FIRST PRODUCTIONS OF THE ETRURIA WORKS. 205 



chief. Standing by, no doubt, and watching with pleasure- 

 able anxiety the progress of the work, were Mrs. Wedgwood 

 and many friends ; while on the board in front of the " father 

 of potters " would be ranged the urns as he produced them. 



The vases thus formed, of Etruscan shape, went through 

 all the subsequent processes of baking, &c., and were ulti- 

 mately painted in the purest Etruscan style, with figures, 

 and each piece bore this appropriate inscription : 



JUNE XIII. MDCCLXIX. 



ONE OF THE FIBST DAY'S PRODUCTIONS 



AT 



ETBUBIA, IN 8TAFFOBDSHIBE, 

 BY 



WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY. 



ABTES ETBUBI^E BENASCUNTEB. 



Three of these vases the historical interest attaching to 

 which it is impossible to overrate are in the possession of 

 Mr. Francis Wedgwood, of Barlaston, through whose cour- 

 tesy I anr enabled to engrave two of them for my readers. 

 These two are shown in the engraving on the following page, 

 from sketches recently made by myself, and I have so 

 arranged them as to show the inscription on one vase, and 

 a group of figures on the other. The body, " Basaltes," is 

 hard, of a slightly bluish tinge, with the surface, of course, 

 like the original Etruscan, black. On this the figures and 

 inscriptions are painted in red. The vases are respectively 

 ten inches, and ten and a half inches, in height. Each one 

 bears a group differing from the others of Hercules arid 

 his companions in the garden of the Hesperides, on its 

 front ; and beneath, the appropriate inscription of 



ARTES ETRURLE RENASCUNTER. 



On the opposite side of each is the inscription given above, 

 and around the lid and upper portion are characteristic and 

 elegant borders. Each vase is labelled, in Josiah Wedg- 

 wood's own handwriting, u Part of Plate 129, vol. i. of 

 Hamilton's Antiq. Hercules and his Companions in the 

 Garden of the Hesperides." 



