LEL's Medallion Wafer Poems in Context
A. M. Coleman
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Contexts: Neo-Classicism & Wafer Seals
Prompted either by his advertiser or his own intuition, Jerdan published a piece celebrating newly available "Medallion Wafers," modeled after the work of contemporary neoclassical sculptures on January 4, 1823. The sculptors, Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorwaldsen, represent two different approaches to Neo-Classical themes; Whereas Thorwaldsen believed in imitating the works of the ancient sculptors, Canova was more interested in re-interpreting them, creating new works in the classical style. This gave many of Canova's sculptures a looser, more sensual quality. |
At the time Landon was writing, the postal system was not yet highly
developed. In fact, many people (especially in the lower classes)
bypassed it altogether; by sending letters by way of passing travelers
and relying on hand-delivery, they could avoid postage fees (to be paid by the recipient) entirely.
This practice also gave an intimate quality to correspondence. In "The Letter-Bell" (1830), William Hazlitt reflects nostalgically on the emotions and memories evoked by the sound of the letter-bell of the mail carrier, calling it a "conductor to the imagination" (306).
Landon echoes the idea of the affective quality of letters in the headnote to the Medallion Wafer poems: wafer seals "are here devoted to verse," she writes, "on the supposition that they have been employed as seals to lovers' correspondence." Wafer seals were commonly used to close letters, as envelopes were not yet mass-produced, and handmade envelopes required time and disposable income.
Landon echoes the idea of the affective quality of letters in the headnote to the Medallion Wafer poems: wafer seals "are here devoted to verse," she writes, "on the supposition that they have been employed as seals to lovers' correspondence." Wafer seals were commonly used to close letters, as envelopes were not yet mass-produced, and handmade envelopes required time and disposable income.
The seals themselves were decorated paper disks. They were very small, usually 1-2.5cm in diameter, and very fragile. Few survived long, and the examples shown here are from later than when Landon was writing.
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Makers of the seals were able to decorate them with intricate patterns and images; the Gazette's article "class[ed] them among the Fine Arts," boasting that they "not only serve an every day purpose with facility, but are calculated to spread abroad an acquaintance and admiration of the most graceful forms of taste and genius." Often, larger versions of the seals were made to hang in people's homes or were collected in much the same way that people collect stamps today. Eventually, though, they fell out of use, and when Thompson exhibited his Medallion Wafers at the Crystal Palace, they were received as lovely, but old-fashioned.
(Sources) |
The following pages offer transcriptions of, and notes to, the Medallion Wafer poems, grouped according to the installments in which they were originally published in the Gazette.
Many of the poems are linked to more specifically interpretive essays on medallionwafers.wordpress.com. A more thorough discussion of the exhibit's elements and conclusion(s) can be read here.
Many of the poems are linked to more specifically interpretive essays on medallionwafers.wordpress.com. A more thorough discussion of the exhibit's elements and conclusion(s) can be read here.