"Selling was an intellectual pleasure, an art form" for Josiah Wedgwood.

"No fad was too small. In 1772, when women started bleaching their hands with arsenic to make their skin a fashionable porcelain tone, Wedgwood immediately advertised black teapots: against this background, hands looked even whiter. No cause was too great, either: the company produced emancipation medallions asking, 'Am I not a man and a brother?' that were worn as buttons and bracelets."

Judith Flanders looks at the downfall of a company that what was once was an innovative marketer.