kids" who are buying fine china, but perhaps there is hope? WE hope you will go to our bone china category on the website - click the Feature of the Week which takes you to one item, then click WEDGWOOD BONE CHINA in upper right of that display to reach our full inventory of bone china, ALL ON SALE AT 25% OFF RIGHT NOW.

Little Journeys to the homes of GREAT LOVERS

What a pleasant find I've had this morning. At www.readprint.com one can find many books, poems, and short stories to read and print out if desired - all legal. The site encourages sharing of its content and link. The story of the love between Sarah and Josiah Wedgwood is indeed a great one. Her meeting Josiah as a child and seeing his smallpox-marked face and lame leg was the beginning of her life-long love for him and his for her. Elbert Hubbard does a great job of telling the story, with an intro that tells of Thomas Carlyle. I love this quote from Hubbard:
"Love demands opposition and obstacle. It is the intermittent or obstructed current that gives power." Click the title of this post to read Vol. 13 of Hubbard's book. I own two different editions of this book and it makes me smile just to see it on the shelf, let alone read it. If you don't know much about Josiah and Sarah, this is a great introduction to the story of their lives together and influences upon one another, more of which can be found in many of the books about the family. Scroll up to the black & white picture of Josiah on the right and click on it to go to a great book about the family that we have for sale. Happy Reading!

"CREATION" out on DVD 6-29-10

Click the post title for a review of the movie "Creation", the story of Emma Wedgwood Darwin and Charles Darwin. Good reviews of the movie have not been forth-coming in our experience nor does this one make me want to run out and buy the DVD. But it IS an interesting story with far-reaching ramifications, so perhaps learning more about the couple is better than ignoring the movie. Let us know what YOU think after having seen the movie or this new DVD!