INTRODUCTION. YIELDING to no one in love for the beautiful in Art and in Nature, or in veneration for whatever is great and good and noble in the human family, the preparation of the life of the man whose works are pre-eminently entitled to be classed with the former, and whose whole life and character so imperatively demand for him a proud place amongst the latter, has to me been a "labour of love," and one in which I have taken more than usual delight. The task has been one of serious labour, but fully commensurate with that labour has been the pleasure I have felt in prosecuting and completing my task. To me, in literary matters, it has ever appeared that the heavier the toil, the pleasanter will be the result. There is, in my opinion, but little credit and less satisfaction in accomplishing a work which takes no trouble. It is the hard literary digging -the throwing up of heavy spadesful of soil, in the hope of finding even one little bulb which may germinate and add its beauties to those that are already garnered or are yet to come-which brings with it enjoyment and satisfaction. It is but small merit to compile a work from data and materials ready "cut and dried" to one's hand. It is the getting together of those materials that constitutes the credit, and brings with it a gratifying reward. It is in holding these views that I am enabled to say the preparation of my present work has to me been "a labour of love." Had its subject been less worthy than it is, and had the actual toil been short of what it has been, the pleasure I have felt in its preparation and continuance would undoubtedly have been far less than that I have experienced. How I have succeeded, it is for others to judge. That my work may contain errors, I am prepared to believe, and that it may not be so full and complete as some may have desired, I can readily understand; but in future editions, should they be called for, I hope to correct whatever there may be of the former, and successfully to accomplish the latter. Mr. Gladstone, speaking of the subject of this memoir in his admirable address on occasion of his laying the foundation-stone of the "Wedgwood Memorial Institute," at Burslem, said, "Surely it is strange that the life of such a man should, in this nation of shopkeepers,' yet at this date remain unwritten; and I have heard with much pleasure a rumour, which I trust is true, that such a gap in our literature is about to be filled up." That "gap" I have endeavoured in this work to "fill up"-I hope with satisfaction to my readers; and I trust also that what I have now for the first time brought together, may be found useful, and at the same time instructive, to collectors, while it may be read with pleasure and profit by all. A large mass of original letters of, and documents relating to, Josiah Wedgwood, are fortunately-despite the wreck of the papers which were with reprehensible thoughtlessness sold, destroyed, or lost some years after his death-preserved in the hands of my friend, Mr. Joseph Mayer, F.S.A. These having been unreservedly placed, years ago, by Mr. Mayer, in other hands, for the purpose of their forming the groundwork of a different publication on Wedgwood, have been a "sealed book" to me. I have never sought to see them, or even inquired of what they consist, but, on the contrary, have scrupulously avoided any allusion or reference to them. It is my sincere hope that they may be carefully and properly edited, and may form a work which may worthily supplement my own, which has been prepared independently of any such aid. It is right to say that the groundwork of this-my Life of Wedgwood-is to be found in the chapters on "Wedgwood and Etruria," which form a part of the series of Histories of the Porcelain and Earthenware Manufactories of this Kingdom, which I am regularly giving in the pages of that admirably conducted and exquisitely beautiful publication, the Art-Journal, to whose learned and able editor, my kind friend, Mr. S. C. Hall, F.S.A., I have to express my deep and lasting obligation for favours most kindly conferred upon me. The chapters, however, which appeared in the Art-Journal do but form the groundwork of the present volume. The whole has been re-modelled and re-written, and the additional matter has swelled it to more than double its original size. It is hoped that the narrative I now present to the public will be found to be a history of the "great Josiah," his family, and his works, which shall form as pleasing and lasting a "Wedgwood Memorial" as any of the others that have been projected. DERBY, MARCH, 1865. CONTENTS. Introductory.-Gradual Progress of the Art in the District.-The Celtic Period.-Cinerary Urns.-Drinking-cups.-Food-vessels.-Incense- Page The Romano-British Period. -Varieties of Vessels.-Anglo-Saxon Period.-Cinerary Urns.—Domestic Vessels.-Norman Period.— Pitchers and other Vessels discovered in Derbyshire.-Pavement Productions of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.-Dishes of Toft, Sans, and Taylor.-Tygs.-The Butter Trade.-Butter-pots.- Clays. Dr. Plot's Account.-Combed Ware.-Bellarmines and Ale-pots.-White Stone Ware.“ Drinking Stone Pottes."-Early Patents.-Salt Glazing.-Crouch Ware.-The Brothers Eler, from Nuremberg; their Secret discovered by Astbury and Twyford . . 22 Manufacture of Tobacco-pipes.-Chronological Series of Examples.— Tiles for Garden Knots.-The Wedgwoods.-John Wedgwood.— Puzzle Jugs.-Earthenware Cradle.-Delft Ware.-English Delft Ware.-Universality of Blue in Pottery.-Embossed Stone Ware.- Discovery of the Use of Flint, by Astbury.-Patents for Grinding Flint.-Patent for Damasking, &c.-Ralph Shaw.-Litigation with |