Wednesday, December 3

Josiah Wedgwood - The Radical Potter by Tristram Hunt

V&A Director Tristram Hunt’s biography captures the energy, ambition and originality of Wedgwood – and his extraordinary contribution

By The Salisbury Museum

Date and time

Location

Salisbury Methodist Church

Saint Edmund's Church Street Salisbury SP1 1EF United Kingdom

Refund Policy

Refunds up to 7 days before event.

About this event

Event lasts 1 hour

Josiah Wedgwood, perhaps the greatest English potter who ever lived, defined his age. From his kilns and workshops in Stoke-on-Trent, he revolutionised the production of ceramics in Georgian Britain by marrying science and style, technology and entrepreneurialism, manufacturing efficiency and retail flair. He was a beacon of the Industrial Revolution who transformed the luxury markets not only of London, Liverpool, Bath and Dublin but of America and the world, helping to usher in a mass consumer society.

But Wedgwood was a radical in his politics and beliefs, as well as in his experimental designs. He campaigned for free trade and religious toleration, produced medallions supporting the French Revolution and the American War of Independence. Most powerfully, he commissioned and financed the ceramic ‘Emancipation Badge’, depicting a slave in chains and inscribed ‘Am I Not a Man and a Brother?’ that became the symbol of the abolitionist movement.

V&A Director Tristram Hunt’s biography captures the energy, ambition and originality of Wedgwood – and his extraordinary contribution to the transformation of modern Britain.

Organized by

The Salisbury Museum

The Salisbury Museum tells the story of Salisbury and its surrounding areas - a unique landscape which has been a cradle of continuous human achievement for over half a million years.

The museum uses the extraordinary breadth of its collections, exhibitions and events - including prehistoric material from Stonehenge and South Wiltshire; the Pitt Rivers’ Wessex collection; and a fine medieval collection with finds from Old Sarum, Clarendon Palace and the city itself - to bring to life the narrative of this landscape, and of the people who shaped it and have been inspired by it for over 500,000 years.

Based in the King’s House, a grade I listed building located opposite Salisbury Cathedral, the museum building formerly housed a teacher training college and was the inspiration for an episode in Thomas Hardy’s novel Jude the Obscure.