print
- Museum number
- 2010,7081.599
- Title
- Object: An Emblem of America
- Description
-
Allegorical figure, shown full-length standing to left, holding a standard showing the stars and stripes and an eagle, looking at two black boys wearing feathered head-dresses who stand on the left, while gesturing towards a pillar decorated with oval portraits of Coumbus, Americanus [sic] Raleigh, Washington, Adams and one other; in an oval frame. 1798
Hand-coloured mezzotint with etching
- Production date
- 1798
- Dimensions
-
Height: 350 millimetres
-
Width: 248 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
-
This white female figure of Columbia, emblematic of the United States, represented America in a set of prints of the Four Continents. Standing beside her are two dark-skinned boys wearing feathered head-dresses representing the Western Hemisphere, she directs their gaze to the column decorated with oval portraits of the individuals, who ‘discovered’ America, as well as the founders of the new nation. The list includes Christopher Columbus, “Americus” Vespucci, Sir Walter Raleigh, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. the end of the War of Independence, in 1783.
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From a set of the four known continents (2010,7081.599-602)
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2018 12 Jan-11 Mar, BM, 90a, Pots with Attitude: British satire on ceramics
- Acquisition date
- 2010
- Acquisition notes
- Acquired with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Friends of the British Museum, the Art Fund, Mrs Charles Wrightsman, the Michael Marks Charitable Trust, and numerous individual donors.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2010,7081.599