134 THE WEDGWOODS. 



he produced china and earthenware figures. In 1846, Mr. 

 Beech having increased his business, became tenant of the 

 whole of the remaining premises, with the exception of that 

 part occupied by Mr. Dean's printing-office, &c., and in 1*853 

 took into partnership Mr. Brock, which firm, however, only 

 lasted a couple of years. In 1855 Mr. Brock went out of 

 the concern, and from that date Mr. William Beech carried 

 on the manufactory until his death, which took place in 

 1864. 



The goods produced at the present day at these historically 

 interesting works are the ordinary marketable china and 

 parian chimney ornaments and toys, which are produced in 

 large quantities, both for home sale and for exportation to 

 the United States, the East Indies, the Netherlands, and 

 Australia. In the manufacture of these articles alone, I am 

 given to understand that about a hundred hands are con- 

 stantly employed at these works. In parian, besides flower- 

 vases and other small ornaments, some tolerably large 

 groups have been produced at this establishment, and 

 among the most recent improvements is an " ivory body," 

 which possesses great softness in appearance, and is capable 

 of being made largely available for ornamental purposes. 

 Unlike the time of Wedgwood, no services of any kind are 

 produced at these once famed works at the present day. 



At the Bell work house Josiah Wedgwood turned his 

 attention more especially to the production of the fine and 

 delicate descriptions of earthenware, which soon earned for 

 him the proud distinction of " Queen's Potter." The result 

 of his close and incessant application, and of his endless 

 experiments into the properties of clays, &c., led to the pro- 

 duction of this marvellous kind of earthenware, and to the 

 beauty of finish which characterised it, and which is rarely, 

 if ever, equalled at the present day. Well and truthfully has 

 Mr. Gladstone expressed his sense of the beauty, arid, at the 

 same time, mechanical nicety for useful purposes, which cha- 

 racterises the " potting " of this earthenware, when he says 

 that the speciality of Wedgwood lay in the uncompromising 



