3-053-442 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Statue of Wedgwood at the Wedgwood Memorial Institute, Burslem, 1873. '...the statue...is of rather more than lifesize, and...is executed in terra-cotta. The manufacture of these large pieces has been accomplished with singular success; and, considering the difficulties of manipulation and the dangers of unequal contraction under fire, great credit is reflected upon Mr. Blanchard and Mr. Blashfield who were intrusted with the work. It is remarkable that the different portions of this work have, in all the more important cases, been fired as they have left the modeller's hands, and they thus bear the direct impress of his skill, without any moulding, casting, or interposition of inferior workmen...The whole of these sculptures, from first to last, have been executed, at the National Training Schools connected with the South Kensington Museum, by three young modellers - Messrs. R. J. Morris, W. Wright, and J. F. Marsh - selected...from the schools of art in the Potteries. All the figure-subjects and the statue are the work exclusively of Mr. Morris, who has exhibited a high degree of talent'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.