The success of the Davenports with their china in the continental trade, which began to be marked during the short peace of 1803-4, affected, no doubt seriously, the trade of the Wedgwood firm, which since the first Josiah’s death had been carried on nominally by the second Josiah, but actually by Thomas Byerley. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that in 1805 Wedgwoods also commenced the manufacture of porcelain, and to find them repeating on china dinner and tea services the patterns which had been so successful on the Queen’s Ware. Josiah Wedgwood II bought Maer in 1803 (where he was succeeded by Davenport), and began again to attend to business. Though the new china and the jasper and black basalt with reliefs in Egyptian red turned out under his regime fully maintained the reputation of the firm—as witness the medallions of the admirals and the Egyptian basalt so typical of the second period[168]—yet they never recovered the undisputed position they had held in the ornamental trade of the Continent. [Illustration: JOSIAH WEDGWOOD II 1769-1843] By 1819 or 1820[169] indeed they ceased to try and compete in the china trade, and it was not till 1872 that Wedgwoods again produced the porcelain for which they are now so famous. In 1828 even their London showrooms were closed down, and Josiah Wedgwood II committed the unpardonable vandalism of selling off the stock, patterns, and moulds there stored. The collections in the Mayer Museum at Liverpool and the collection now in the possession of Sir W. H. Lever were formed out of purchases made at this sale. After contesting Newcastle vainly in the interests of “reform” in 1831, Wedgwood was returned as first radical member for Stoke-on-Trent in the reformed Parliament of 1832, and died at Maer in 1843. From 1823 he had had the assistance of his eldest son Josiah, but from 1827 onwards the works were managed almost entirely by his third son, Francis Wedgwood. The firm, which had been called “Josiah Wedgwood” after Byerley’s death in 1810 and “Josiah Wedgwood & Son” until 1827, was thenceforth known as “Josiah Wedgwood & Sons,” which title it retains at the present day. Pedigree of the Later Wedgwoods: