| +-Richard Wedgwood, Master Potter of Burslem Overhouse, mᵈ Katherine | dᵃ and h. of John Wedgwood of the Overhouse. | +-Moses Wedgwood, Potter of Burslem. (_c._1626-1677) As soon as he was able to afford a factory of his own, he went back to Burslem, and in 1759 he hired, from his uncles John and Thomas Wedgwood of the Big House, a factory known as the Ivy House Works. Here, or at the “Brick House” Works which he hired in 1762,[85] he made cauliflower, cream colour, and, later, black basalt ware. There worked for him at the Ivy House Works a first cousin, Thomas Wedgwood, who afterwards became his partner in the production of “useful” ware. A great number of the letters of Josiah Wedgwood have survived, and they show the chief cause of his success to have been his restless passion for experiment and novelty, coupled with an almost American love for the extension of business—particularly profitable business. He was first a skilful potter, secondly a pushing man of business, and only thirdly, perhaps, a great artist. When he broke with his stick some imperfect vase, saying, “That won’t do for Josiah Wedgwood,” it was not because the delinquent vase offended his taste, but because it might damage his reputation and the sale of his wares. He wanted perfection, and he got perfection; but he wanted it to sell, as a business proposition. And when we find him wondering whether he can keep up the price of his common cream plates to four shillings a dozen, while the other potters have brought their price for the same plates down to two shillings a dozen,[86] then we catch a glimpse of how well it paid. The cream-coloured Queen’s Ware was the chief product of Wedgwood’s early times in Burslem. It was at first decorated, when required, by the widow Warburton, of Hot Lane. But the invention of the cheap method of printing designs on to the glazed ware, made in 1755 by Saddler and Green of Liverpool, provided an excellent substitute for enamelling on the more useful ware. Wedgwood used to send his ware to Liverpool to be printed, and was often there himself, importing clay, or looking after the export trade to America, then, as now, the most important branch of the export trade. It was on one of these visits to Liverpool that he first met his life-long friend, Thomas Bentley, a dissenting radical merchant of the Clapham school, who became his partner in 1768.[87]