Anti-slavery inkstand, early 1800s
This inkstand is in the shape of the shell of a sea creature called a nautilus. The nautilus is related to the squid and octopus and lives in the Pacific and Indian oceans.
When this inkstand was made, people wrote with pens which had to be dipped in bottles of ink. The inkstand has a top section inside it with holes for holding two pots of ink and two pens.
Nautilus shells were valued in Europe for their rarity and beauty. Rich people sometimes had ornamental cups or salt cellars made out of the shells. This pottery copy of a nautilus shell would have been much more reasonably priced.
The inkstand is decorated with pictures of a kneeling enslaved African in chains. Slavery abolitionists used the kneeling slave image as their emblem in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It is based on an anti-slavery design created at the Wedgwood pottery factory in 1787. William Hackwood, a worker at the factory, modelled the design.
The kneeling slave image was first used on medallions. Over 200 000 medallions decorated with the image were made to promote the abolitionistsâ cause. The design also appeared on ceramics, hairpins and jewellery. The public showed their support for the campaign to abolish slavery by buying these objects.
The kneeling slave design has been criticised because it shows enslaved Africans as passive people pleading for their emancipation. In reality, many Africans actively fought against their own enslavement. The design was intended to provoke sympathy from the British public and Parliament. They saw themselves as the sole liberators of enslaved people.
