III Josiah Wedgwood: An eighteenth-century entrepreneur in salesmanship and marketing techniques

Abstract

When Josiah Wedgwood was born in 1730, the Staffordshire potters sold their wares almost solely in Staffordshire. Their goods found their sale in the local market towns,¹ and occasionally, carried by pedlars and hawkers, they reached further afield²—to Leicester, Liverpool and Manchester. To sell in London was rare, ³ to sell abroad virtually unknown. ⁴ Yet by 1795 Wedgwood had broken through this local trade of fairs and pedlars to an international market based on elegant showrooms and ambassadorial connections; he had become the Queen's potter and sold to every regal house in Europe. His wares were known in China, India and America. Other potters had prospered but Wedgwood had flourished above all others. Born the thirteenth son of a mediocre potter with only the promise — and a promise never fulfilled — of a £20 inheritance, he died in 1795 worth £500 000 and the owner of one of the finest industrial concerns in England. His name was known all over the world. It had become a force in industry, commerce, science and politics. It dominated the pottin industry. Men no longer spoke of “common pewter” but of “common Wedgwood”.⁵

Reprinted with permission from the The Economic History Review, 12(3), 1960. I should like to record here my thanks to Mr N.G. Annan, Prof M.M. Postan, Dr J.H. Plumb and Mr C.H. Wilson for having read this article and made many helpful suggestions. I am also greatly indebted to Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Ltd, Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent, for permission to quote from the manuscripts in the Wedgwood Museum (subsequently referred to as WMSS), and to Mr Tom Lyth, the curator, for his generous help. The manuscripts have been collected from different sources and are catalogued accordingly. I have adopted the following abbreviations — E for Etruria, L for Liverpool, and LHP for Leith Hill Place (this last collection is uncatalogued). The Mosley papers, also at Barlaston, I refer to in full (they are also uncatalogued). Dubious dates or dates relying on internal evidence are given in brackets.

Ibid, p 81, “For Miss Ferney… directed to Capt. Blake in Surrey St. in the Strand”.

The occasional piece often found its way abroad, but the Staffordshire potters never sold there in quantity.

Reprinted with permission from the The Economic History Review, 12(3), 1960. I should like to record here my thanks to Mr N.G. Annan, Prof M.M. Postan, Dr J.H. Plumb and Mr C.H. Wilson for having read this article and made many helpful suggestions. I am also greatly indebted to Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Ltd, Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent, for permission to quote from the manuscripts in the Wedgwood Museum (subsequently referred to as WMSS), and to Mr Tom Lyth, the curator, for his generous help. The manuscripts have been collected from different sources and are catalogued accordingly. I have adopted the following abbreviations — E for Etruria, L for Liverpool, and LHP for Leith Hill Place (this last collection is uncatalogued). The Mosley papers, also at Barlaston, I refer to in full (they are also uncatalogued). Dubious dates or dates relying on internal evidence are given in brackets.

Ibid, p 81, “For Miss Ferney… directed to Capt. Blake in Surrey St. in the Strand”.

The occasional piece often found its way abroad, but the Staffordshire potters never sold there in quantity.

Notes

Reprinted with permission from the The Economic History Review, 12(3), 1960. I should like to record here my thanks to Mr N.G. Annan, Prof M.M. Postan, Dr J.H. Plumb and Mr C.H. Wilson for having read this article and made many helpful suggestions. I am also greatly indebted to Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Ltd, Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent, for permission to quote from the manuscripts in the Wedgwood Museum (subsequently referred to as WMSS), and to Mr Tom Lyth, the curator, for his generous help. The manuscripts have been collected from different sources and are catalogued accordingly. I have adopted the following abbreviations — E for Etruria, L for Liverpool, and LHP for Leith Hill Place (this last collection is uncatalogued). The Mosley papers, also at Barlaston, I refer to in full (they are also uncatalogued). Dubious dates or dates relying on internal evidence are given in brackets.

Ibid, p 81, “For Miss Ferney… directed to Capt. Blake in Surrey St. in the Strand”.

The occasional piece often found its way abroad, but the Staffordshire potters never sold there in quantity.