Description
From one of Britains leading historians and the director of the Victoria amp Albert Museum a scintillating biography of Josiah Wedgwood the celebrated eighteenthcentury potter entrepreneur and abolitionist
Wedgwoods pottery such as his celebrated lightblue jasperware is famous worldwide Jane Austen bought it and wrote of it in her novels Empress Catherine II of Russia ordered hundreds of pieces for her palace But the life of Josiah Wedgwood is far richer than just his accomplishments in ceramics He was a leader of the Industrial Revolution a pioneering businessman a cultural tastemaker and a tireless scientific experimenter whose inventions made him a fellow of the Royal Society He was also an ardent abolitionist whose Emancipation Badge medalliondepicting an enslaved African and inscribed Am I Not a Man and a Brotherbecame the most popular symbol of the antislavery movement on both sides of the Atlantic And he did it all in the face of chronic disability and relentless pain a childhood bout with smallpox eventually led to the amputation of his right leg
Drawing on a rich array of letters journals and historical documents The Radical Potter brings us the story of a singular man his dazzling contributions to design and innovation and his remarkable global impact
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