56 Josiah Wedgwood CHAP. 



it to decorate the vases which he made in Queen's 

 ware. 



In the same year (1763) Wedgwood invented a 

 species of earthenware for the table, of a fine and dur- 

 able body, covered with a rich and brilliant glaze, and 

 able to bear sudden vicissitudes of heat and cold with- 

 out injury. As it was manufactured with ease and 

 expedition, it was sold cheap, and as it possessed, with 

 the novelty of its appearance, every requisite quality 

 for the purposes intended, it came quickly into general 

 estimation and use. To this manufacture the Queen 

 was pleased to give her name and patronage, command- 

 ing it to be called " Queen's Ware," and honouring the 

 inventor by appointing him Her Majesty's potter. 

 The ware is composed of the whitest clays from Dorset, 

 Devon, Cornwall, and other places, mixed with a due 

 proportion of ground flint. The pieces are fired twice, 

 and the glaze is applied after the first firing, in the 

 same manner as on porcelain. The glaze is a vitreous 

 composition of flint and other white earthy bodies, with 

 an addition of white lead for the flux, analogous to 

 common flint glass ; so that when prepared in per- 

 fection, the vase may be considered as covered over 

 with real flint glass. " The compound," says the author 

 of the Art of Pottery, " being mixed with water to a 

 proper consistence, the pieces after the first firing are 

 separately dipped in it. Being somewhat bibulous they 

 drink in a quantity of mere water ; and the powder 

 which was united with that portion of the water 



