322 THE WEDGWOODS. 



the productions of these useful manufactories, has tended 

 considerably to extend their general commerce. 



" He had the good fortune, too, to be of some service to 

 science and experimental philosophy, by making a porcelain 

 bisque of a hardness nearly equal to that of agate, which, 

 together with its property of resisting the strongest acids 

 and corrosives, and its impenetrability to every known 

 species of liquid, adapts it admirably for mortars and differ- 

 ent kinds of chemical vessels. In the foregoing projects, 

 which we have only described generally, but which, in the 

 detailed operations, must have occupied a very great portion 

 of his time and of his thoughts, Mr. Wedgwood never lost 

 sight of the Queen's ware, the first-fruit of his genius, and 

 certainly the best, in point of pecuniary benefits to himself, 

 and of general prosperity. If he had been impelled to the 

 ardent pursuit in which we have seen him engaged by mere 

 sordid motives, he would have found here a resting-place 

 everything in this one discovery to gratify his wishes ; for 

 a matter so suited and so essential to the conveniences of 

 life must necessarily have an immense consumption, and from 

 these results all its advantages. This can never happen, in 

 any comparative degree, to works of mere art and fancy, 

 always accompanied with great expense, employing a much 

 smaller number of persons, and not uniformly returning 

 even the original cost. 



" He was continually enlarging the number of useful 

 vessels made of that ware, and several times completely 

 changed his models, in order to keep up the vigour of this 

 branch of his business. He fancied, from the general pre- 

 dilection for porcelain, that if, by an alteration in its colour, 

 he could bring it nearer to that appearance, it would be an 

 improvement acceptable to his patrons. He invented for 

 this purpose a whiter glaze with a tint of blue, now gene- 

 rally known in the manufactory by the name of China 

 glaze ; and to introduce this ware, he modelled an entirely 

 new pattern with raised borders, in imitation of shell-work. 

 These borders, or rather edges, he stained with a rich blue 



