Another growing market for Staffordshire pottery was overseas. The union with Scotland, acquisition of the French portions of India and Canada, and growing prosperity of America all increased the market for England's manufactured goods. By the 1760s, Americans were spending more than 3 (about $300) per capita on imported goods. They wanted elegant English products to signal their connection to the mother country and their increasing prosperity. Ceramics from Staffordshire were an obvious choice.

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One item the colonists particularly wanted was tea sets. During the 1700s, tea drinking swept Europe and its dependencies. In England tea was found even in laborers' homes. The beverage was considered a refined alternative to beer, the other drink widely consumed instead of unboiled water. And tea ceremonies provided a happy excuse to buy and display stylish ceramics.

Just which ceramics were in vogue, of course, changed as pieces in new shapes or colors came on the market. Wedgwood understood the importance of keeping up with fashion and, if possible, directing it. His beautifully wrought Black Basalt and Jasper wares illustrate how he did so in the high-end market.

Wedgwood designed both lines to appeal to well-to-do consumers interested in the ongoing archaeology digs in Herculaneum and Pompeii. Cultured Europeans followed closely anthropologist Johann Winckelmann's progress in uncovering these sites in the mid-1700s. They purchased artifacts as they were unearthed, or just prints of them, and some even toured the excavation sites.

Modeled on recently discovered objects, Wedgwood's basalt, or Etrurian, ware had black stone-like bodies sometimes decorated in red encaustic enamel. Owning these vases, busts or other decorative items signaled one's cultural astuteness. And their simple forms adorned with antique figures looked perfect in the stylish neoclassical houses being built. With Black Basalt ware, Wedgwood outflanked not only his English but also his European competitors, who had missed the shift to the neoclassical because their patrons still favored the rococo style.

Then, when other English potters began to imitate his Black Basalt ware, Wedgwood introduced the line for which he is best known — Jasper ware, with its exquisite body, usually blue, and delicate white decorations. Through both Black Basalt and Jasper ware, Wedgwood raised the craft of English pottery into an art. He researched his works closely and employed fine artists such as John Flaxman to help design them. And he produced them with perfection.

He also sold them artfully. In London and Bath, Wedgwood opened showrooms, where he encouraged women to come and browse. To increase his products' snob appeal, he purposely produced small quantities of some pieces, priced them high and then displayed them only to fashionable customers. Wedgwood's London showroom also featured exhibitions of his most triumphant commissioned works, including his replica of the Portland vase and 950-piece dinner set for Catherine the Great. These were highly advertised extravaganzas meant to increase his prestige and cultivate customers' taste for fine ceramics.

By the late 1700s, this kind of calculated marketing was supported by newspapers and their advertisements, which described the latest trends and whipped up enthusiasm for new products. Even readers far from London now learned about the most recent styles in fashion and decor.

Soon Wedgwood's advances in production and marketing would become commonplace. Mass-produced pottery would be as normal in stores as the association of certain products with social prestige. Most retailers would pitch their home-based goods to women, and all would strive to make shopping an enjoyable pastime.

Wedgwood's craft and business acumen had made him one of the richest men in England by the time of his death in 1795. However, within a few years, other Staffordshire factories were surpassing his, which was now run by his heirs. Josiah Spode I and II produced outstanding porcelain in the Regency style, and Thomas Minton's factory, now part of the Royal Doulton Group, developed important new pottery techniques and production methods. It also introduced the Willow pattern, which is still used today.

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