TWO WEDGWOOD BLACK BASALT DUTCH MARKET OVAL PORTRAIT MEDALLIONS, HOGERBEETS (1561-1625) AND GROTIUS (1583â 1645)

TWO WEDGWOOD BLACK BASALT DUTCH MARKET OVAL PORTRAIT MEDALLIONS, HOGERBEETS (1561-1625) AND GROTIUS (1583â 1645) the first circa 1785-1795, impressed Wedgwood mark and incised script Hogerbeets to the reverse, after a painting by Jan van Ravesteyn (1572-1657) via a print by Jacobus Houbraken (1698-1780), the model attributed to John Flaxman, Jr. (1755-1826), the shoulder-length profile of the Dutch stateman turned one quarter to sinister, wearing a layered ruff and doublet, within an integral frame; the second, circa 1773-1780, impressed Wedgwood & Bentley, molded with a profile of Grotius, to sinister, in flat layered ruff and doublet, within an integral frame, both with an indented twice pierced slot on the reverse for suspension, h: 3 1/4 in. (2)

Provenance: Wedgwood Society of New York, 2009 (both).
Jeffrey Milkins Collection, nos. 498 and 499.

Catalogue Note:
Wedgwood's agent in Amsterdam, Lambertus van Veldhuysen, included a print for the Hogerbeets portrait when placing an order for Dutch market portrait medallions on 4 September 1781. Rombout Hogerbeets was a humanist and jurist entangled between civil and religious leaders. He was convicted of treason at the same time as Hugo Grotius (for a bust of Grotius see Milkins Collection no. 216, lot 2025). Robin Reilly and George Savages, 'Wedgwood: The Portrait Medallions', p. 179, suggest that the Grotius portrait may have been modeled after a bust by Michael Rysbrack.

Exhibitions: Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina, â Classic Black: The Basalt Sculpture of Wedgwood and His Contemporariesâ , 9 February 2020 â 3 January 2021, no. 27 (Hogerbeets).

Literature: Brian Gallagher, â Classic Blackâ op. cit., exhibition catalogue, p. 113, no. 27 (Hogerbeets).