Appeal to keep Wedgwood vase in Stoke-on-Trent extended

The vase had been on loan to The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery

An appeal to raise £482,500 to keep a rare piece of Wedgwood pottery in Stoke-on-Trent has been extended after a third of the target was reached.

The vase, created on the first day of Josiah Wedgwood's Etruria factory in the 18th Century, had been on loan to The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery.

But it was withdrawn by its owner and sold at auction to an overseas buyer last year, the city council said.

Art Fund has promised a £90,000 grant and £83,000 had already been raised.

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The Friends of the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery group is involved in a campaign to raise the £482,500 purchase price to keep the vase in Stoke-on-Trent and put it back in the museum on permanent display.

A temporary export ban was placed on it by the government in December and this had now been extended, the council said.

A £60,000 Arts Council England grant is part of money that had already been raised during the campaign, more than £83,000.

The £90,000 Art Fund money meant a deadline, which expired on Tuesday, to raise the £482,500 to keep the First Day's Vase in the city had now been extended to 14 July, the council said.

The vase is one of only four made by Wedgwood that survive from the first day at Etruria.

Two of the other vases are owned by the Victoria and Albert Museum while the third remains in the Wedgwood family, the council said.