TWO WEDGWOOD BLACK RELIEF-DECORATED WHITE JASPERWARE OVAL ANTI-SLAVERY MEDALLIONS OR 'EMANCIPATION BADGES'

TWO WEDGWOOD BLACK RELIEF-DECORATED WHITE JASPERWARE OVAL ANTI-SLAVERY MEDALLIONS OR 'EMANCIPATION BADGES' the first circa 1787, unmarked, attributed to Wedgwood, the second a Buten-reissue, dated (19)58 and impressed TH, designed by William Hackwood in 1786, each applied with a black relief of a shackled male figure, depicted on one knee with raised clasped hands in heavy chains, beneath the inscription, 'AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER?', the 18th Century example with integral frame and scored edge, h: 1 in.; both mounted on black linen, within matching giltwood frames (2)

Provenance: With Muriel Polikoff, Philadelphia, PA, 1994 (both).
Jeffrey Milkins Collection, no. 293.

Catalogue Note:
Josiah Wedgwood was a strong advocate for the campaign against slavery. Medallions of this type were never sold by Wedgwood nor were they advertised in their catalogue. Conversely, they were generally distributed without charge through abolitionist societies, where they were mounted as jewelry and worn as a campaign badge of honor. Wedgwood is recorded distributing them both at home and abroad. For example, Benjamin Franklin, who was then President of the Philadelphia Society for the Abolition of Slavery, and Thomas Clarkson, a leading abolitionist and author of 'A Summary View of the Slave Trade' are both recorded receiving consignments. The motto inscribed around the periphery of the medallion is first recorded in a pamphlet to the British legislature of 1778 by Rev. Dr. Peter Peckard, Chancellor of Magdalene College, Cambridge. The image and phrase were first used together as the seal of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

For an example from the Frederick Rathbone Collection, see The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession no. 08.242. For an example from the Lady Charlotte Schreiber Collection see, The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, accession no. 414:1304-1885 (Schreiber number - Sch. II 544); her example made for the Society for the Abolition of Slavery. For an example from the Forbes Collection, see Sotheby's, London, 28 March 2017, lot 59.