JOSIAH WEDGWOOD TURNS UP AS GRAFFITI - AN ODD TWIST

Here's an unusual take on Josiah Wedgwood...the connections in the world to Josiah seem endless, and this story from This is Staffordshire is no exception. What must Jos be thinking? Click the title of the post to see the story and photo.

GREAT REASON TO HEAD TO EDINBURGH - Wedgwood

As if there weren't enough reasons to go to Edinburgh, Scotland here is one more! What fun to add a matchbook, swizzle stick or coaster from this restaurant to your Wedgwood accessories collection! We'll all probably assume the china on which the food is served is by Wedgwood & Sons! Be sure to try afternoon tea at The Balmoral, another great spot! Photograph: Mike Wilkinson, article courtesy The Guardian "When this restaurant opened four years ago it sent out a clear message that on Edinburgh's touristy Royal Mile you could still find seriously good restaurants with seriously interesting menus. Many a business in this historic location would be tempted to bask in their success; maybe put their feet up and watch the tourist money roll in. Not Wedgwood; its pigeon served with haggis, neeps and tatties is as unusual as it is delicious. Try to avoid being seated downstairs, as the natural light of the street-level dining room is where you will enjoy this inventive and innovative experience the most." For recent (12/2011) reviews of this restaurant go here.

WEDGWOOD ON YOUTUBE - FABULOUS FINDS

If one clicks the title of this post, the story of Wedgwood comes alive, a great YouTube video highly recommended to learn a lot quickly! It is mainly the story of Josiah's campaign for the Trent & Mersey Canal and why it was so important to the development of Wedgwood and the potteries area in general. It's about 8 minutes, so give yourself time to watch. THEN, be sure to click on the other videos on the right side, several very good documentaries on our favorite subject, and some of its side-lights from trains to a beautiful Satsuma teapot. The 250th Anniversary video is excellent. There are a couple of errors, and one that made me laugh; in the first video the narrator shows a piece of creamware falling off a horse-drawn haywagon; unfortunately, the modern Wedgwood backstamp shows very clearly on the shard as it hits the bricks. I guess Gaye wouldn't let them just toss a good, old piece of Queen's Ware to its demise, even for a great video! Spend some time learning! Our modern technology does so much to help us learn about so much. Enjoy!

INTERESTING WEDGWOOD SIDELIGHT

We Wedgwood aficionados normally spend our time reading and studying the pots or their history, the potters and their history and the potteries, but how often do we think about the underpinnings of the Wedgwood & Sons firm? Speaking for myself, not often and I suspect that goes for others as well. Click the title of this post to read about the Wedgwood's IT operations, a subject I'd imagine few of us think about! It always amazes me what little tidbits one can turn up on our favorite subject, from toilets to bits & bytes - and most everything in between!!

And speaking of the underpinnings, I read this morning that the decision on the Museum Mess is due next month, hopefully a more accurate prediction than the "end of the year" I read earlier in the week.

WEDGWOOD COLLECTORS ON AUSTRALIAN TV

On August 12th our friends, and superb Wedgwood collectors, Colin & Judy Jones of Sydney, Australia, were featured on "Collectors" a TV series in Australia. They and some of the Wedgwood in their collection can be seen by clicking the title of this post to go to the video. Earlier, I tried typing this URL into my browser and it didn't seem to work, but when I clicked the link it did, so please let me know if it doesn't work for you. I checked it just as I am posting and it's working well. Congrats to Judy and Colin for a lovely glimpse and great TV interview! And thanks for sharing!

AMERICAN CERAMIC CIRCLE GRANT AWARDS

THE AMERICAN CERAMIC CIRCLE ANNOUNCES 2011 GRANT AWARD

Below is the ACC recent Press Release. If you have any ceramics marked WYKSTRA or with a conjoined V and W, please get in touch. These may be products of the pottery which I am researching. To see some examples of the VW Pottery, you can go to my Vander Meulen family blog and scroll down to the pix on the left hand side. Click the title of this post to go to the rest of the announcement and the ACC website.

"The American Ceramic Circle has awarded Leslie Vander Meulen Canavan a grant in support of original research in the history of ceramics. Leslie will conduct research on the small, but important, early twentieth-century pottery, the Van der Meulen & Wykstra Art Pottery Co. of Dunkirk, NY. The pottery was founded in 1905 by Leslie’s great great uncle, Theake Van der Meulen, a Dutch immigrant, and his partner Gerrit Wykstra.

The ACC awards up to $5,000 for expenses associated with the preparation of scholarly papers based on original research in the history of ceramics. Grant recipients are required to offer completed papers for publication in the American Ceramic Circle Journal and may be invited to speak at an annual ACC symposium. The next deadline for completed applications is April 1, 2012.

An application form and a statement of general principles pertaining to the grants process are available on the website, www.amercercir.org. Questions may be addressed to ACC Grants Chairman, Anne Forschler-Tarrasch, Curator of Decorative Arts, Birmingham Museum of Art, 2000 Rev. Abraham Woods, Jr. Blvd., Birmingham, AL 35203-2278 or aforschler@artsbma.org.

Founded in 1970, the American Ceramic Circle promotes scholarship and research in the history, use and preservation of ceramics. Symposia are held in early November at various museums around the country. A limited number of scholarships to the symposia are available for students. For information about membership and publications, contact Executive Director, Suzanne Findlen Hood, sfhood@acc.hrcoxmail.com."

FOR OUR WEDGWOOD FRIENDS DOWN UNDER

Over the years we have had the pleasure of corresponding with and selling to several Wedgwood collectors in Australia to include some we have even been able to meet 'in person'. We like to try to take interesting information to the world-wide Wedgwood market and we don't want to ignore our Aussie friends. By clicking here one can see an interesting article about a lady trained in the Staffordshire art of producing and decorating bone china. I'm sure you will enjoy reading her story and perhaps some of our readers will have visited her studio or own some of her work, we'd love to hear from you if so! And stay tuned, our roving reporter Judy Jones has compiled a very comprehensive list of Wedgwood with an Australian connection which she has graciously allowed us to share, it'll be coming soon!

Interesting new find - work by Eric Ravilious

Click this post title to check this new article about a recently-uncovered mural by artist & Wedgwood designer Eric Ravilious in Wales. If it can be saved it would be the only extant example of his mural work. Here is a picture of the Midland Hotel, Morecambe taken in 1936. And thanks to our super sleuth Tony Pulford in Scotland, we found that the Hercule Poirot episode "Double Sin" was filmed at the Midland Hotel & we watched that episode with more interest this time 'round. Thanks Tony for that piece of Poirot trivia.

JOSIAH WEDGWOOD & HIS WOMEN - DESIGNERS THAT WAS

What was it I was just saying the other day, that we can't pass a day without finding something relative to Josiah in our surroundings? Today we have an interesting article about women designers, specifically Elizabeth Templetown, who were commissioned by Josiah I to create designs for his execution in jasper and other bodies. Josiah's was an age when men certainly dominated most areas of design and art. Click the title of this post to read an informative article, but like the other earlier in the week, with a bit of a mis-statement in the first paragraph - you'll spot it if you know anything about George Stubbs! In the meantime, check out Wedgwood Society of Washington, D.C. on Facebook for a picture of another work by Lady Templetown and sip a cuppa with the New York Times and Wedgwood as we celebrate our nation's birthday! Have a Glorious Fourth!

Hensleigh Wedgwood chimes in on that Pesky Extra E

While researching in my library sometime back, I randomly picked a book from the shelf and to my delight noticed it had been one of Elizabeth Chellis'. The title page of Staffordshire Pottery and its History by Josiah C. Wedgwood does not state a publication date, but in Elizabeth's hand in pencil I found: [1913]? 1922 says C V Wedgwood check again I smiled as I thought about her thorough attention to detail. I found enclosed in the front a news-clipping from the local Wellesley newspaper of 12 Feb 1953- an ad for the local Community Playhouse with coming attractions, a fun commentary on the times, to wit: The Promoter, Operation Secret (with Karl Malden), Everything I Have is Yours, with Marge and Gower Champion and Claudette Colbert in Outpost in Malaya. More interesting to us Wedgwoodians perhaps is an article, dated 4 Feb 1947, from the Boston Herald which I think bears repeating: "Hensley [sic] Wedgwood, of the British family whose name is famed in china and pottery, arrived in this country recently on a business trip. He was interviewed by a group of newspaper and magazine writers about the manufacture and sale of Wedgwood...One interviewer noticed that in his lapel [he] wore a tiny pin on which was the letter 'E'. Wedgwood was asked whether this was a British award similar to the 'E' Awards, given by the War and Navy Depts. during the war. 'Not at all,' said Wedgwood. 'It's there to remind people abut the correct spelling of my name-that there's only one 'E' in Wedgwood'". One would think that since the article was about the spelling of his name, the newspaper proofers would be sure his FIRST name was spelled correctly! Perhaps we need to retell this story to young collectors, those on eBay and other places where we SO often find this annoying mis-spelling. We really need to commission a jewelry manufacturer to make us a blue & white enamel E lapel pin! In a quick search for a photo of Hensleigh, I found a very interesting article by Hensleigh in a 1970 issue of American Heritage about Josiah, another article about our favorite potter, which bears a good read. Click the title of this post to read it! And another amazing find popped up as I searched for that picture of Hensleigh. Check out this book by a much earlier Hensleigh Wedgwood! I don't remember having heard of this one, but perhaps I have and simply never investigated!

And from the back of Elizabeth's book, perhaps used as a placemarker, fell a short poem cut from a newspaper without attribution or date with which I close, in hopes that someday when my library is disseminated others will enjoy the odds and ends I seem to be constantly tucking inside my books.

STAFFORD CANAL
Where lichened locks all dripping cool
So deeply store their limpid pool,
Gay-painted barges dream and drowse
In soft shadows of haymows.

And by the inn with open door
Old bargemen speak of water lore,
Crews or cargoes, miles per day,
Copper bars, and bales of hay.
[wonder if Elizabeth itched to change this to 'pots of clay' as do I]

While off in distant growing gloom
I see dark massive Wrekin loom,
Low lightning-lit in Shropshire sky.
An anchored cloud as night flows by.
R. N. T.