Bowl, sugar bowl

This creamware sugar bowl is hand painted with an adaptation of the campaign for the abolition of slavery logo. Wedgwood’s original design featured an enslaved man. The later image of a woman reflected the role of women campaigners against female exploitation. The bowl is inscribed on the reverse in gilt copperplate with the message ‘'East India Sugar not made By Slaves. By Six Families using East India, instead of West India Sugar, one Slave less is required’. During the late 18th and early 19th century, sugar from East India was promoted as a substitute for West Indian sugar tainted by its associations with slavery.