108 THE WEDGWOODS. 



of Harrison," the works here would in time have become as 

 celebrated as the later ones of Wedgwood have done. 



The works at Stoke are not now in existence, having been 

 destroyed many years ago. They were, I am informed, at 

 the failure of Harrison, bought by Josiah Spode, who pulled 

 them down, and built cottages in their place. 



In 1751 Wedgwood and Harrison entered into partner- 

 ship with Thomas Whieldon, the most eminent potter of 

 his day. The partnership with Harrison, however, con- 

 tinued but for a very short period, and in two years from 

 Wedgwood first joining him (in 1752), he went out of the 

 concern altogether, and the two remaining partners, Wedg- 

 wood and Whieldon, continued in partnership for five years. 

 The basis of this union was the secrets of the trade which 

 Wedgwood possessed, and was to practise for their common 

 benefit without any stipulation to reveal them. 



"Mr. Wedgwood," says a document I have before me, 

 " spent six months in preparing the models, moulds, and 

 other necessary apparatus for this work, and the first fruit 

 of his genius was a new GREEN earthenware, having the 

 smoothness and brilliant appearance of glass. He made 

 principally of this ware services of dessert ; the forms were 

 different kinds of leaves, and the plates were moulded with 

 fruits grouped in a very fanciful way, and they had a con- 

 siderable sale. He also made toilet vessels, snuff-boxes, 

 and many different toys for mounting in metals, coloured 

 in imitation of precious stones. When he offered these 

 things to the jewellers of London and Bath, they considered 

 them as the productions of some valuable discovery, the 

 nature of which they could not guess at. But there was 

 one of them, among the first at that time in fashion, who, 

 having bestowed many encomiums upon them, excused him- 

 self from encouraging their sale when he heard the low price 

 at which their maker estimated them. It was during this 

 connection that he was so much reduced by his complaint, 

 and rendered incapable of attending to business. He was 

 then under the necessity of communicating the knowledge 



