• Title
  Joseph Banks [ca. 1775-1779 / a Wedgwood and Bentley portrait medallion, from a model by John Flaxman Jnr.]
• Creator
  John Flaxman, 1755-1826
• Call number
  DL Pa 98
  Status: On display. Objects Gallery. Case 3, Shelf 47
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  ca. 1775-1779
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Objects
• Reference code
  457676
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  1 portrait medallion - Black basalt ware, stored in oval shaped gilt wooden frame - thumb scoop on reverse. At the centre top at back is oblong hole for hanging.; 16 x 13.8 cm frame at widest point ; 9.6 x 7.5 cm. (image).
  
• Scope and Content
  The portrait depicts in relief a head and shoulders left profile of Joseph Banks as a young man
• Access Conditions
  
  Access via appointment
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright: Artist died before 1955
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• General note
  
  Based on a portrait of Sir Joseph Banks that was modelled by John Flaxman between 1775-1779, it is difficult to assign a specific date to the medallion as several issues were made over a period of time.
  
  The piece bears no mark of "Wedgwood & Bentley". According to Meteyard (1875, p.62) some pieces have no marks at all, not even the name "Wedgwood". The explanation being that such were first or trial pieces of a new body etc. that were being made or, the workmen under pressure of work orders, simply forgot to put the mark.
  
  Date and attribution based on references in W.G. Constable, "John Flaxman 1755-1826", London, 1927, p. 15. SRL DS735/21. "Notes and records of the Royal Society of London", Vol. 18, no. 1, p. 49. SRL N506/160. "Wedgwood and his works... ", Eliza Meteyard, London, 1873, p. 57. SRL DSQ666.342/22. "The Wedgwood handbook ... ", Eliza Meteyard, London, 1875, p. 190. SRL DS666.342/14.
  
  John Flaxman worked for Josiah Wedgwood between 1775 and 1787, and Wedgwood was in partnership with Thomas Bentley from 1769 to Bentley's death in 1780. The medallion is similar to portraits of Joseph Banks held in the Mitchell Library (P*33 black basalt ware; P*61 and P*35) and those located in the Dixson Library (DL Pa 97, DL Pa 99 and DL Pa 100).
  Digital order no:a5142001
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  Some pencil figures are shown, plus paper sticker on backing is stamped "347".
  "Banks" impressed below image at truncation of bust.
• Date note
  
  Undated. Date approximated by comparison with a similar work held in the Mitchell Library (DL Pa 97)
• Creator/Author/Artist
  Bentley, Thomas, 1731-1780
  Wedgwood, Josiah, 1730-1795
  
• Name
  Banks, Joseph, Sir, 1743-1820
  
• Subject
  Dixson Library (N.S.W.)
  Portrait medallions--England
  Wedgwood ware
  Black basaltes
  Adult Males
  
• Topic
  botanists
  medallions
  naturalists
  portraits
  
• Exhibited in
  
  Wedgwood Exhibition - (August - September, 1979)
  Pieces of Wedgwood - State Library of New South Wales
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE3234714

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