Portrait medallion

Object Type
Portrait medallions had long been made in metal, and were popular in wax and ivory in mid-18th century England. Wedgwood, however, was the first person to manufacture them in stoneware on a commercial scale.

This medallion of Wedgwood's bricklayer Edward Bourne was presumably made for purely personal reasons not for commercial production. It was probably intended to be hung on a wall in a wood or brass frame or stored in a cabinet.

People
Edward Bourne was the bricklayer at Wedgwood's factory. He would have been responsible for maintaining the brickwork of the factory kilns.

Materials & Making
This medallion is made of Black Basalt, one of several types of pottery that Wedgwood introduced or refined. Black Basalt was the result of a series of experiments to perfect a fine-grained stoneware suitable for the production of ornamental pieces, one that would complement the Neo-classical styles then coming into vogue. The black colour came from 'Carr', an oxide of iron suspended in water that had flowed through coal seams and mines. This was drained and dried and then sold by the cart-load to potters for use in the production of Basalt pottery.