Designed by Lillian Gary Taylor, Wedgwood Liberty Ware features a central shield with the Stars and Stripes surrounded by the flags of the 11 Allies. Part of an archive estimated at $8000-12,000 at Freeman’s Hindman.
It carries an estimate of $8000-12,000 as part of third tranche of the remarkable Ellis and Suzanne Rubin collection of Wedgwood ceramics on January 25.
The driving force behind Liberty Ware was the Baltimore society figure Lillian Gary Taylor (1885-1961). She created the design (a central shield with the Stars and Stripes surrounded by the flags of the 11 Allies), encouraged Francis Wedgwood to back the project and used her wealth and connections in the US to sell more than 9000 pieces. The profits from sales went to a number of charities.
Wedgwood Liberty Ware teawares plus two albums assembled by Lillian Gary Taylor documenting the project, estimate $8000-12,000 at Freeman’s Hindman.
Alongside two Liberty Ware tea services, one in bone china and another in Queensware, this archive includes two albums she assembled that together document the entire project from the original Wedgwood factory proof designs to arrangements with the wholesalers William H Plummer & Co.
Included alongside letters from Francis Wedgwood, receipts, invoices and cancelled checks are personal notes of thanks for tea wares sent to important dignitaries, among them President Woodrow Wilson, former President Theodore Roosevelt and the British Prime Minister Lord Balfour.
Freeman’s Hindman is currently selling the far-reaching Rubin collection across a number of sales (two parts were held in 2023). The content, displayed together in the couple’s Bucks County, Pennsylvania home, represents 60 years of collecting and spans the entire history of Wedgwood factory production from the 18th century to the 21st century.
The original factory design for Wedgwood Liberty Ware, part of an archive estimated at $8000-12,000 at Freeman’s Hindman.
One of two albums assembled by Lillian Gary Taylor documenting the Wedgwood Liberty Ware project, estimate $8000-12,000 at Freeman’s Hindman.
