perfected
types. Many of the rare and beautiful specimens he has himself dug up
in the grounds, where from time to time, since 1750, they were thrown
out as broken, useless debris. The recovery of these bits, their
preservation and classification, together with valuable donations made
by English families who have inherited rare specimens, have not only
placed at the disposal of those interested, the fascinating history of
Wedgwood, in a thrilling object lesson, but has made the modern
Wedgwood what it is:--one of the most beautiful varieties of tableware
in the market to-day.

Josiah Wedgwood is said to have been the first English potter,
counting from the Roman time to the first quarter of the eighteenth
century, who made vases to be used for _mere decoration_. Chelsea,
Worcester and Derby were just then beginning to make fine porcelain.
In Wedgwood's day it was the rule for young men of title and wealth to
go abroad, and the souvenirs which they brought back with them, such
as pictures and vases, helped to form a taste for the antique, in
England. Then, too, books on Greek art were being written by English
travellers. Josiah Wedgwood had a natural bent for the pure line and
classic subjects, but he was, also, possessed with the keen
businessman's intuition as to what his particular market demanded. So
he sat about copying the line and decorations of the antique Greek
vases. He reproduced lines and designs in decoration, but invented the
"bodies," that is to say, the materials from which the potters moulded
his wares. He is said to have invented in all, twenty varieties. We
say that he reproduced Greek designs, and so he did, but John Flaxman,
his chief decorator, who lived in Rome, where he had a studio and
clever assistants, studied the classics, imbibed their spirit and
originated the large majority of Wedgwood's so-called "Greek" designs,
--those exquisite cameo-like compositions in white, on backgrounds of
pastel colours, which appeared as miniatures mounted for jewellery,
medallions let into wall panels, and on furniture and Carrara marble
mantelpieces, wonderful works of art wrought of his "Jasper" paste,
which make Josiah Wedgwood outrank any producer of ceramics who has
ever lived in any age.

Wedgwood's first vases were for use, although they were ornamental,
too. Those were the pots he made in which to grow bulbs or roots, and
the "bough pots" which were filled with cut flowers and used to
ornament the h