January’s focus at The Glam Pad was anti-trends… timeless, classic elements of interior design. One question that generated a lively discussion was how can a classic become a “trend” and subsequently go “out of style?” Today let’s ponder the classic Jasperware, created by England’s Josiah Wedgwood in the 18th century.
Recently Laurie Byrne, The Preppy Paper Girl, and Cynthia Nouris of Sasha Nicholas had a discussion about “bringing Jasperware back,” which made me wonder why we really don’t see much of it these days. You can read the full Instagram commentary here and below are a few highlights…
- I can’t GIVE it away in my etsy shop!!! I don’t know why! I’m all about #bringingfancyback, including Jasperware!
- My daughters love collecting Wedgwood. We had a “designer” who told us it was old fashioned and relatively cheap to collect. Needless to say, said designer is no longer employed by me nor recommended. Collect what you love!
- I love Jasperware and think it is timeless and almost has a retro graphic quality to it that makes it modern at the same time.
- So undervalued just now and so beautiful. Lets bring Jasperware back!
So of course I decided to do a little research to more fully understand Jasperware’s rise and fall in popularity. In September 2017, The New York Times wrote…
“Referred to generically by the uninitiated as Wedgwood, it is, more precisely, Jasperware, the signature of the Staffordshire-based pottery maker founded in 1759 and now owned in greatly diminished form by Fiskars, a Finnish conglomerate. For generations a signifier of upwardly mobile gentility and often paired with the company’s devoutly traditional china settings depicting English country life, Jasperware now seems irredeemably stodgy-sweet, its appeal to all but the most rigorous collector diminished by its ubiquity: Go to the mall, and you too can pick up a brand-new picture frame decorated with a bas-relief Cupid.”
The Irish Times asks, “What is it that has made Wedgwood Jasperware so unpopular, a classic design that seems simply old-fashioned?” They made too much of it, proclaims The Guardian. It lost its cachet and became “twee.” In the late 18th century, “it would have been inconceivable that the delicate classical decoration of his [Josiah Wedgwood’s] Jasperware would ever be affordable to ordinary people, and consequently in itself ordinary and therefore unfashionable and less desirable. It can happen to the finest brand,” said The Guardian.
Yet with all things, what was once old is new again. A reporter with The Wall Street Journal professes her “fancy-old-lady” penchant for the iconic matte stoneware. She also loves “granny chic” staples chintz and toile. A Lonny reporter writes about her “new decor obsession” with Jasperware. “Whereas I used to balk at my mom’s incessant use of Toile de Jouy wallpaper and avoid flea markets like the plague, favoring clean, contemporary styles and high-gloss anything, I have to admit: change is afoot. So much so, that I’ve even started a collection. Of pottery,” she reported.
Last fall when Rizzoli publications released Wedgwood: A Story of Creation & Innovation, Vogue wrote “the time has come to reconsider your grandma’s favorite type of porcelain” as the headline of their review.
Shelved for years for being too “old fashioned,” traditional design staples such as chintz, antiques, and needlepoint are finally making their way back. Will Jasperware be next? Regardless of whether or not it is – or will be – “in,” now is the time to scoop up some beautiful pieces at low prices, and Etsy has a wonderful selection.
Ralph Lauren Home
I will be eagerly awaiting additional inspirational images via Laurie Byrne and Sasha Nicholas, along with the chic Instagramers featured today (interestingly mostly from Japan), whose designs prove why Jasperware is indeed a timeless classic.
If you are interested in helping maintain and grow interest in Wedgwood and its heritage, please visit The Wedgwood Society of Washington D.C. This group was formed in 2000 to promote the education and enjoyment of Wedgwood collectors in the mid-Atlantic area. Wedgwood enthusiasts and collectors meet several times a year to share their research in the form of lectures, newsletters, and other educational forums. Membership is open to all who appreciate the art and timeless beauty of Wedgwood.
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During my first trip to England, I was seventeen years old and wanted to bring home a gift for my mother. I could only afford one item and it was a piece of Jasperware. Many years later, I still have it and your post delighted me. Wedgewood has a timeless beauty.
Love this post! Trendy is lots of fun and exciting, but oh how I treasure my older pieces handed down to me from my great-grands, and grands and mother. They are lovely! I love mixing my Wedgewood withHerend pieces and Orrefors glass.
I have collected black jasperware and basalt for twenty years. I am delighted with the low resale prices of the last decade. I hope that millennials keep avoiding it, more low priced jasperware for me! The Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama has one of the best collections in the world, if anyone is interested in seeing rare examples.
I so love this post! Am addicted to pretty, feminine porcelain and Jasperware.
Eye candy! Thank you for all the beautiful images. It’s a classic.
Have a couple of pieces of Jasperware plus Christmas ornaments that I proudly display in a crystal compote dish. So charming
I love all kinds of lovely English dish ware. Shame on the designer who dismissed jasper ware! However, until this post, I have not. seen any pink ware. I want a piece to add to my dish Collection. Great blog
I doubt it will come back. It did become quite common – a typical “souvenir” brought home by oneself or a friend from a trip to England. It usually consisted of a saucer or box – most people never collected it – it was just another tschotske cluttering up great-grandmother’s tables. Or if collected, it was massed out in an old china cabinet in the dining room. It quickly became in the same category as Bing & Grondahl Christmas plates – a “collectible”, not a valued piece of china.
While I adore all the pictures of the lovely tea things, few under the age of 65-70 will appreciate them in any way. Today’s young (and that includes people I would consider “middle aged”!) think that if one is not in sweats or yoga wear, with a huge clunky mug of coffee, putting their bare feet up on a friend’s coffee table or sofa, that it’s “stuffy”. Anything with any formality/style is “stuffy” to them. A holiday meal table beautifully set is condemned this way. They say they want to have all their friends gathering in their “open concept” kitchen/great room, eating food off paper plates or all white clunky dishes, served from their island that is so large one could land a small plane on it. To do anything else is, yes, “stuffy”. They cannot grasp the concept that it’s the people who might be stuffy, it’s not the way the table is set that makes them this way.
I blame the Baby Boomers/Woodstock generation for this. They never used their lovely china/silver they received as wedding gifts – too much bother to hand wash – so their children were never exposed to such. They have zero interest in anything that might show refinement or civility. They have “no time” for this as they are all “busy families”, racing to one scheduled athletic practice after another, as having their children underfoot and unentertained is anathema to them.
Civility is dead, no matter how those of my generation struggle to keep up the standards. We are fighting our own adult children as well as our grandchildren on this. I despair for the world the next generation will be living in – it won’t be very pretty or nice. And no one is going to want all my lovely antique porcelain dishes.
I have some encouraging words for you. My teen daughter and I are members of National Charity League, and we have a formal Tea that is required for all members. It is fancy, and we all dress up and the girls learn Tea etiquette! They have to write formal RSVP responses by hand! This is not a plug for NCL, but it’s a huge national organization for girls in 7th through 12th grade and their moms, and it is growing by leaps and bounds. I think there still are a lot of young people who appreciate the finer things in life, so don’t despair, and don’t give up! It is up to us to expose them. One tradition at the Tea is to give your daughter a pretty teacup and saucer each year. By the end of the 6 years, they have a nice little collection. I really believe young people who grow up surrounded by these things will come to point where they appreciate them, even if they go through a mod or boho phase somewhere in their young adult life. Plant that seed! Invite some young people to your house for Tea or brunch and do it up right! xo and best wishes!
We are the caretakers of future generations’ antiques. Wedgwood makes very little jasperware today, and I expect that future collectors will notice that. I adore my old fashioned Wedgwood jasperware, and some day someone else will cherish it as much as I do. I loved your article and the photos. Thank you!
I have to agree with Suzanne R Brown but also with Whitney. I live in Australia where this problem is probably greater than elsewhere as we largely derive from convict stock and taste and home keeping are therefore not high on priorities here. So I understand Suzanne’s sentiments and my relatives living in the US and Europe would agree with everything she has said too. However, I have a 15 year old daughter who is as critical as Suzanne R Brown of her contemporaries and determined to maintain standards as I have raised her around lovely things and instilled in her the nice way to live her life. She will be part of the standard bearers in the years ahead of which Whitney speaks. Her brothers have also been raised to look for wives who will make their lives comfortable and tasteful. I fear they will have to leave Australia to find anyone though. I am certain they should head to the US South. We were recently in Canada and they won’t find anyone there – it’s just like here and maybe even a little worse!
I have been collecting Jasperware since 1958. Bought a terra-cotta etruscan vase at Marshall Fields. Love it and the stories of the designs and mythology of the pieces.
I just recently received a teacup and saucer of Jasperware from my late aunt. I was wondering if the teacup is usable for tea? My first trip to London was in August, where I fell in love with Earl Grey tea and came home stocked with it! I would love to enjoy a cuppa in my Jasperware, but was unsure if it’s okay since it has the biscuit glaze. Will it stain the teacup? Any advice is greatly appreciated!