too," echoed Mr. Croyden. "By this time Wedgwood had money
enough to carry out some of his dreams. He was fortunate in having the
friendship of several Englishmen of wealth and through one of them,
Sir William Hamilton, he obtained a chance to take impressions of rare
cameos from Italy and Pompeii; later the Duke of Portland, who you may
recall outbid him at the sale of the world-famed Portland Vase,
allowed him to copy it. It was a very generous thing for an art-lover
to do, and I think it must have cost the duke a wrench. It took
Wedgwood a whole year to copy this vase, and when he had succeeded in
doing so he made fifty more copies. The venture cost him not only his
time but a small fortune as well; but it proved far from a waste of
hours or money, since the feat brought to the manufacturer a
familiarity with Grecian art which had its outcome in his well-known
Jasper ware."

Theo glanced up questioningly.

"Surely you have seen this ware, Theo," asserted Mr. Croyden. "It
comes in blue sage-green, or purple, and has upon it Grecian figures
in white."

Instantly a flash of recognition came into Theo's face.

"Oh, I know it now!" he ejaculated. "Mother has a teapot of it at
home."

"That is more than likely," came cordially from Mr. Croyden. "At
first, however, Wedgwood did not put the white figures on this ware;
he merely mixed the coloring matter with the clay and got as a result
a dull, opaque ware of green. Afterward he conceived the idea of
making the pottery in other colors and decorating it with the Grecian,
Italian, or Roman figures of which he had long before taken
impressions. As this venture took form sculptors became interested in
the project and lent their aid, so that by and by an entirely original
ware was developed which has come down through history as one of the
significant art contributions of the age. In addition to his Queen's
ware, and Jasper ware, Wedgwood also made a black Egyptian-like ware
called Basalt; another variety of cream-colored ware known as Bamboo;
and a kind of terra-cotta that imitated granite."

"Well, I should certainly think Wedgwood did his bit!" declared Theo.

"Ah, but this was not all he did," retorted Mr. Croyden quickly. "His
most important work I have not yet mentioned."

"What was that?"

"He invented two things of widely different nature which have been of
the greatest practical value to our civilization ever since. One was a
hard biscuit porcelain such as is