croakings of the china manufacturers, good instead of evil commercial results, and in its promotion the far-seeing and deeply-thinking Josiah Wedgwood acted as he always did, for the good of all. In this same year, 1792, it is related that Wedgwood made a liberal offer towards establishing a national gallery of sculpture, &c. Professor Cockerell, when examined before a committee of the House of Commons, on the establishing of Schools of Art, in 1836, thus spoke of this offer of Wedgwood's "I beg leave to mention an anecdote of the late Mr. Wedgwood, related to me by Mr. Cumberland, of Bristol, who wrote a pamphlet in 1792, recommending a national gallery of sculpture, casts, &c., viz., that Mr. Wedgwood made a tender of £1,000 in aid of such an institution. I beg further to state, that I have found Wedgwood's works esteemed in all parts of Europe, and placed in the more precious collections of this description of works." In June, 1793, a change took place in the Etruria firm, caused by the retirement of Mr. John Wedgwood. The firm thereafter consisted of Josiah Wedgwood, Josiah Wedgwood, jun., and Thomas Byerley, and was carried on under the style of "Josiah Wedgwood, Son, and Byerley," until the death of the great and good man in eighteen months afterwards. CHAPTER XVII. JASPER WARE.-TURNER'S PRODUCTIONS. — WEDGWOOD'S IN- JASPER BEADS. CLASSES OF INTAGLIOS AND MEDAL LIONS.-SEALS, BRACELETS, ETC.-PORTRAIT MEDALLIONS. 66 PLAQUES. BLACK WARE, OR BASALTES."."—BUSTS AND STATUES.-LAMPS AND CANDELABRA.-TEA AND COFFEE EQUIPAGES.-FLOWER AND ROOT POTS. - SEPULCHRAL URNS. VASES. VASES. ETRUSCAN INK-STANDS, MORTARS, ETC. STUBBS, THE 66 ANIMAL PAINTER. -THERMOMETERS FOR MEASURING HEAT. AND now, before the eventful and useful life of Wedgwood, which I have so far traced through its various phases, fairly draws to its close, let me pause to give some few notices of his beautiful productions, as promised in my last chapter, and to add a few words to what I have already said on some of the more noted examples which have come under my notice. And here, too, let me make my final quotation -final, because it is the last which was written-from the original manuscript memoir, to which I have so often had occasion to refer in this my biography of the "great Josiah." I quote it because it refers to the jasper ware, about which, especially, I am about to speak. "These events," says the narrative, "were succeeded by a discovery of very considerable importance to the plastic art, and which occurred to Mr. W. in the course of his experiments. This was the making of white porcelain bisque, susceptible of receiving colours throughout its whole substance, but more especially of being stained with the fine mazarine blue, which was one of the early characteristics of the Saxon porcelain. The mineral from whence this colour is obtained is said to be guarded with so much jealousy in Saxony, that conveying it out of the country is made a capital offence. This porcelain is called jasper, from its resemblances in properties to that stone; and this property of receiving colours, which no other body, either ancient or modern, has been known to do, renders it peculiarly fit for cameos, portraits, and all subjects in bas-relief, as the ground may be made of any colour throughout, and the raised figures of a pure white. "He possessed this valuable secret about twelve years before anything of the same kind was done by another, notwithstanding that he lived in the midst of a great number of ingenious men engaged in the same pursuits with himself. The first nearly similar effect was produced by an intelligent neighbour,* with a material different from that employed by Mr. Wedgwood; and afterwards, through an incident partly accidental, and partly proceeding from treachery, the whole discovery was laid open to several others; but the directors of the principal manufactories of porcelain on the Continent have not yet, as we believe, succeeded in producing this species, although it has been an object of extreme solicitude among them. The bas-reliefs which he finished at this time, partly after the subjects upon the Etruscan vases, and partly from the engravings which he found in different authors, were frequently inlaid into marble for chimney-pieces, and used to ornament girandoles, and in some instances abroad they were set in panels of coaches. Commissions for these and his other productions were often received from foreign princes, and artists have even been sent to make collections of them, to be conveyed to Rome, and there fitted up. "The bamboo, or cane-coloured porcelain, is another of the inventions of Mr. Wedgwood, which was soon and very well imitated by other makers, and, while it adds variety to Turner. the productions of these useful manufactories, has tended considerably to extend their general commerce. "He had the good fortune, too, to be of some service to science and experimental philosophy, by making a porcelain bisqué of a hardness nearly equal to that of agate, which, together with its property of resisting the strongest acids and corrosives, and its impenetrability to every known species of liquid, adapts it admirably for mortars and different kinds of chemical vessels. In the foregoing projects, which we have only described generally, but which, in the detailed operations, must have occupied a very great portion of his time and of his thoughts, Mr. Wedgwood never lost sight of the Queen's ware, the first-fruit of his genius, and certainly the best, in point of pecuniary benefits to himself, and of general prosperity. If he had been impelled to the ardent pursuit in which we have seen him engaged by mere sordid motives, he would have found here a resting-placeeverything in this one discovery to gratify his wishes; for a matter so suited and so essential to the conveniences of life must necessarily have an immense consumption, and from these results all its advantages. This can never happen, in any comparative degree, to works of mere art and fancy, always accompanied with great expense, employing a much smaller number of persons, and not uniformly returning even the original cost. "He was continually enlarging the number of useful vessels made of that ware, and several times completely changed his models, in order to keep up the vigour of this branch of his business. He fancied, from the general predilection for porcelain, that if, by an alteration in its colour, he could bring it nearer to that appearance, it would be an improvement acceptable to his patrons. He invented for this purpose a whiter glaze with a tint of blue, now generally known in the manufactory by the name of China glaze; and to introduce this ware, he modelled an entirely new pattern with raised borders, in imitation of shell-work. These borders, or rather edges, he stained with a rich blue colour, laid on under the glaze, in the manner that the oriental porcelain is done; and this was the first time the same art was practised upon earthenware. He was disappointed, however, in its success, for those who were in the habit of buying his wares considered it as an imitation of something better, and they preferred the Queen's ware, which had no pretensions of that kind, but stood on its own merits. It became, however, a very considerable branch of pottery, and in general use. His enterprising and ingenious neighbours did not abandon the idea, as he was obliged to do, but improved upon it, covering almost the whole of the surface of their ware with oriental designs in blue; and it now is seen to rival in external appearance the wares of China itself, for which it is substituted among the great body of the people. "This improvement of the common ware was in some measure owing to the introduction of materials which an |