A decorative frieze depicting pottery making on the facade of the Wedgwood Institute, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK
The Wedgwood Institute is a large red-brick building that stands in Queen Street, in the town of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. It was funded entirely by public subscription from 1859, the estimated cost at the time being £4,000, and was constructed between 1863 and 1869. It was named after the potter Josiah Wedgwood, and it stands on the site of the former Brick House pottery works which Wedgwood had rented from 1762 to 1770. Brick House was the second of his pottery works in the town of Burslem, the first being at the Ivy House works. A small part of the old works was incorporated into the fabric of the new Institute. The building itself opened 21 April style of architecture chosen was Venetian Gothic. The basic design is by an architect called Nichols, but the elaborate decorations which form an integral part of the facade were designed by Robert Edgar and John Lockwood Kipling, the father of the famous writer Rudyard Kipling, and the façade was not completed until 1871. It is an ornate building coated with numerous inlaid sculptures, ceramics and a series of zodiac mosaics, the latter executed by Signor Salviati. Over the entrance is a tympanum with portrait medallions of three people connected with Wedgwood's projects: these are John Flaxman, the sculptor, Joseph Priestley, the scientist and discoverer of oxygen, and Thomas Bentley (1730–1780), a business partner of Wedgwood. Above the tympanum is a statue of Josiah Wedgwood. The statue is in the middle of a frieze. Around the upper storey is set a series of twelve terracotta panels to illustrate the months of the year, and above them mosaics of the corresponding signs of the zodiac. Around the middle of the building are ten terracotta panels depicting processes involved in the manufacture of pottery.
Size: 3137px × 2091px
Location: Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK
Photo credit: © John Keates / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: brickwork, burslem, carved, decorative, england, facade, frieze, institute, making, memorial, midlands, months, panels, potteries, pottery, staffordshire, staffs, stoke, stoke--trent, stonework, uk, wedgewood, wedgwood, west, year
