19th Century Wedgwood Black Basalt Oval Relief Plaque

• Basalt - Basalt is a hard, dense volcanic rock formed from the rapid cooling of basaltic lava, and makes up most of the earth's oceanic crust.
  
  However it is also the name given by Josiah Wedgwood in 1768 to a fine black unglazed porcelain which he called Wedgwood Black Basalt.
  
  Using this fine-grained stoneware he was able to produce copies of the newly excavated Etruscan pottery from Italy, with a lustrous and smooth, surface, and this new innovation proved to be a huge commercial success.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• Wedgwood (England), item types
  • black basalt ware 162
  • plaques 77