Wedgwood & Bentley blue jasper medallion portrait of botanist, physician, zoologist and taxonomist Carolus Linnaeus

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Type: Portrait medallions
Date: 1775 - 1780
Place: England
Materials: Ceramic
Collection: Wedgwood & Bentley Portrait Medallions collection
Accession number: 2007.0036.0002

Description

Oval blue jasper medallion with a white jasper portrait of Carolus Linnaeus which has a stamped impression below the portrait which reads "LINNAEUS". On the reverse are two adhesive paper labels, and a stamp impression which reads "Wedgwood / & Bentley". There are three cracks or mended breaks in the medallion.

About the collection

The Wedgwood & Bentley Portrait Medallions Collection comprises cameo portrait medallions of the famous 18th century naturalists Carolus Linnaeus, Daniel Carl Solander and Johann Reinhold Forster, and the navigator and explorer Captain James Cook. The jasper medallions are inscribed with the name of the sitter, and each one displays the Wedgwood & Bentley mark, indicating that all were produced at the company's Etruria factories at Burslem between 1775 and 1780. The portrait of Linneaus has been broken and restuck and there is a fine crack in the portrait of Daniel Solander, otherwise the collection is in good condition. Cook's voyages of discovery to the Pacific and the specimens collected from distant regions of the world like Australia had profound impacts: on the development of particular scientific disciplines, like Botany and Zoology; on the systematisation and dissemination of knowledge generally; and on the colonisation and exploitation of the world's resources. In celebrating Cook, Solander, Forster and Linnaeus in their 'Illustrious Moderns' portrait series, Wedgwood & Bentley were acknowledging the important roles they played in advancing science and empire. In Australia today, these medallions commemorate some of the individuals who helped establish Australia in the European imagination.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 5:44:31 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2023-04-26. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.