WEDGWOOD WARE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 38, 14 February 1930, Page 10

WEDGWOOD WARE

A GREAT BICENTENARY

INTERNATIONAL EVENT

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 19th December. ' The bicentenary of Josiah Wedgwood, in the coming spring, will be marked bycelebrations on an international scale. A big programme has been planned to show the world that English craftsmanship still leads, and that the enterprise and originality that distinguished the father of English pottery still characterises his disciples and descendants to-day. There will be a wedgewood week in Stoke-on-Trent in May, followed by a Wedgwood Week in London, while special exhibitions of Wedgwood, ware will be held in Paris, New York, and probably also in other Continental and American cities. Queen Mary has consented to be patroriess of the Historical Exhibition, which will be opened in the Five Towns, and it is hoped that.the Prince of Wales will attend the pageant which will form the principal feature of Stoke-week. Her Majesty has also promised to lend the exhibition Wedgwood objects from the collection at Windsor Castle. The Archbishop of Canterbury will attend the religious service for the opening of the celebrations, and the Archbishop of York will probably be present at the concluding service. As part of the celebrations, the present proprietors of the Wedgwood Potteries— of whom Major Frank Wedgwood, a gi-eat-great-grandson of Josiah, is the chairman, and Mr. Josiah Wedgwood, a direct de-' scendant in the fifth generation, is the secretary—have organised a world competition in designs for a Wedgwood vase. The judges are Mr. Philip Connard, E.A., Mr. W. Reid Dick, R.A., and Mr. H. S. Goodhart-Rcndel, F.R.1.8.A., and Mr. Frank Wedgwood—a painter, a sculptor, an architect, and a potter—and it is hoped to secure designs from artists and potters in all parts of the world, especially from France, the Scandinavian countries, Germany, and Italy, the United States, and the British Empire. The prizes will be £100, £50, and £25, and the object of the competition is "to obtain a design that uses the special capacities of the material and continues the Wedgwood tradition without any reproduction of, or undue subservience to, the style of the past." All designs received will be publicly exhibited and form a feature of the Wedgwood Week celebrations at Stoke. The Stoke events will include: A pageant of the potteries, to the libretto of which Colonel Josiah Wedgwood, M.P., will contribute. Historical exhibitions of pottery at Hanley and Etruria. A military tattoo. Concerts by the North Staffordshire Choral Societies. Visitors from all parts of the world will probably make the potteries their Mecca during the celebrations, and Americans, especially, for whom Wedgwood ware has a particular attraction, are expected in large numbers. The celebrations ill London will be .varied and interesting.