Plate, 10.5 inches diameter. Black transfer with polychrome clobbering. Printed and impressed maker's marks for Josiah Wedgwood. The impressed date code indicates a manufacture date of 1896. The pattern name 'Bramble' seems to take its name from the border around the rim, which consists of a bramble wreath with thorny stems, flowers, and leaves. The center image features an outdoor scene with two children. The young boy seems to have stolen a doll from the crying girl and is throwing it up in the air.
Josiah Wedgwood was born in Burslem, Staffordshire, on July 12, 1730, into a family with a long tradition as potters. At the age of nine, after the death of his father, he worked in his family's pottery. In 1759 he set up his own pottery works in Burslem. There he produced a highly durable cream-colored earthenware that so pleased Queen Charlotte that in 1762 she appointed him royal supplier of dinnerware. From the public sale of Queen's Ware, as it came to be known, Wedgwood was able, in 1768, to build near Stoke-on-Trent a village, which he named Etruria, and a second factory equipped with tools and ovens of his own design. At first only ornamental pottery was made in Etruria, but by 1773 Wedgwood had concentrated all his production facilities there. During his long career Wedgwood developed revolutionary ceramic materials, notably basalt and jasperware. After Wedgwood's death in Etruria on January 3, 1795, his descendants carried on the business, which still produces many of his designs.
