58 Josiah Wedgzvood CHAP. 



with Wedgwood, but it is certain that they were in 

 active business communication with him in 1761-2. 

 The system pursued was, that Wedgwood forwarded by 

 carrier to the partner's print works at Liverpool a large 

 quantity of his cream-coloured pottery, which they 

 bought from him out and out ; and they subsequently 

 resold it to him after they had decorated the ware with 

 their transfer designs. This complicated mode of pro- 

 cedure could not go on for long, and at length Wedg- 

 wood bought the right of making the transfers about 

 the year 1763. 



One of Sadler's letters to Wedgwood, dated 27th 

 March 1763, shows that he possessed some knowledge 

 of his art. " We have now," he said, " which you have 

 not seen, a fine landscape, a new Queen, a Mason's 

 Arms, with Pitt and Granby engraved on paper for 

 quarto. ... A landscape, for instance, has the fore- 

 ground very strong, buildings and distance a little 

 lighter." After Wedgwood was able to transfer the 

 engravings to his ware, his name found its way into 

 some of the political lampoons and squibs which the wits 

 of the day threw off unmercifully at the leading members 

 of the government. One of them, alluding to spittoons 

 and other vessels bearing the head of William Pitt, 1 is 

 to be found in the " Asylum for Fugitive Pieces," got 

 together by John Almon, where an irregular ode, said 



1 This must have been in 1763 when Pitt was virtually Prime 

 Minister, and before he was created Earl of Chatham. Thurlow was 

 then in opposition, but was afterwards appointed Lord High Chancellor 

 in 1778. 



