One of the most surprising and meaningful aspects of the V&A Wedgwood Collection archives are the many photographs, letters and documents that capture the people that worked for the Wedgwood company from its founding in 1759 to the present day. From photographs to hiring books, letters, company magazines and beyond, these archives can be used to unlock the stories of the men, women and children who have worked for Wedgwood over the years and help us gain a greater understanding of what it was like.
The People of Wedgwood project, supported by Art Fund, aims to share the stories of individuals over the last 260 years, from kilnmen and warehouseman, designers and salespeople, to the skilled modellers, potters, and turners, all of whom helped to craft Wedgwood ceramics. Recognising that while the collections include historic material, contemporary stories are less well represented. With Art Fund’s generous support, we have developed the People of Wedgwood community space in the galleries, where we feature an individual from each century of Wedgwood production and share their stories, and we hope to capture new ones through this oral history project.
One of the people that we have spotlighted in our People of Wedgwood display is Harry Barnard (1862 –1933). Barnard spent the early part of his career working for Doulton & Company, and then onto James Macintyre & Company where he refined his skills as a potter and ceramic designer. He joined Wedgwood in 1896 and would spend the next 34 years of his career there. Barnard first worked in the decorating department, where his talents as an artist using techniques such as slip-decorating, sgraffito and pâte-sur-pâte techniques were put to good use. Promotions quickly followed and by 1899 he was put in charge of the tile department. When the department closed in 1902, he became Wedgwood’s London Showroom Manager.
Yet as a keen photographer, Barnard was responsible for several of the earliest surviving photo albums in the V&A Wedgwood Collection Archives, and assisted with the foundation of the original Wedgwood Museum when it was first founded at the Etruria Factory in 1906. Barnard would frequently travel the country giving illustrated lectures on Wedgwood, as well as publishing several books on the subject. One of the lesser-known contributions Barnard made while working for Wedgwood was a trip to Australia in 1914 to help raise Wedgwood’s profile in the country.
In the first decade of the 20th century, the directors of Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Ltd were keen to expand their markets overseas. Initially concentrating on Europe, with a range of tableware patterns which would appeal to the Continent, they soon looked to expand markets elsewhere. In 1913, it was decided that the Wedgwood Art Director, John E. Goodwin, would be sent to Chicago with 101 items from the Wedgwood Museum collection to form the nucleus of a much larger display of modern Wedgwood wares, which were displayed at the Marshall Fields & Company Department Store. This exhibition aimed to showcase Wedgwood as a heritage brand – a company still very much aware of the 18th-century designs for which they were famous (such as its classical jasperware vases which were still in production) – but also a company at the cutting-edge, unafraid to showcase new ranges. The exhibition at Marshall Fields & Company was a success, with new orders pouring in, new sales relationships forged, and a positive response in the press in America.
The following year, in 1914, the Wedgwood company decided to repeat the experiment, sending old and new pieces of Wedgwood overseas for exhibition. This time they sent Barnard on a months-long trip, with Goodwin remaining at Etruria to work on a series of designs inspired from his recent visit to the US, another key Wedgwood target market.
Barnard left Britain on 3 July 1914 on the RMS Orvieto: an inauspicious time to depart given fast-moving global events. When the Orvieto was a few hours from its arrival into Fremantle, Australia, the news first reached the ship of the outbreak of the First World War. According to Barnard’s memoirs, the Orvieto only narrowly avoided a run-in with the German light cruiser, the SMS Emden. By the time he reached Perth, he found the city in disarray. His hosts were not particularly inclined to think about business or willing to host one of his public lectures due to the unfolding drama on the international stage. Barnard re-joined the Orvieto, and travelled on to Adelaide, and then on to Melbourne, being repeatedly met with the same response. He then travelled to Sydney and to the department store of Anthony Hordern & Sons. Despite Barnard not being able to lecture in any of the cities he had so far visited, it had always been the intention that the first exhibition of Wedgwood items, old and new, would be in Sydney. From there, Barnard could then make his own arrangements, and ‘spread the gospel’ as he termed it, of all things Wedgwood, by arranging extra talks and further Australian hosts for the exhibition.
We are fortunate that several photographs of the exhibition at Anthony Hordern & Sons survive in the V&A Wedgwood Collection Archives. Pieces of contemporary black basalt, bone china, embossed Queen’s Ware, ewers and basins, jasperware vases, lustre ware filled the display area. At the heart were the cases of 101 loaned items from the Wedgwood Museum, including a hexagonal wooden vase mould produced by John Coward, a framed picture of Etruria, depicting the hall and factory built by Josiah Wedgwood I, and a considerable number of early Wedgwood vases. Many of these pieces can still be seen in the V&A Wedgwood Collection’s galleries today.
Quite how much contemporary Wedgwood Barnard took with him to Australia is unclear. In April 1914, three months before he sailed, some £2,300 worth of Wedgwood items – equivalent of over £275,000 today – were described as ‘being in hand’ for the Hordern Exhibition. Exactly how much was eventually shipped out of contemporary Wedgwood production in unknown – sadly, the records have not survived in the archives. Barnard struggled to put a display together in the first place. Shipping delays caused by the outbreak of war meant that Barnard arrived in the country before much of the stock and, as a result, the exhibition which took place in Sydney was delayed by two months, only opening in December 1914. Barnard’s problems were compounded by the fact that further deliveries of goods were now out of the question. Whereas Barnard had intended to visit many more cities, the exhibition was moved on to Wellington, New Zealand, before returning to Australia where it again toured Melbourne and Adelaide, before finally being shipped back to the UK.
Barnard did however deliver a number of lectures once he had settled in Sydney in December 1914 – he spoke on four different occasions there alone, with one event drawing over 1,500 people, and he repeated this in venues across Australia. His main topic of choice was ‘Josiah Wedgwood: His Life and Works’, and he illustrated this with his selection of some 200 glass lantern slides, and 690ft of cinematic film.
A matter of months after his return to England, Bernard wrote an account of his experiences in Australia for The Pottery Gazette, and more crucially, what he felt about the state of the Australian Market.
The general impression I formed was that it is a wonderful country, having enormous spending power. I feel now that English, have grievously misjudged the Australians. The pottery manufactures in particular have formed the impress that the Australians are not at all particular, and will be satisfied with the very cheapest stuff that they can send them. But my tour has taught me that it is a market capable of handling the very best things we have to offer then, and they are quite willing to take them and pay for them what we ask. Many, indeed were the complaints made to me whilst I was over there, that English manufactures do not even stick to their indents, but have a sort of mania for substituting what suits their convenience, sheltering themselves behind the satisfaction that Australia is too far away for the goods to come back, and that it will be three months at any rate before they hear anything about it. But I am convinced that to do any good with this market we shall have to give attention quite as careful, and quite as considered as we invariably give out West End Clientele over here… It is for the English manufacturers, therefore, to exploit these markets with better class productions, and get rid of the fallacious idea that anything will so. If we send the very best we can it will be disposed of. That is the main lesson of my tour.
Back in England, the directors of Wedgwood were similarly impressed with Barnard and his efforts in Australia on their behalf. Reports in the Minute Books note that, ‘Satisfactory reports have been received… on the result of the Australian Exhibition which so far have proved in every way successful’.
Had it not been for the outbreak of the First World War, the impact of Barnard’s visit to Australia might have been far greater than it was. Over a century has passed since Barnard’s tour, but we were able to piece together this story and add it to our knowledge of Barnard’s remarkable career which ties in more broadly with the Wedgwood company’s efforts to expand overseas. Barnard would continue travelling, lecturing and acting as an ambassador for Wedgwood for the rest of his career.
The People of Wedgwood project gives us an opportunity to share these sorts of hidden stories in the archives. It was through the recent cataloguing of our collection of photo albums that we discovered we had material relating to the display of Wedgwood items at Anthony Hordern & Sons. This, in combination with research undertaken in our Barlaston papers, company minute books and information found in journals of the time, have allowed us to piece together this forgotten story and to learn more about Harry Barnard’s time working at Wedgwood. Working alongside such a rich collection of objects, archives and stories at Wedgwood, we often note that history comes full circle. Well over 100 years after Barnard made his trip to Australia, staff at the V&A Wedgwood Collection have been working towards a new touring exhibition, Wedgwood: Artists and Industry, which will open in Townsville, Queensland, Australia in April 2025.
Did you work at Wedgwood? Do you have a story to share? Leave a note on the feedback board in the People of Wedgwood community space, or get in touch at wedgwood@vam.ac.uk.
