The Ashantee Medal, granted by the Queen for the Expedition of 1873–74 1873

Editor: This is the Ashantee Medal, made in 1873 by Leonard Charles Wyon. It's bronze, and quite small, but I find the profile of Queen Victoria really striking. How do you interpret this work? Curator: What strikes me is the context of its production. We're looking at a mass-produced object intended to commemorate a specific military campaign—the Anglo-Ashanti War. Think about the labour involved: from mining the metal, the industrial process of striking these medals, and the distribution. It becomes less about the Queen's profile and more about the mechanics of empire. Editor: That's a completely different perspective than what I had. So the materiality of the bronze and the process of its creation are more important than, say, its artistic value as a portrait? Curator: Exactly! The ‘artistic value’ is subservient to its function as a tool of imperial power. The bronze itself, relatively inexpensive, makes the medal accessible to a wider group, mostly soldiers, acting as both reward and a physical symbol of Britain's global reach, normalizing the narrative of colonialism. Consider the conditions under which these raw materials were extracted too. Editor: So, in this light, it's not just a decorative art object, but evidence of a vast, exploitative system? Curator: Precisely. It collapses distinctions between art and craft, pointing us to consider labor, material, and the mechanics of power encoded within the medal itself. Editor: This has given me so much to think about when considering seemingly simple commemorative objects. I never considered the impact on workers. Curator: Indeed, viewing art through its materiality offers powerful insights. It is a great lesson for us both.