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Wedgwood, Josiah

(Encyclopedia)Wedgwood, Josiah, 1730–95, English potter, descendant of a family of Staffordshire potters and perhaps the greatest of all potters. At the age of nine he went to work at the plant owned by his broth...

Flaxman, John

(Encyclopedia)Flaxman, John, 1755–1826, English sculptor and draftsman. At 20 he went to work for Josiah Wedgwood, designing the cameolike decorations for Wedgwood's pottery. Later, in Rome, he devoted himself to...

Josiah

(Encyclopedia)Josiah jōsīˈəs [key], in the Bible. 1 King of Judah, son and successor of Amon. The great event of his reign came in its 18th year, when the book of the law, apparently Deuteronomy, was found in t...

lusterware

(Encyclopedia)lusterware, kind of pottery with an overglaze finish containing copper and silver or other materials that give the effect of iridescence. The process may have been invented and was certainly first pop...

Staffordshire ware

(Encyclopedia)Staffordshire ware, various products of the Potteries district, one of the most famous areas in England for the production of pottery. Late 17th-century slipware such as that attributed to Thomas Toft...

Benn, Anthony Wedgwood

(Encyclopedia)Benn, Anthony Wedgwood (Tony Benn), 1925–2014, British politician, b. London, grad. New College, Oxford. After working for the British Broadcasting Corporation (1949–50), he was elected a Labour m...

Stoke-on-Trent

(Encyclopedia)Stoke-on-Trent, city and unitary authority (1991 pop. 272,446), W central England. Stoke-on-Trent forms the bulk of the area known as the Potteries. Situated in a coal field, the city is the center of...

Portland vase

(Encyclopedia)Portland vase, a Roman glass vase, known also as the Barberini vase. It is an unusually fine work of the late Augustan era (early 1st cent. b.c.). About 10 in. (25 cm) high and 22 in. (56 cm) in circu...

Henson, Josiah

(Encyclopedia)Henson, Josiah, 1789–1883, black slave, reputedly the basis of the character of Uncle Tom in Uncle Tom's Cabin, b. Charles co., Md. In 1825 he faithfully led a party of his master's slaves from Mary...

Holbrook, Josiah

(Encyclopedia)Holbrook, Josiah, 1788–1854, American educator, founder of the lyceum movement, b. Derby, Conn., grad. Yale (1810). He experimented with various schools where manual training, farming, and formal i...

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