Among the various catalogues issued by Wedgwood, some were issued in Dutch and in French. There is one, dated 1775, which contains a perfect little essay to the possible buyer of his ware. From the point of view of the potter and artist, he gives reasons for the genuine work of art costing more money than an unworthy and feeble imitation.
Wedgwood writes so simply and naturally that it is worth the perusal of all who love china for china’s sake, to ponder over what the master potter says:—
“The proprietors of this manufactory hope it will appear to all those who may have been pleased to attend to its progress, that ever since its establishment it has been continually improving both in the variety and in the perfection of its productions.
“A competition for cheapness, and not for excellence of workmanship, is the most frequent and certain cause of the rapid decay and entire destruction of arts and manufactures.
“The desire of selling much in a little time without respect to the taste or quality of the goods, leads manufacturers and merchants to ruin the reputation of the articles which they manufacture and deal in; and whilst those who buy, for the sake of a fallacious saving, prefer mediocrity to excellence, it will be impossible for manufacturers either to improve or keep up the quality of their works.
“This observation is equally applicable to manufacturers and to the productions of the Fine Arts; but the degradation is more fatal to the latter than the former, for though an ordinary piece of goods, for common use, is always dearer than the best of the kind, yet an ordinary and tasteless piece of ornament is not only dear at any price, but absolutely useless and ridiculous.
“All works of art must bear a price in proportion to the skill, the taste, the time, the expense, and the risk attending the invention and the execution of them. Those pieces that for these reasons bear the highest price and, which those who are not accustomed to consider the real difficulty and expense of making fine things are apt to call dear, are, when justly estimated, the cheapest articles that can be purchased; and such as are generally attended with much less profit to the artist than those that everybody calls cheap.
“There is another mistake that gentlemen who are not acquainted with the particular difficulties of an art are apt to fall into. They frequently observe that a handsome thing may be made as cheap as an ugly one. A moment’s reflection would rectify this opinion.
“The most successful artists know that they can turn out ten ugly and defective things for one that is beautiful and perfect in its kind. Even suppose the artist has the true idea of the kind of beauty at which he aims, how many lame and unsuccessful efforts does he make in his design, and every part of it, before he can please himself? And suppose one piece is well-composed and tolerably finished, as in vases and encaustic paintings, for instance, where every succeeding vase, and every picture, is made not in a mould or by a stamp, but separately by the hand, with the same attention and diligence as the first, how difficult must it be to preserve the beauty of the first model.