WEDGWOOD: The First Tycoon

Although Wedgwood china now claims an international reputation for luxury and quality, it wasn't always so, as Dolan's first-rate biography elegantly demonstrates. Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795) spent his childhood and youth in a family of struggling potters. From them he not only learned the tools of his future trade but developed a keen sense of ambition that he would use to move beyond his family's struggles to build his own successful business. Dolan presents an inventive youth who performed experiment after experiment in search of new and attractive forms of pottery. One of Wedgwood's earliest achievements was his green ware, vases and other pottery designed in the shape of vegetables. Eventually, he joined forces with Thomas Bentley, and the two, Dolan shows, took the pottery world by storm, selling their wares to both British and foreign royalty, including Catherine the Great. As the business developed, Wedgwood built a factory, and transformed the process of shopping for pottery by holding workshops and demonstrations for customers, an early version of the showroom. Despite illness and the deaths of family members, Dolan's Wedgwood worked ardently to improve his products and increase his sales and wealth. This magisterial biography provides an intimate portrait of Wedgwood the entrepreneur as well as a magnificent glimpse of life in 18th-century British society. (Oct.)