One of six vases thrown by Wedgwood himself to commemorate the opening of Etruria, the Wedgwood-Bentley factory in Staffordshire. Made of the new and fashionable Basalt clays, and decorated in the Etruscan encaustic style, the legend on the reverse of the vase reads, JUNE XIII. M.DCC. LXIX. One of the first Day's Productions at Etruria in Staffordshire by Wedgwood and Bentley Artes Etruriae Renascuntur (The arts of Etruria have been reborn.) Source: © Wedgewood Museum, Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent, England.

From The creation of color in eighteenth-century Europe by Sarah Lowengard