Tea Time magazine - July/August 2022

I'm just now getting around to reading the new Tea Time magazine, and of course I knew I would enjoy it since it's their annual British issue.

But what I did not know was that there would be so much Wedgwood history in this issue, and I absolutely love books and articles about Wedgwood china. Bruce Richardson is the author of a piece titled "Josiah Wedgwood: Britain's Pottery Tycoon." It mentioned a few things I already knew—Jane Austen shopped at Wedgwood; Josiah was the grandfather of Charles Darwin—but it also mentioned something that if I ever knew it, I had forgotten it: Josiah had a wooden leg, having had a leg amputated as a result of childhood smallpox! Richardson quotes William Gladstone, who wrote, "In the wonderful way of providence, that disease was probably the occasion of Wedgwood's subsequent excellence," noting that Wedgwood "was the greatest man who ever, in any age, or in any country … applied himself to the important work of uniting art with industry." I find this fascinating!

But wait! There's more! The next feature, titled "A Tea Set for Friendship and Peace," written by editor Lorna Reeves, tells how Wedgwood was commissioned to make 3,000 tea sets commemorating King George VI and Queen Elizabeth's 1939 visit to the US at the invitation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, particularly significant as it was the first time a reigning British monarch had ever visited here. Check out this teapot with the King on one side, the Queen on the other, and an American eagle finial on top. Can you imagine finding one of these? (And yes, I've looked on eBay. No luck.) I so enjoyed these two articles on Wedgwood, and if you're not already a Tea Time subscriber, you may want to pick up this issue if you, too, happen to be an Anglophile!