WEDGWOOD GEOGRAPHY

Leith Hill, Surrey, is another pin on the map of Wedgwood sites in Great Britain. Click the title of this post to read about a lovely excursion opportunity for those in the UK, but also a bit of history about one of the Wedgwood family homes. You can learn about yet another Wedgwood home, Caverswall Castle, in an Older Post ~ just scroll down to the Older Posts link.

WEDGWOOD & GERMAN MUSTARD - Who Knew?

Who knew indeed that there was a German food manufacturer and distributor selling its wares in London, neatly packed in at least one case, the German Mustard, in wonderful Wedgwood mustard jars?

Our good friends Judy & Colin Jones of Australia recently visited well-known Wedgwood dealer Alan Landis and found this treasure amongst his other offerings and snapped it up. I thought Coeln was the name of a city since the rest is '& Dusseldorf' but I can't find a translation that tells us this is another spelling for Cologne or another city...however I found "..cittie of Collin in Germany", so I believe Coeln is the name of a city in which Bedbur's was also sold, along with Dusseldorf. I did find a city called New Coeln in Wisconsin, outside Milwaukee. That tells me that indeed Coeln was or is still another city in Germany where Bedbur's was sold. It has been suggested to me that Coeln is another spelling of Cologne, so perhaps that solves the mystery!

Here is Judy's research: The piece is date-marked for 1861. Approximately 40 German companies set up retail shops selling foodstuffs under their own brands in London in the late 19th Century. W. Bedbur was one such company and they had a Delicatessen in Portland Street (of all streets!!). Herr Bedbur described his business as a “German mustard factory, delicatessen and wine factory”. He sold a wide range of products including 7 types of sausages, 3 of which originated from Frankfurt. Other delicacies included Westfalen and Brunswick ham and Hamburg smoked meat, pickles including Mainz Sauerkraut and Saxon salt, vinegar, pepper and mustard gherkins. [Also a 'truffle & garlic sausage', probably a pate, as well as Pomeranian goose breast.] The Firm offered free delivery to all parts of London. A series of fairly large German food companies became established in London in the years leading up to WW1 but disappeared during the Germanophobic hysteria. [from Migration & Transfer from Germany to Britain 1660-1914] Judy and I surmise that the Wedgwood mustard jars were probably supplied from the factory to Bedburs for filling in London at their shop, rather than thinking that Wedgwood was shipping quantities of the jars to Germany, just to be packed and reshipped to London.

Additionally I found in The Shopkeeper's Guide, published in London, 1853, a listing for Winand Bedbur, 45 Greek Street, Soho listed in the section of Mustard Manufacturers. Also listed was the famous Colmans Mustard Company. And we see in Schmidt's Directory of the City and County of Manitowoc, Wisconsin 1909-1910, the listing -Bedbur, W, Route 2, Two Rivers, Manitowoc County.

Lots of interesting history in this fun mustard jar! Thank you so much to Judy Jones for reporting in on their new Wedgwood treasure, and for doing the research to tell us about it!

WEDGWOOD WAR HERO MEMORIALIZED AT MUSEUM

Many Wedgwood collectors are also interested in the Wedgwood family, especially some of its more illustrious members. Major Cecil Wedgwood is one of those, having lost his life at the early age of 53 in the World War I Battle of the Somme. Read this nice article to see how the Wedgwood Museum is memorializng Major Cecil. The exhibit is entitled A WONDERFUL ENGLISHMAN and is one event presented to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the City of Stoke. On another note, Major Cecil grew up at Caverswall Castle, a castle with several Wedgwood connections. See our earlier post about this castle. Click the title of this post to read about Major Cecil and note many clickable links in that article to others of interest. Go to OLDER POSTS below for our article about the Castle.

Amazng news about Wedgwood dealer & author Wolf Mankowitz

This morning brought to my inbox an astonishing bit of news from Great Britain. I have known of Wolf Mankowitz through his Wedgwood connection for many years, read his books and recently made contact with one of his sons - much to my delight. This lovely pre-Fall morning in the mid-west USA brings an amazing bit of news across the international 'email wire' - click the title of this post to learn more about Mr. Mankowitz ~ I for one had NO idea he was a screen writer for James Bond stories, and certainly not the suspicion that he was a Russian spy!! His story appears a bit like a movie script itself -- years after WWII generally unsuspected folks being accused of having been spies...surely some based upon fact, but as surely many not. The greater Wedgwood community never ceases to amaze me! Wedgwood is thought of by the unsuspecting world as so many dainty floral teacups or 'that blue & white stuff'~ it is easy to understand why the subject of Wedgwood has commanded so much of my attention and study during my 62 1/2 years, since the summer after 8th grade- it seems to be a never-ending saga, no matter from what angle one examines it! Be sure to click this post title for the full article.

Darwin's Family Tree Rediscovered

News is bursting on the 'net this morning of a discovery of a 1932 Galton-Darwin-Wedgwood family tree, oddly enough a copy of early Darwin family photos and other information right here in Missouri. The same article appeared on several scientific sites, so I've just copied it for sharing here among the Wedgwood line of Darwin fans:

A poster of the Galton-Darwin-Wedgwood pedigree was prepared by Harry Hamilton Laughlin, Director of the Eugenics Record Office of the Carnegie Institute, and exhibited at the Third International Congress of Eugenics in 1932 at the American Museum of Natural History.

A photograph of this poster has been discovered in the archives of Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri alongside a photograph of a poster of a collection of rare Darwin family photographs, assembled by Leonard Darwin. The original posters have not been located.

Professor Tim Berra FLS, The Ohio State University, has made this information and associated images available to Darwin scholars world-wide in a paper in volume 101, Issue 1, September 2010 of The Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. Professor Berra said 'The newly available pedigree and photographs open a window into the family life of Charles Darwin, the man. He was a husband, brother, father and grandfather, and, along the way, he also had the greatest idea ever had by the human mind.'

The Galton-Darwin-Wedgwood family is descended from the prominent 18th century doctor Erasmus Darwin; Josiah Wedgwood, founder of the pottery firm Josiah Wedgwood and Sons and Samuel John Galton, an arms manufacturer. The family contains at least ten Fellows of the Royal Society, several artists and poets and of course Charles Darwin who laid the foundations of the theory of evolution and transformed the way we think about the natural world and our place in it.

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!