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Josiah Wedgwood

thehustle.co

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Re: Josiah Wedgwood

#21

Post by laumars »

kerbalspacepro wrote: post #17
dpau wrote: post #7

Nice article, but I find it strange that not once was the gorilla in the room mentioned- China. Wedgwood was working in a world that had been re-shaped by Chinese export porcelain, one of the first examples of a truly global product and marketing "brand". Chinese porcelain was of extremely high quality (some of it unrivaled even today), technologically advanced, culturally complex, and cherished by the European nobil…

>European potters like Wedgwood were desperately trying to re-create the purity and beauty of the Chinese product. Oh, how the pottery turntable turns. >Chinese manufacturers like Huawei were desperately trying to re-create the purity and beauty of the American product.

I think that’s grossly unfair given the American products you refer to are also manufactured in China. So they clearly have the knowhow to produce high quality products - even if they often prefer to target the non-premium market (which probably makes better financial sense when it comes to selling hardware domestically)

Re: Josiah Wedgwood

#22

Post by pseudoanonymity »

scarejunba wrote: post #19
labster wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Interesting that" is just a figure of speech that people use to introduce information weakly related to OP.

Haha right but it’s interesting that Charles Darwin was the grandson. It isn’t interesting that they didn’t mention it. Sorry for perpetuating meta discussion.

I'd argue that it is an interesting element to the story. To add a little hyperbole, the wealth cascaded down two generations and helped enable a lifetime of serious scientific work that fundamentally changed the world.

Re: Josiah Wedgwood

#23

Post by scarejunba »

pseudoanonymity wrote: post #22
scarejunba wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha right but it’s interesting that Charles Darwin was the grandson. It isn’t interesting that they didn’t mention it. Sorry for perpetuating meta discussion.

I'd argue that it is an interesting element to the story. To add a little hyperbole, the wealth cascaded down two generations and helped enable a lifetime of serious scientific work that fundamentally changed the world.

Fair enough. Consider me convinced.

Re: Josiah Wedgwood

#24

Post by mannykannot »

timClicks wrote: post #16
georgecmu wrote: post #10

Interesting they didn't mention that Charles Darwin was his grandson. The pottery business funded Darwin's voyage on the Beagle.

Fascinating. I've always assumed that the expeditions were funded by patrons. That never really seemed right to be though, because Charles Darwin wasn't very sociable IIRC.

The voyage itself was funded by the British Admiralty, for the purpose of a hydrographical survey, but Darwin's presence on it was privately funded.

Re: Josiah Wedgwood

#25

Post by mannykannot »

georgecmu wrote: post #10

Interesting they didn't mention that Charles Darwin was his grandson. The pottery business funded Darwin's voyage on the Beagle.

Josiah Wedgwood and Charles Darwin's paternal grandfather Erasmus Darwin were both members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, which also included the chemist and liberal theologian Joseph Priestly, James Watt of steam-engine fame, and Watt's patron and partner Matthew Bolton, who was as much a technological entrepreneur as Wedgwood.

Re: Josiah Wedgwood

#26

Post by anigbrowl »

ddoran wrote: post #5

"he's been largely forgotten by time" Perhaps he himself is not well known, but the eponymous company he started in 1759 was the watchword for high-end ceramics for more than two centuries and is still sold to this day. Towards the end of the 20th century, consumer tastes changed and the company faced stiff competition from cheaper imports. Wedgwood merged with another luxury goods company Waterford Crystal in 1987,…

Really I think this is just standard America-centric writing - Josiah Wedgewood isn't well-known in the US, so the writer assumes his prior ignorance to be universal. Kinda the same way that many Americans think the telephone and television were invented here.

Re: Josiah Wedgwood

#27

Post by anigbrowl »

dpau wrote: post #7

Nice article, but I find it strange that not once was the gorilla in the room mentioned- China. Wedgwood was working in a world that had been re-shaped by Chinese export porcelain, one of the first examples of a truly global product and marketing "brand". Chinese porcelain was of extremely high quality (some of it unrivaled even today), technologically advanced, culturally complex, and cherished by the European nobil…

I was also wondering why rich merchants in China didn't qualify as tycoons, but I'm inclined to think that this is because the author didn't feel like pursuing his line of inquiry any farther as opposed to some fundamental aspect of the Wedgewood business' corporate structure.

Re: Josiah Wedgwood

#29

Post by gerdesj »

anigbrowl wrote: post #26
ddoran wrote: post #5

"he's been largely forgotten by time" Perhaps he himself is not well known, but the eponymous company he started in 1759 was the watchword for high-end ceramics for more than two centuries and is still sold to this day. Towards the end of the 20th century, consumer tastes changed and the company faced stiff competition from cheaper imports. Wedgwood merged with another luxury goods company Waterford Crystal in 1987,…

Really I think this is just standard America-centric writing - Josiah Wedgewood isn't well-known in the US, so the writer assumes his prior ignorance to be universal. Kinda the same way that many Americans think the telephone and television were invented here.

Interesting you picked on two Scottish inventions. Given that Bell founded AT&T, the invention of telephony being a US thing is at least debatable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Graham_Bell . TV was a bit more British ... (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Logie_Baird)

Re: Josiah Wedgwood

#30

Post by Theodores »

georgecmu wrote: post #10

Interesting they didn't mention that Charles Darwin was his grandson. The pottery business funded Darwin's voyage on the Beagle.

Interestingly they did not mention the wonderful work that he did for the abolitionists who wanted to get rid of the slave trade. The pottery business made the abolitionist cause fashionable.
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