Etruria Works

Neoclassical "Black Basalt" Ware vase by Wedgwood, c. 1815 AD, imitating "Etruscan" and Greek vase painting style.

The Etruria Works was a ceramics factory opened by Josiah Wedgwood in 1769 in a district of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which he named Etruria. The factory ran for 180 years, as part of the wider Wedgwood business.

Wedgwood kept his old works in the nearby town of Burslem at the Ivy House Works and the Brick House Works (demolished – the Wedgwood Institute is built on its site). At least initially, the Etruria Works made the more expensive "ornamental" stonewares Wedgwood was developing, while Burslem continued to produce the cheaper "useful" wares, such as transfer-printed creamware.

In 1767 Wedgwood paid about three thousand pounds for his new site, which was then known as the Ridgehouse Estate. It lay directly in the path of the Trent and Mersey Canal of which Wedgwood was a promoter. On one side of the canal Wedgwood built a large house, Etruria Hall and on the other side the factory. His architect was Joseph Pickford.