Wedgwood’s extensive series of black basalt and jasper medallions of famous historic and contemporary figures reflected the eighteenth century mania for portraiture. Josiah Wedgwood wrote to Thomas Bentley in 1776, ‘People will give more for their own Heads, or Heads in fashion, than for any subjects, & buy abundantly more of them.’ Borrowed from prints, ivories and waxes or produced on commission, likenesses were first sculpted in wax on slate, moulded in plaster, cast in clay and fired; working moulds were then taken from this clay ‘standard’.

The heads of members of the British Royal Family were particularly popular subjects for portrait medallions in the eighteenth century. Wedgwood produced several versions of medallions featuring King George III and Queen Charlotte, as well as many of their children. He also responded to the demand for portraiture of other European royals and made medallions of the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold II; King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette of France; Queen Maria of Portugal; Catherine the Great of Russia; and King Gustavus III of Sweden. Wedgwood also made medallions of famous French statesmen such as Lafayette and Jacques Necker, and Revolutionary figures, in the ‘Heads of Illustrious Moderns’ series.