MINTON ARCHIVE TO JOIN WEDGWOOD MUSEUM HOLDINGS

FINALLY, some good news on the Wedgwood Museum Trust fiasco. It appears that fundraising will begin to pay the Wedgwood Museum's part of the Pension Fund shortfall thus ending the long battle to secure the future of the Wedgwood Museum holdings! This is the first really good result that has been announced in quite some time. Coincidental to this problem at Barlaston has been the dilemma over what to do with the Minton Archive which became homeless in the demise of the Minton factory. That historic and valuable collection will be housed in some fashion with the Wedgwood archives at the Wedgwood Museum in Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent. It appears changes to the Museum will be made to accommodate these additional archives and it seems likely we will now be following the progress of that step in the procedure. What a long road through a lot of British muck this has been but now a glimmer of hope has emerged! Let us all now give our support to those who will be working hard to make this latest plan realize success! Josiah may now relax in his repose and perhaps rest in some new-found peace!  One can visit our website and see several Minton Archival Prints by a well-known British publisher.  Click the link above  (Minton Archive) for our favorite, a print with a raised gold emblem which replicates how the cup looks in 'the flesh'.  And if you click the link Minton Archival Prints you will see others we have for sale currently.

Wedgwood dinnerware helps celebrate Queen's Diamond Jubilee

We are all familiar with royalty collectibles, and especially those of the ceramic variety, but check out the huge celebration provided for the Queen by the City of Manchester. They went all out with community gardens, luncheon, brass band of students, and even a wedding invitation for Her Majesty. The Wedgwood connection is that the celebratory luncheon was served on Wedgwood bone china commissioned for the Coronation in 1953. Click the title of this post to see photos and read all about the Queen's Royal visit to Manchester. Meanwhile, you can go here to see what we have in our inventory that might fit the ROYAL title - you could buy yourself a nice Royal Souvenir right here at Alexis Antiques!

Wedgwood Museum Appeal Effort Fails

Click the title of this post to see the latest on the Museum fiasco in England. It appears that the government is not going to admit to the errors in legislation or do anything to remedy the ill effects. The arts world will never be the same. It makes one think about common sense, wonder where in the world it is ~ certainly it is not in England! And here is a very well presented YouTube Video which explains about the dilemma, and the hopeful outcome, made just 8 days ago. The Attorney General has his head in the sand, no matter how one slices and dices this problem. The sale of all the Museum's holdings does NOT "plug the hole" in the company's pension shortfall. Maybe makes the drip less heavy, but does NOT turn off the faucet. Talk about a fool's errand!

Yet another Wedgwood Tome in the Offing

From the Financial Times website comes an article by A N Wilson, son of famed Wedgwood designer Norman Wilson. It appears he has written a novel about our favorite potter, Josiah, and the 18th Century. He was raised in The Potteries so his point of view might be different from some of the other recent books about Wedgwood. And he weighs in on the current dilemma with the Museum's future. Click the title of this post to see the article; one has to scroll down a bit but you'll see it, title is in bold letters. I'll be watching for the book, hopefully it'll be out before long. If you read it and want to send a review, I'd love to post it!

New Wrinkle on Wedgwood Museum Dilemma

Click on the title of this post to read up on a newer development in the Museum dilemma in Barlaston. It appears new ideas are coming forth to hopefully find a solution to save the treasures of the Wedgwood Museum and still satisfy the ruling laws.

Presidents' Day will be here soon

It's long been our habit to make a Featured Item Frame on our website for American History Month and Presidents' Day in February. If you click the title of this post you'll see three nice Presidential China plates we have in stock. If you go to the Browse Inventory box on our site, and type in Lincoln, Kennedy, or Eisenhower you will find items pertaining to those men produced by Josiah Wedgwood & Sons as well, and don't miss the Featured Item Frame on the beautiful set of George and Martha Washington portrait plates produced in 1932 for the Daughters of the American Revolution, they are gorgeous!

Wedgwood Course in Massachusetts this spring

While I have some great family history in the Deerfield, MA area, I have never been able to visit Historic Deerfield, but it looks like this coming April would be the time to go. I'd love to do some cemetery hunting and more research at the Smith College and Northampton Libraries, where there is a wealth of information about my family's contribution to the history of the area. My 8th great-grandfather's pregnant wife and children were captured by the Indians and the story of his recapturing his family and the birth of his daughter is very well documented - the baby was named Canada for the name of her country of birth...this all took place in central MA near Deerfield. Enough of that, the course being offered at Historic Deerfield sounds very interesting, and if nothing else, their website announcing it is very well executed. Click the title of this post to go to the website. Upon further research I see that in March there is a one day symposium on the Indian Raid of February 29, 1704 in which my 8th great-grandfather, Sgt. Benjamin Wait, was killed by the Indians. For those of you in the east, with an interest in the history of central MA or our Indian heritage especially, can go here to see about this seminar.  The link to the March seminar has now been taken down, sorry!

WEDGWOOD SANTA CLAUS FUN -Merry Christmas everyone

One Wedgwood side-topic that I enjoy is finding restaurants, inns and hotels named Wedgwood. I have a stack of menus, ads, etc. to do an article on the subject someday but for now I was going through the stack recently to straighten it out and ran across something fun for the season. This Santa is a heavy cardboard giveaway from The Wedgwood, Family Dining, Corner Tampa Ave. & Business Route 41, Venice, FL I have not yet researched this particular one, but can just see many touring families in the restaurant with the children entertaining themselves, and maybe some of the adults :-)), with these toys, trying to get that ring caught on Santa's moustache. It isn't difficult, I did it on the second try! We at Alexis Antiques wish for all our customers, readers and Wedgwood friends a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and may 2012 be a kinder, gentler year to all of us, we need it!

WEDGWOOD MUSEUM OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

Herewith the text of the official Wedgwood Museum Press Release. As of this writing it appears there are several ideas being floated in several circles in which the goal is that the Museum holdings would remain with the WMT in one fashion or other so that the Wedgwood Museum can continue to function with its contents intact. Click the title of this post to read the Release.

WEDGWOOD FOR WILLIAMSBURG

Thanks to the editor [my good friend Adele Barnett] of The Capital Wedgwoodian, the newsletter of the Wedgwood Society of Washington, DC, I have just learned that this year is the 75th anniversary of the Williamsburg Reproductions Program "a concept developed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.". Over the years we have carried many of the beautiful products from Wedgwood through this program to help one carry the colonial theme into one's home. At this time we have a few in stock which you might enjoy seeing. Click on the title of this post to see what we have available right now. These are all high quality reproductions of actual items in the Colonial Williamsburg collection. The 1936 Husk Queensware pattern was the first of the items licensed by Wedgwood and we have a piece or two in stock to add to a collection, or perhaps start a new one! For information on the Wedgwood Society of Washington, DC and its newsletter, see www.wedgwoodcapital.org.