Josiah Wedgwood and Sons - Portrait Medallions of Dr. John Fothergill (1712–1780); Dr. Joseph Priestley (1733–1804); John Locke (1632–1704); [William] Pitt [the Younger (1759–1806)]

Josiah Wedgwood and Sons (English, founded 1759), Portrait Medallion of Dr. John Fothergill (1712–1780), n.d., blue jasperware, gift of Otto V. Pawlisch M.D., 1991.229

Josiah Wedgwood and Sons (English, founded 1759), Portrait Medallion of Dr. Joseph Priestley (1733–1804), n.d., green jasperware, gift of Otto V. Pawlisch M.D., 1991.228

Josiah Wedgwood and Sons (English, founded 1759), Portrait Medallion of John Locke (1632–1704), n.d., cobalt jasperware, gift of Otto V. Pawlisch M.D., 1991.226

Josiah Wedgwood and Sons (English, founded 1759), Portrait of [William] Pitt [the Younger (1759–1806)], ca. 1780, blue jasperware, brass-plated copper, and glass, gift of Otto V. Pawlisch M.D., 1991.236

One of the Wedgwood ceramic factory’s most important items, contemporary portrait medallions emulated the look of avidly-collected ancient cameos of stone and glass or shell. Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795) perfected jasperware in the early 1770s after more than 5,000 experiments. In accord with English Neoclassical preference for a two-toned effect, this white stoneware could be stained with color, or have color applied with a dip, before it was decorated with classical-style molded decoration. The factory’s famous modern “heads” in modern dress were generally ordered from earlier portraits, some specifically redesigned for Wedgwood by William Hackwood and John Flaxmann. Deeply engaged by his period’s chief political, economic, and humanitarian issues, Josiah Wedgwood was a founder of the Society for the Suppression of the Slave Trade, and shared much in common with this gallery of leading scientists, theologians, philosophers, and spokesmen for human rights and reason of his own and earlier generations.

Barbara C. Buenger