Dr. Josiah Francis Wedgwood dies in Paris

Dr. Josiah recently attended the Opening Tea of the 250th Wedgwood Exhibit in DC, taking along his son. He was a member of the Wedgwood Society of Washington, DC and a collector. The medical and Wedgwood worlds will be diminished by his passing. Please click on this post's title to go to the newspaper story with all the details.

Another great WEDGWOOD TEA opportunity with His Lordship FEB 6

THIS EVENT HAD TO BE POSTPONED UNTIL THE END OF MARCH DUE TO
BLIZZARD IN WASHINGTON, DC. IF YOU PAID FOR A RESERVATION, YOU WILL BE RECEIVING A PACKET FROM WEDGWOOD ALONG WITH ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE NEW DATE.

CLICK THIS POST TITLE ABOVE to find out all about another great Wedgwood opportunity in our Nation's Capitol. February 6th brings tea & presentation with Lord Wedgwood, presentation by Tricia Foley and a private tour of the 250th Anniversary Exhibit at the DAR Museum. Reservations must be made by January 25th, tickets $125 each. Oh yes, all this and an event gift too. Call 888-411-8995 or email events@hoffmanmedia.com to register. Lord Wedgwood is a charming man and is always so enthusiastic about the Wedgwood company and its products. Tricia is such a creative lady, you'll love her ideas for displaying your Wedgwood collection. The event begins at 3pm and concludes at 7pm. ENJOY!

SMITHSONIAN EVENT - GREAT WEDGWOOD OPPORTUNITY JAN 9

Wedgwood collectors who are lucky enough to live in the greater Washington, DC area will be able to enjoy a great post holiday WEDGWOOD fix! Click the title of this post to go directly to the how, why, when & where of the January 9th, 2010 special program WEDGWOOD: 250 YEARS OF INNOVATION, ARTISTRY AND TIMELESS BEAUTY brought to you by The Smithsonian Associates & Wedgwood at the DAR Museum. This presentation will take place all afternoon and attendees will be treated to a seminar and afternoon tea with Lord Wedgwood and the lovely Curator of Decorative Arts of the Birmingham (AL) Museum of Art. The BMA is not only the home of the Beeson Collection of Wedgwood, but now also the famous and fabulous Buten Collection from Long Island, formerly of Merion, PA. You will hear from both His Lordship and Anne Forschler about the heritage, traditional craft skills and the evolution of products and designs. A favorite subject of ours, creative ways to display your collection, will also be discussed along with ways to mix patterns...another passion of ours!

Don't miss this great opportunity to see the 250th Anniversary of Wedgwood Exhibition, meet some of the elite of the Wedgwood world and enjoy a cuppa from a Wedgwood bone china teacup no doubt! You can go to our LINKS for more information on the 250th celebration. Those of us in the rest of the world will just have to be satisified with hearing about the fabulous afternoon from our friends! ENJOY!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO OUR FRIENDS

Merry Christmas to all our Wedgwood friends. We hope you are enjoying this winter season up to the holidays. Be sure to give us a look for your Christmas or holiday gifting needs! We have plenty of inventory in stock, jasper items of many colors, china pieces for tablescape accents and replacements for many patterns. For the bibliophiles among you, we have loads of Wedgwood books and other fun odds and ends with Wedgwood themes - think prints to frame, fabric for crafting, lots of fun Wedgwood stuff!

Remember we always ship right up to the last day - this year you can ship via Express Mail on the 23rd for Christmas Eve delivery.

May your family have a blessed Christmas and happy and prosperous New Year!

Wedgwood Room in Memphis

A Wedgwood friend of ours, Kirk, lives in a retirement community in Memphis that really has its act together! It is located in an old mid-town ten story building that was opened in 1924. The first floor public area has 18 to 20 foot tall ceilings, lots of wood paneling, large windows and French doors and cast plaster ceiling moldings all reflected in etched glass and mirrors. Kirk describes it as "...very elegant, like walking into an old, grand hotel". The best part is that the dining room is called The Wedgwood Room and is decorated in appropriate colors, no surprise there! There is a glass and wood case near the entrance that contains about a dozen pieces of Wedgwood (probably from residents' collections?)...and three pieces which aren't Wedgwood, but Kirk isn't telling which ones! The building is called The Parkview because it was built at the entrance to a very large park, Overton Park, established in the late 1800s on what was then the outskirts of the city. There one will find the world-class zoo, a 9 hole golf course, Museum of Art, outdoor amphitheatre, War Memorial and a large area of old forest. Sounds like the perfect place for a retired Wedgwoodian to live and entertain guests! The restaurant isn't open to the public, but maybe one can pop in and sneak a peek! Over the years many restaurants known as The Wedgwood Room or similar names have been in existence. One of our long list of in-progress research projects is an article about them. We had a Wedgwood Room in our local Famous-Barr department store in St. Louis, all those eons ago when I was a little girl!

LOTS NEW IN STOCK

Just in lots of jasperware - blues, sage green, spruce green, a couple pieces of black and some pastels. There are also some new pieces of jewelry too. One treat is the gray jasper cupid plate, a good rare color. The NEW AND FEATURED ITEMS page is a good place to start, just remember there are many more new items than those on the left-hand panel, so be sure to go to the browser and browse your favorite categories. These new pieces are all contemporary pieces in excellent to mint condition. It's time for Christmas shopping so we hope to hear from you soon! JUST CLICK THE TITLE OF THIS POST TO GO TO OUR WEBSITE

GIFT BETWEEN NATIONS

On October 2 when the Exhibition to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of Wedgwood & Sons opens at the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum in Washington, DC, one of the activities at the Opening Day tea will be the presentation by Piers, Lord Wedgwood of a moumental piece of Wedgwood jasperware made especially for this occasion to the people of the United States. Click this blog title to read the recent UK newspaper coverage of the moving of the Gift from the UK to America.

REAL JASPER WARE - DON'T BE CONFUSED

A couple of weeks ago the Barlaston factory made redundant (laid off) more workers. There is no more jasper production except specially commissioned pieces, a few one off pieces in the Museum's exhibition area and high end prestige wares. It has come to our attention that Tuesday Morning is selling a blue and white "jasper" teaset in its stores. This set is part of the Wedgwood 250th anniversary celebration merchandise offering, but it is made in China, and is NOT traditional jasper. It is a molded bisque type product, think of the Christmas ornaments of late and you'll know what we mean. These same teasets are turning up now on eBay of course at far higher prices and it is our opinion unsuspecting buyers are going to be very disappointed when they discover what they have received. There is another complication, which Peggy Kerner, a friend and Wedgwood expert, has recently shared. The composition of the "new" porcelain Wedgwood seems to be calling Jasper does not meet proper lead content standards. Imagine this, going backwards several generations in the technology of safety. Probably don't want those tea parties to include actually drinking from the "new" faux jasper! Of course, those who just love the look won't be disappointed, they are lovely to look at! Unfortunately the company is not announcing the difference, and inexperienced shoppers won't have a way to know...so the words of the day are buyer beware!!! In the promo photo, the teaset looks like jasper! The only way for a Wedgwood collector to purchase real jasper and other Wedgwood dry body products now is on the secondary market. There are some companies selling a product they call Wedgwood Black Basalt, but the factory isn't making such; they did make some black jasper pieces with a special polishing technique to try to emulate basalt, but it is not basalt. Find a dealer you can trust, read up on the marks and ask questions. You won't find new Wedgwood dry bodied wares, i.e., jasper, basalt, caneware, etc., so relax with a good Wedgwood reference book, teach yourself then shop with a reputable dealer who knows the products. If you just love the jasper "look" then there are plenty of products around; one can find Wedgwood's new products on their own website. And Wedgwood certainly is continuing in the china dinnerware business, of course it is no longer English bone china, but china made in Indonesia by Wedgwood employees. Note the paper labels on many products, once these are washed away, there is no longer any manufacturer's identification!

We are frequently asked to appraise pieces of jasperware which aren't Wedgwood. One company which made gorgeous blue jasper was Adams. If you see the December, 2009 issue of The Magazine Antiques, check out the ad on page 31, a beautiful array of antique Adams blue & white jasper, ca 1790-1800. That's real jasper too! It's not Wedgwood jasper, but if you love the blue and white stoneware with classical figures in beautiful relief, you'll love looking at this photo. There is some gorgeous Christopher Dresser Minton china in another article, not to be missed!

POTS AT MARTHA'S AND OTHER STUFF TOO!

We really subscribe to Martha Stewart Living to see how she's using her Wedgwood collection to illustrate her articles, and this month, unlike several recently, she hasn't disappointed us on that score - today arrived the new issue, gee how can it be the September issue already??? Check out the gorgeous decorator ideas, especially the fabulous array of terra cotta pots on page 121 - you too can achieve that look, just use your imagination, hit some garage sales or go to the title of this blog post, click and voila, you'll see some of the fabulous English terra cotta pots Martha recommends (see the article on page 21). AND if you are lucky enough to live in New England, be sure to take the Cabot Farms tour! See their great ad, and awful sounding recipe, on page 97. Their cheese is wonderful and the tour is tres interesante. Oh, the Wedgwood, hmm, see the lovely dark green glaze cabbage leaf plates on page 131 - and please remember, these are Josiah's Green Glaze Ware, he invented this lovely dark green glaze, and it's NOT Majolica - no matter how many eBay sellers try to convince us it is. Majolica and green glaze wares are not the same...do a bit of reading and you'll see the difference! Cheers!

WEDGWOOD, PORTMEIRION & SPODE IN THE NEWS

Click on this blog post title to go to a recent UK Sentinel news article about Wedgwood current events. The following news was found on Kovels Komments, the Kovels blog, from an email link today. I can't seem to verify it in the UK papers we monitor, but if it's true it will be a big boon to the Spode and Royal Worcester brands. We'll keep looking for more new! "The Spode and Royal Worcester brand names and trademarks, patents, etc. have been purchased from Royal Worcester Spode by Portmeirion Potteries for $5.27 million. Portmeirion plans to continue making the brands' products and some patterns. Portmeirion's chairman says some of the brands' patterns, including Spode's Blue Italian and Christmas Tree and Royal Worcester's Evesham, will be "reinvigorated." " Send us an email or contact us through our website if you have any information that we could share on the buyout of Spode and Royal Worcester and we'll post it!