We continued our trip by taxi since a very friendly barkeeper gave us the tip. The museum collection is free but you need to pay for a factory tour. Don’t worry, it’s worth a trip and the effort!
I have never seen this much of a body of work by Wedgwood before. I have seen some of his jasper ware in Vaasa, London and at Paris marche du puches, but at Wedgwood’s, there is the whole body of work! The exhibition starts with red ware, the local clay jasper trials, and the cream ware.
The exhibited archive shows the evolution of Wedgwood’s ware and shows a bit of his laboratory work as well. The amount of the tests is remarkable!
The exhibition continues with black basalt teapots together with the Portland vase, which is still in production. At the museum there are the bubbly basalts and the crackled white jasper to bring hope for the ceramicists fighting with material aspects of their works. (My current state is that weight by liter is a hoax!)
I wrote about the Portland vase for our Swedish class back in Winter, but I’ll spare you and give a short version in English:
The original was a Roman tomb found made out of glass and is now in The British Museum. A minor drunken accident occurred and it was joined back together from pieces twice since it got broken. The latest conservation was made in the 1980's and is still exhibited. When the regency period was the style of fashion, Wedgwood saw that the neoclassicism style vases was an opportunity to show off his jasper innovation.
At the factory tour I got to know that the Portland vase is hand thrown and decorated afterwards with delicate hand molded and joined jasper details. I got to see the many factory machines such as the glaze dryer flames and press mold machine. So many parts are still made by and such as gilding and teapot glazing, and I got to meet the people who work there. Friendly chaps and talented ladies!
Make sure to visit the tearoom for a cheap glass of French wine and see what is the year’s jasper product! There is so much more I’d like to tell you about my visit in “Stoked”-on-Trent, but I’ll see all of you booking your flights and trains already!