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Discover vintage and antique jasperware collectibles — such as these Royal Blue pieces from Spruced & Co. at Gramercy Collective — at local antique and vintage shops.
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An early Wedgwood jasperware covered urn featuring neoclassical motifs in white jasper applied to a blue jasper form, circa 1780-1800
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Ceramicist Dame Magdalene Odundo showcased "The Falcon Cannot Hear the Falconer." a towering jasperware centerpiece commissioned for a 2024 retrospective of her work, at historic Houghton Hall in Norfolk, England.
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Josiah Wedgwood’s anti-slavery jasperware medallion
Josiah Wedgwood set up shop in Stoke-on-Trent, England in 1759, beginning what remains a leading legacy in tableware and home decor ceramics. By 1766, Queen Charlotte was commissioning Wedgwood, dubbing him “Potter to Her Majesty” and naming his creamware “Queensware.” By 1774, after over 5,000 tests, Wedgwood perfected a unique clay body called “jasperware”: a high-fired, unglazed dense stoneware that could be stained throughout with mineral oxides. The result yields a durable, smooth, evenly colored matte finish.
Being stained clay, jasper typically does not require glazing, aesthetically achieving crisp, separate colors without the melted effect from glazes’ high silica content. Iconic jasperware uses two tones of jasper molded separately, with one color for the form and one for the neoclassical motifs adding a low-relief effect, keeping in fashion with the European Neoclassical movement that began circa 1760. Over 250 years later, jasperware remains the most prominent aesthetic of Wedgwood’s identity and can be purchased at wedgwood.com. Vintage and antique collectibles can be found locally at Nest, Sheppard Street Antiques, Gramercy Collective and West End Antiques Mall.
Fast-forward to 2024, when Kenya-born, England-based ceramicist Dame Magdalene Odundo showcased “The Falcon Cannot Hear the Falconer” (2024) — a towering jasperware centerpiece in black on cane (gold) in Norfolk, England’s historic Houghton Hall. But why in jasper?
Odundo, who was born in British-colonial Kenya in 1950, grew up in a state-of-emergency environment as Kenyans fought toward independence, achieving it in 1963. When the residents of Houghton Hall commissioned a new piece for Odundo’s 40-year retrospective there, Odundo realized the histories of Houghton Hall and Wedgwood overlapped with her own, motivating a collaboration with Wedgwood and jasper.
Houghton Hall was built in 1720 for Sir Robert Walpole, Britain’s top government official from 1721-42 when Britain dominated the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The hall’s current residents are direct descendants. As Josiah Wedgwood’s popularity increased throughout the British Empire in prominent households, his political sympathies boldened for colonies struggling for independence, but most overtly for abolitionism.
Motivated by his beliefs, Wedgwood began producing small medallions in jasper (likely for its efficiency) as free handouts on campaign trails in 1787. A kneeling Black man raises clasped hands in chains with words arched above, “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” These medallions became symbols of protest as people turned them into jewelry, buttons and inlay for snuffboxes. In 1789, the captured, enslaved, then freed West African Oloudah Equiano published his autobiography, toured Britain campaigning for abolitionism and developed a friendship with Wedgwood, who even provided him protection from press-gangs.
Inspired, Odundo worked closely with Wedgwood’s masters and archived images to utilize figurative narration — a far stretch from the supple, handmade forms she is known for. Through jasperware, “The Falcon Cannot Hear the Falconer” presents the dichotomy of historical and contemporary types of enslavement yet hope for the future, balancing both the beauty and brutality of the world today.
