Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795)

The most eminent English potter, credited with the industrialisation of the manufacture of pottery. He was born into a family of potters in Burslem in Staffordshire, and at an early age he was apprenticed to his brother as a pottery-thrower. In 1754 he entered into partnership with Thomas Whieldon and began to experiment with bodies and glazes.

In 1759, having dissolved the partnership with Whieldon, he founded the Wedgwood factory in Burslem. This was an immediate success, and has remained one of the top and best-known pottery producers worldwide to this day.