How can I date Wedgwood Black Basalt?

Dating Wedgwood Black Basalt starts with the impressed factory mark, then moves to shape, construction, decoration, model details and documented production history. A WEDGWOOD stamp identifies the maker in many cases, but it does not automatically mean that a piece was produced during Josiah Wedgwood's lifetime. Josiah Wedgwood founded his business in 1759 and died in 1795. Objects from the Wedgwood and Bentley partnership occupy a particularly interesting period: Thomas Bentley was Wedgwood's partner from 1769 until Bentley's death in 1780. Museum collections contain Black Basalt pieces assigned directly to this era.

Collectors should study the exact form of impressed lettering and any extra letters, numbers or factory marks. Later Wedgwood production used different marking systems, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century pieces can reproduce eighteenth-century shapes. Style offers another clue. Early classical vases, portrait medallions and encaustic-decorated objects fit particular periods of production. A model created in the eighteenth century may have remained in production or returned in later editions, so the model's original design date is not necessarily the manufacturing date of the object in your hand. For valuable pieces, matching the mark and form against documented museum examples, factory records and specialist reference books can narrow the date far more closely.