1890 Wedgwood Black Basalt Cachepot

• 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.
• Cache Pots - A cache pot, also spelt as cachepot, is a type of decorative container used to hold a flower pot containing a potted plant. The cache pot is a separate container from the plant's actual pot and is typically used to enhance the appearance of the plant or to hide an unattractive or functional flower pot. They are also used to protect the surface of furniture or floors from the water and soil of a potted plant. They can also be used to conceal an unsightly plastic nursery pot, or to provide a drainage layer for a plant.
  
  Cache pots have been used throughout history to enhance the beauty of potted plants and were particularly popular during the Victorian era. Major manufacturers of ceramics cache pots included Minton, Wedgwood, Meissen and Royal Worcester.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• cache pots - ceramic, various makers 17
• Wedgwood (England), item types - black basalt ware 162