“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 make and deal in; and while those who buy, for the sake of a fallacious saving, prefer mediocrity to excellence, it will be impossible for them either to improve or keep up the quality of their works.
“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 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 are generally attended with much less profit to the artist than those that everybody calls cheap.
“Beautiful forms and compositions are not to be made by chance; and they never were made nor can be made in any kind at small expense; but the proprietors of this manufactory have the satisfaction of knowing, by a careful comparison, that the prices of many of their ornaments are much lower than, and all of them as low as, those of any other ornamental works in Europe of equal quality and risk, notwithstanding the high price of labor in England; and they are determined to give up the making of any article rather than to degrade it.”
From all this is it not evident that Wedgwood too found his world full of shabby buyers? I think so; and that has been the misfortune of others. While the buyers are apt to vituperate the workmen, in too many cases they are the culprits.
Few will dispute it, that nearly all the manufacturing and trading world has been sliding downward into shabbiness since Wedgwood’s day; and few will dispute it, that the mania to “buy cheap and sell dear” always did and always will debase any people.
It is not my purpose to give any detailed history of the life and doings of Wedgwood. All who are enough interested will find these in his “Life,” by Llewellynn Jewitt, and in that by Miss Meteyard, both of which are full, and are profusely illustrated. What I can do here is to call attention to some of the most distinctive things accomplished by this great potter.
Almost from the first, Wedgwood perceived or felt that there were good and bad both in form and decoration; and he set to work to secure perfection in both. While all his life he wished to make, and did make, vases and other works for purely ornamental and artistic purposes, in which the expression of beauty alone was sought, he had that practical sense which taught him to apply his skill and his perception first to the production and improvement of earthen-ware which came into the daily uses of life. Out of this came his “queen’s-ware,” which soon had such a reputation for form and quality that it went in large quantities all over the trading world.
From this it should be known that Wedgwood made the money with which he carried forward those investigations and experiments which at last culminated in his finest works of fictile art.
It may as well be said here that even his art-work made him no money, although many of his pieces were reproduced. The fifty copies of the “Portland Vase”—of which more hereafter, and which sold for fifty guineas each—cost him more than he got for them. It is best to say this, because some men and women think that artists are sure to become rich. No man should attempt to be an artist with such an expectation; for, while here and there one is caught on the wave of fashion and borne onward to fortune, the number of these is few. No artist must expect a speedy recognition for good work.
Wedgwood would not have been Wedgwood had he not had a foundation for his art-work in his “queen’s-ware.” Upon this ware a word of explanation may be desirable. He early brought this every-day ware to great perfection, not only of form, but of paste and glaze. It was not painted, but was of a creamy white; and, being at such a small price, it went into very wide use. Having sent some pieces of it as a present to Queen Charlotte, she was induced to order a complete table-service, and to request that it might be called “queen’s-ware” thenceforth, as it is to this day.