When potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood (1730-95-) revealed his innovative Jasperware in 1774, it was an immediate success. The skills of the 18th-century potters responsible for making it are still impressive today, but in the 20th century Jasperware is mostly encountered within museum vitrines or displayed in historic houses, rather than contemporary domestic interiors. The contrast between Jasperware's white bas-relief classical scenes and figures, and the deep or pale colours of the underlying forms or volumes, no longer wields the 'shock of the old' that intrigued 18th-century antiquarians and dilettantes, intent on surrounding themselves with objects reflecting Roman grandeur or Greek glory.
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