Medallion with Apollo and Zodiac Border

Description In 1774, Josiah Wedgwood (1730-95) introduced the unglazed jasperware with white relief decoration on pastel or black backgrounds for which the firm became famous. The technique was used for ornamental cameos that appealed to the late 18th-century passion for ancient cameos and intaglios. This circular dark blue medallion depicts the god Apollo with his lyre and tripod surrounded by a Zodiac border.

Exhibitions

• Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry from the Walters Art Museum. Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2006-2009.
• Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry. El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso. 2010.

Provenance Elisabeth Gilman; Walters Art Museum, 1948, by gift.

Inscriptions [Maker's Mark] Wedgwood

Credit Gift of Miss Elizabeth Gilman, 1948