Word: wedgwood
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Sharing the neo-classical sentiment of the period, Wedgwood called his factory "Etruria," and kept a stable of designers in Rome to copy new relics for him as soon as they were dug up. His pet employee, John Flaxman, whom he reserved for designing plaques, intaglios and ornamental urns, sometimes surpassed the classic models...
...Queen Charlotte bought one of his cream-colored caudle sets (for warm drinks) Wedgwood's diligence began paying off. He got Charlotte's permission to call the line she liked "Queen's Fare" and to style himself "Potter to the Queen." Wedgwood hired the best artists he could find, opened a factory, huge for those days, and powered it with James Watt's newfangled steam engines...
...Minutest. Wedgwood spent four years figuring out how to reproduce a Roman vase in the Duke of Portland's collection, and when Sir Joshua Reynolds pronounced his copy "a correct and faithful imitation both in the general effect and in the most minutest details of the parts," he felt that the time had been well spent...
...Portland Vase" was easily the most valuable and technically impressive piece in last week's show, but it would strike some 20th Century eyes as a pointless tour de force. Moderns were more apt to be impressed by the startling modernity of Wedgwood's own early designs. As the exhibition catalogue put it, "He realized the importance of what is now termed functionalism ... he insisted that lids should fit, that spouts should pour, and that handles should be comfortable to the hand...
Long before he won his fame, Wedgwood had been turning out cream-colored pottery by hand, and calling it simply "Useful Ware" (sometimes he had it decorated by a Widow Warburton who lived in Hot Lane). It was just about as practical and clean-lined as anything anyone has accomplished since...