Author: Peggy Kerner

Unpacking the V&A Wedgwood Collection, Part II

On Sunday, May 18, at 2:00 p.m. ET, the WSB, in conjunction with the WSWDC, will welcome Michael Ruddy, Assistant Curator at the V&A Wedgwood Collection in Barlaston, England, who will present part-two of his lecture on “Unpacking the V&A Wedgwood Collection”. The lecture is an opportunity to see and learn about the amazing discoveries made during the unpacking and cataloguing of the 65,000 objects currently boxed away in the V&A Wedgwood Collection storeroom. 

Michael joined the V&A in 2022 and was promoted to his current position in 2023. Prior to, he held positions at the Arts Council England, the Leonard Cheshire Archive, and the Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust. He earned his BA in history from the University of Derby and his MA in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester. 

This meeting is our annual Elizabeth Chellis Memorial Lecture and will include the AGM. The event will be presented via ZOOM and WSB members will receive a link the week prior to the meeting. The link will be posted also on this WSB website’s members only zone. If you are not a WSB member and would like to enjoy our 6 events and newsletters per year, click onto the Become a Member tab above. 

Something Blue…

Join us for the next ZOOM lecture of the WSB to be held Sunday, March 16, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. EDST, when Ben Miller, ceramics curator, will present, ‘Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue: The Wedgwood Collection at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery.’ The origins of the ceramics collection at this museum in Stoke-on-Trent, England, are as fascinating and varied as the ceramics themselves. Its collection of Wedgwood wares is no exception. Amassed over 3 centuries through bequests, gifts and purchases, the Wedgwood collection helps to tell the story of the Father of the Potteries and his company over its 266-year existence.

Ben Miller, Ceramics Curator and Programme Manager for Stoke Museums Service has worked with ceramics collections since 2012 starting his career as Assistant at The Wedgwood Museum during which time he was able to research a wide variety of topics across the Wedgwood collection and archive. In 2015 he joined the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery as Assistant Curator of Ceramics and has since worked on a number of exhibitions and given talks to collectors’ societies. In 2022 he became Ceramics Curator and Programme Manager for Stoke Museums Service with responsibilities across the services’ four museums. Ben holds a BA from Keele University and a MA from Birmingham University’s Ironbridge Institute.

Members will receive the ZOOM link a week prior to the meeting. If you are not a WSB member and would like to join, click onto the Become a Member tab above.

Fixed on Vases…

The next lecture of the WSB takes place on Sunday, January 12, 2025, at 2:00 pm EST, via ZOOM, when Harwood (Woody) Johnson will present his talk on, “All Eyes Were Fixed on the Vases:  A Gift of Wedgwood Jasper for the Emperor of China in 1793″. In 1793, King George III sent Lord Macartney, ambassador to China, on an embassy to the Qianlong emperor to negotiate more favorable trade relations between the two countries. The embassy’s ships included a 64-gun warship and Macartney took extravagant gifts for the emperor, including the most technologically advanced weaponry, scientific and mechanical instruments, and the latest and most fashionable British manufactures, all intended to impress the Chinese and foster desire for British goods. Among the gifts was an array of Wedgwood’s jasper. Surviving records in the Chinese and British archives allow us to picture the Wedgwood jasper presented to the emperor, and to imagine the entire scene. In the end, the Chinese do not seem to have been impressed with the latest and most dazzling examples of British ingenuity – with a single exception, the Wedgwood vases – upon which all eyes were fixed.  

A collector and scholar, Woody Johnson became interested in Wedgwood more than 50 years ago. He operates circa1775, which offers fine eighteenth-century Wedgwood pottery. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Members will receive the ZOOM link a week prior to the meeting. If you are not a WSB member and would like to join, click onto the Become a Member tab above.

Remembering Lucille Beeson

The next lecture of the WSB will be presented by E. Bryding Adams, former curator of the Beeson Wedgwood Collection at the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, on Sunday, November 17, at 2:00 pm EST, via ZOOM. A casual talk, Bryding will share her relationship with “Lucille Stewart Beeson – Collector and Donor Extraordinaire”. The Beeson collection housed at the BMA represents the most significant accumulation of 18th century Wedgwood in the USA. Mrs. Beeson always consulted with Bryding before making an acquisition, asking, “Don’t you think we should buy that for the collection”? The popular catalog was compiled by Bryding in 1992. Members will receive the ZOOM link a week prior to the meeting. If you are not a WSB member and would like to join, click onto the Become a Member tab above.