Copy of the Portland Vase on "Sarcophagus" Stand,

after 1891

Founded in 1759 by Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795), Josiah Wedgwood and Sons was the first industrialized porcelain manufacture in Staffordshire. In addition to technical innovations that made the large-scale production of the company’s wares possible, Wedgwood is famous for the stoneware that is known as jasperware and for designs based on ancient models. Among the company’s major successes were reproductions of the Portland Vase. A Roman cameo glass vase dated to the first century B.C., the Portland Vase is now in the British Museum. It was discovered in Rome and belonged to the third duke of Portland in 1786, when Wedgwood began to experiment with jasperware copies. The first edition, with black backgrounds, was produced in 1790. Many other editions followed, some with backgrounds in Wedgwood blue. The subjects of the relief scenes have been interpreted by classicists as both historical and mythological, and there is still no consensus about their meaning.