Signed Original Vintage Blue & White Jasperware Art Pottery 2-Piece Lidded Box Made by Wedgwood of Barlaston, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, England Displaying a Neo-Classical Design of Grape Vines w/ Thick Twisted Branches, Large Leaves & Clusters!

HERE’S A SIGNED ORIGINAL VINTAGE BLUE & WHITE JASPERWARE ART POTTERY 2-PIECE LIDDED BOX MADE BY WEDGWOOD OF BARLASTON, STAFFORDSHIRE, STOKE-ON-TRENT, ENGLAND THAT DISPLAYS A NEO-CLASSICAL DESIGN COMPRISED OF A REDUCTIVE CIRCULAR FORM AROUND WHICH ARE RELIEF APPLICATIONS OF GRAPE VINES WITH THICK TWISTED BRANCHES, LARGE LEAVES, AND GRAPE CLUSTERS!

Dimensions: The box measures approximately three and one half inches (3 1/2”) in height to the top of the lid’s finial by four and three quarters inches (4 3/4”) in diameter across the top and bottom.

Signature: The box is signed on the underside bottom with an impressed mark that reads “WEDGWOOD MADE IN ENGLAND” along with the registered symbol. In addition, there are impressed letters that look to be “KP”

Condition: Excellent and clean condition – absolutely beautiful!

Domestic buyer pays calculated shipping for secure packing and USPS priority within the United States. I no longer ship internationally due to the high volume of scams taking place. Sorry.

All About Wedgwood: A Collector's Guide to Jasperware

This neo-classical decorative pottery is known for its blue background and white cameo patterns.

By Alexandra Churchill
July 09, 2021

Jasperware is the quintessence of Wedgwood. This unglazed stoneware, decorated with cameo-like motifs, can be found in 18th, 19th, and 20th century versions of the original blues, as well as lilacs, greens, and whites. These urns and vases—in their smooth, matte finish—stand poised on their pedestal feet and make a stately impression to any room. But what makes them so collectible in the modern day?

The History of Wedgwood

We can thank Josiah Wedgwood who came from a family of potters, had a humble education, and invented himself, around 1776, into a world-class, self-taught, entrepreneurial genius when he redefined the industry. How did he do this? His wares were not porcelain. The hugely successful Queen's ware, for instance, named in 1766 and still made to this day, was a fine cream-colored earthenware and the result of many experiments. It's called creamware because it looked like old-fashioned heavy cream, as explained by Jennaea Denhardt, a china buyer for department stores like Dayton's, Hudson's, and Marshall Field's. "Creamware existed in England long before Wedgwood, but the clays were so coarse and yellow that potteries tried to hide them under heavy, splashed glazes," describes Denhardt. "Josiah's handsome creamware was tough and inexpensive. Almost anyone could buy it. Yet it was so elegant that even Queen Charlotte had to have nine hundred pieces, including two toy tea sets and nine dog pans—and so it is called Queen's ware." Her royal support is what made Wedgwood a household name and sent sales booming.

But the Queen's ware profits underwrote Wedgwood's next discovery in 1768: black basalt. After tweaking the formula for years, he perfected a black basalt stoneware of superfine texture and such extreme hardness that it could be cut and polished on a lathe like metal. "Basalt even looked metallic and made very convincing 'bronze' busts and portrait medallions," explains Denhardt. "Equally handsome were twenty or so different shapes of basalt teapots, a few of which are still made today and the public loved it."

It was lastly, with his new partner Thomas Bentley, that Wedgwood resolved to create the finest of all his ornamental objects. True to his word, in 1776, he refined a secret formula for the superlative jasper. Jasper wasn't necessarily blue, however—it was equally ravishing in green, lilac, yellow, pale gray, black, and chocolate brown. One hundred years later, that original rainbow stretched to include "Quaker grey," celadon, and teal. (An '80s version in a misbegotten color—known now as denture pink—was trendy before it phased out.)

Jasper, a dense white stoneware, was usually made by mixing color into the clay, but the basic white shape might also be dipped in color. In the latter, the colored surface was cut away to reveal the underlying white in patterns. In the former, pure-white appliqués—which had to be laid, wet, on the colored stoneware—were molded to the shape of the cup or vase, undercut, in imitation of ancient cameos, then feathered out to translucence. Jasper was available in all kinds of trinkets: buttons, beads, medallions, mantel pieces, and cachepots. The large impressive urns, depicting ennobling scenes and mythology were ideal for Europeans who were then in love with all things Greco-Roman in style. When these Olympian pieces first appeared in London showrooms, crowds actually fought to get in and "a violent vase madness" was reported, according to historians. Wedgwood, never one to understate, described himself as "Vase Maker General to the Universe."

He certainly employed a universe of techniques in his proprietary styles—Queen's ware, basalt, and jasper. But above them all, "jasperware eventually became the most successful and enduring single item of giftware ever manufactured," adds Denhardt. "Barring wartime interruptions, it has been made continuously by the firm for more than two hundred years."