Medallion Portrait Of William Temple Franklin (1760-1823) By Josiah Wedgwood In Cameo 1783

Large jasperware caméo representing in profile William Temple Franklin (1760-1823)*, grandson of Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).
This medallion was made by Josiah Wedgwood* (1730-1795) is known and dated according to our research from 1783, from 1774, Josiah Wwedgwood began the manufacture of a series of portrait medallions representing famous men of the era, among them, ours as well as the profile of Benjamin Franklin and William Franklin.
Our item still has its original gilt bronze surround as well as its frame, which also seems to be original. Provenance:
Mrs. Dupuis
Normandy estate collection.
dimensions of the cameo only: 10.3 cm x 7.9 cm. Delivery by chronopost d+1 with insurance and delivered against signature for: France free.
Europe €50
Rest of the world €80
*William Temple Franklin Jr, known as Temple Franklin, (February 22, 1760, in London - May 25, 1823, in Paris) was an American diplomat and real estate speculator. He is best known for his involvement in the American diplomatic mission in France during the American Revolutionary War. From the age of 16, he was secretary to his grandfather Benjamin Franklin, who negotiated and agreed to the Franco-American Alliance.

*Josiah Wedgwood comes from an old family of English potters. In 1759, he created a workshop for fine salt-varnished stoneware and fine earthenware in his native village of Burslem, in Staffordshire, the Ivy-House factory. Then in 1762 he founded the famous "Etruria" factory, not far from there, in Stoke-on-Trent, with the merchant Thomas Bentley, who communicated to him his love of antiquity.
He perfected fine cream-coloured earthenware, known as "cream ware", obtained by adding calcined flint, and on which the decoration was mechanically printed. These productions are also called "Queen's ware", or "ceramics of the Queen" because Wedgwood was the supplier of an earthenware service for Queen Charlotte in 1777.
He also resumed the production of local pottery, imitating precious metals or hard stones, and that of "basalts", a very hard black sandstone fired in reduction then polished, in the Etruscan style, then very fashionable; the decorations in light reliefs are obtained using hollow moulds.
But its most famous creation, the "jasper ware" or jasper, also qualified as "diapered ceramics" in France; it was adopted in 1775 and gave the brand its worldwide reputation.
It is a paste with a very hard, white and fine "sandstone" structure, which was first tinted in the mass, then on the surface from 1777; these almost translucent stoneware can look very similar to porcelain. Very fine antique motifs and figures in light relief and dazzling whiteness are applied to this smooth, matte background. The productions of the Etruria factory are marked 'Wegdwood', by printing before firing, possibly with the mention 'Bentley' or 'Etruria'. The Wedgwood name has remained associated with a particular technique and style of fine, matt stoneware containing barium sulphate, decorated with antique-style bas reliefs standing out in white against a colored background, including a very characteristic lavender blue. This style of production was imitated in particular in Sarreguemines and in porcelain by Sèvres, and Nast in Paris.