i8o HEROES OF INVENTION AND DISCO VERY. 



ware. Spain, Portugal, and Italy are supplied with it; and 

 vessels are loaded with it for the East Indies, the West Indies, 

 and the continent of America." England is mainly indebted 

 to Wedgwood for the extraordinary improvement and rapid 

 extension ot this branch of industry. Before his time, our 

 potteries produced only inferior fabrics, easily broken or. 

 injured, and totally devoid of taste as to form or ornament. 



Wlien the Portland or Barberini vase was offered for sale, 

 Wedgwood, with the view of copying it, endeavoured to 

 purchase it, and for some time continued to offer an advance 

 upon each bidding of the Duchess of Portland ; until at length, 

 his motives being ascertained, he was offered the loan of the 

 vase on condition of withdrawing his opposition. The 

 consequence was that the Duchess became the purchaser at the 

 price of 1800 guineas. Wedgwood then made fifty copies of 

 the vase, which he sold at fifty guineas each ; he is said to 

 have paid ^^400 for the model and the entire cost of producing 

 the copies is stated to have exceeded the sum received by him. 

 Sir Joseph Banks and Sir Joshua Reynolds bore testimony to 

 the excellent execution of these cojDies. 



The fame of Wedgwood's operations was such, that his works 

 at Burslem, and subsequently at Etruria, a village built by him 

 near Newcastle under-Lyne, and to which he removed in 17 71, 

 became a point of attraction to visitors from all parts of Europe. 



The principal of the species of earthenware and porcelain 

 invented by Wedgwood, according to Chalmers, are : i, A terra 

 cotta resembling porphyry, granite, Egyptian pebble, and other 

 beautiful stones of the siliceous or crystalline order ; 2, Basalts 

 or black ware, a black porcelain biscuit of nearly the same 

 properties with the natural stone, receiving a high polish, 

 resisting all the acids, and bearing without injury a very strong 



