The Radical Potter: Josiah Wedgwood and the Transformation of Britain, Tristram Hunt, Allen Lane, 2021, 323pp., £25. ISBN 978-0-24128-789-7. 

As MP for Stoke-on-Trent, Tristram Hunt was prominent in the 2014 fight to save the Wedgwood Museum at Barlaston and prevent its contents going to auction. As director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, who now own this internationally important ceramics collection, it falls within his remit. 

Josiah Wedgwood was born in Burslem in 1730, the youngest of 11 children. A promising career as a potter was curtailed after he contracted small pox in childhood. The illness resulted in a damaged knee, preventing him from operating a potter’s wheel. I learn from this absorbing and comprehensive biography a later accident worsened his condition necessitating amputation and a prosthetic leg. 

The Wedgwood company was founded by Josiah in 1759. Josiah’s commercial skills and promotional flair ensured business success. Wedgwood’s glazed creamware, a rival to porcelain, was soon rebranded ‘Queensware’ after an order from Queen Charlotte. Wedgwood’s innovative ‘biscuit’ finish jasperware, first produced in the 1770s, remains popular today. Wedgwood’s innovations coupled with advances in production techniques revolutionised the pottery industry. 

The ‘radical’ angle is interesting. Although an active Unitarian with an interest in political reform, I suspect a debate on whether he was a radical would be finely balanced. As a member of the Lunar Society, he certainly kept radical company. And his anti-slavery jasper medallion ‘Am I not a man and a brother’ can be cited as evidence, although by 1787, when this was produced, the abolitionist cause was fairly well-established and gaining momentum. However, there is no doubting Josiah Wedgwood’s importance in the history of the pottery industry. This excellent biography confirms his entrepreneurial genius. 

The World of Wedgwood at Barlaston is usually open 10am–5pm, Wednesday to Sunday.