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Gallery Text

Renowned potter Josiah Wedgwood was not only a master artisan, but a transformative innovator in 18th-century craft, production, and science. Born into a family of potters, Wedgwood developed his own new clay bodies, such as the well-known pastel-colored jasperware above and the black basalt in the adjacent case. One of the medallions seen here is displayed to feature its back, which is inscribed with notes recording the process used to achieve the specific color of the jasperware body.

Many of the jasperware works seen here are from Wedgwood’s “Illustrious Moderns” series, which modeled political and other famous figures of the day in the form of ancient cameos so that one could collect and display their likenesses in their homes. Harnessing the interest in the ancient world during the second half of the 18th century, Wedgwood made and named works that would appeal to connoisseurs of antiquities.

[1943.1239, 1943.1195, 1943.1201, 1943.1191, 1943.1182]

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.1201
People
Wedgwood, British (founded 1759 )
Modelled by Joachim Smith, British
Title
Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803)
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
c. 1785
Places
Creation Place: Europe, United Kingdom, England, Etruria
Culture
British
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/229939

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2340, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, The Silver Cabinet: Art and Ritual, 1600–1850
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
White jasperware body with rose glaze and figure in white relief
Technique
Jasperware
Dimensions
10.4 x 8.2 x 1.5 cm (4 1/8 x 3 1/4 x 9/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: below bust, impressed: S. W. HAMILTON
  • manufacturer's mark: reverse, impressed: WEDGWOOD
  • gallery label: back of frame, paper and black ink, handwritten: [printed:] F. RATHBONE, / South Kensington / LONDON S. W. / [handwritten:] Sir Wm Hamilton / 1730-1803, / 1789 period / W. E. Darwin Coll'n

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Possibly by descent [1]; to William Erasmus Darwin, partial exchange; [2] to [Frederick Rathbone, London, 1912], sold; to Grenville Lindall Winthrop, New York, 1912, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943

Notes
[1] Rathbone claims the medallion was descended through the Darwin (and suggests possibly the Wedgwood) family in correspondence dated October 15, 1912
[2] Per Rathbone, Darwin exchanged the medallion as partial payment for a vase

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.1201
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Descriptions

Description
Two firing holes on verso

Publication History

  • Jean Gorely, "The Winthrop Collection", Old Wedgwood, Wellesley Press, Inc. (Wellesley, MA, 1943), no. 10, pp. 132-139, p. 135
  • Old Wedgwood from the Bequest of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1944), no. 52, p. 26
  • Jean Gorely, "Pedigreed Wedgwood", The Magazine Antiques (January 1945), pp. 29-31, p. 29
  • Louise Todd Ambler, Benjamin Franklin: A Perspective, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1975), pp. 128-129, no. 59, ill. p. 128
  • Casey Monahan, "'If I offer you too much you have the remedy by declining it!:' Frederick Rathbone and the Grenville Lindall Winthrop Collection of Wedgwood at the Harvard Art Museums", Proceedings of the Sixty-Fourth Annual Wedgwood International Seminar, Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, 2019), pp. 33-43, pp. 39-40

Exhibition History

  • Old Wedgwood from the Bequest of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/04/1944 - 09/03/1944
  • Benjamin Franklin: A Perspective, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/17/1975 - 09/22/1975
  • 32Q: 2340 Cabinet Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/10/2023 - 01/01/2050

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu