Fig. 575.
In 1788 Thomas Wedgwood, Josiah Wedgwood’s partner in the “useful ware,” died. In the following year the medallion (Fig. [575]) supposed to be made of clay brought from New South Wales, was executed. In 1790 the fifty copies of the Portland vase were issued, and the same year Wedgwood published his “Dissertation” upon it. The same year he took into partnership his three sons, John, Josiah, and Thomas Wedgwood, and his nephew, Thomas Byerley (the son of his sister, Margaret Wedgwood, by her husband, who was a descendant of the Byerleys, of Byerley Hall, in Yorkshire), the style of the firm being “Josiah Wedgwood, Sons, & Byerley.” In 1793 Mr. John Wedgwood retired from the concern, and the style was then altered to “Josiah Wedgwood, Son, & Byerley.”
In the following year, 1794, Josiah Wedgwood was seized with his last illness, and on the 3rd of January, 1795, he died, and was, on the 6th, buried in the churchyard at Stoke-upon-Trent (“Burials in 1795, Jany. 6th, Josiah Wedgwood, of Etruria”), where his tomb still remains, and a tablet erected to his memory in the chancel (Fig. [588]). It bears a remarkably fine bust of Wedgwood, by Flaxman, an ewer and a Portland vase, and the following inscription:
Sacred to the Memory of
JOSIAH WEDGWOOD, F.R.S. AND S.A.,
Of Etruria, in this County,
Born in August, 1730, died January 3rd, 1795,
Who converted a rude and inconsiderable manufacture into an elegant art
And an important part of national
Commerce.
By these services to his country he acquired an ample fortune,
Which he blamelessly and reasonably enjoyed,
And generously dispensed for the reward of merit and the relief of misfortune.
His mind was inventive and original, yet perfectly sober and well regulated;
His character was decisive and commanding, without rashness or arrogance;
His probity was inflexible, his kindness unwearied;
His manners simple and dignified, and the cheerfulness of his temper was the natural reward of
The activity of his pure and useful life.
He was most loved by those who knew him best,
And he has left indelible impressions of affection and veneration on the minds of
His family, who have erected this monument to his memory.
Figs. 576 to 580.—Wedgwood’s Wares.
SEE INSCRIPTION PAGE [369].
Fig. 581.—Monument to Josiah Wedgwood in Stoke-upon-Trent Church.