Badge "Phallius with wheelbarrow"

Medieval badge "Phallus creature with wheelbarrow".

Here you can buy a medieval phallus creature badge, made after a profane bawdy badge from the late Middle Ages.

This exceptional medieval bawdy badge was made after a historical model found in the Netherlands and dates from 1400 to 1450 AD. The original was made of pewter and is now in the possession of the Langbroek Collection, Van Breuningen.

Link to the historical model...

Medieval bawdy badges with obscene-erotic content were very common in the late Middle Ages in Northern Europe, and there especially in the Netherlands, and presumably served for general amusement during the carnival season.

This medieval bawdy badge shows a so-called phallus creature, dressed in trousers and shoes, with a woman pushing a wheelbarrow full of small phalli in front of her. Depictions of phallic animals occur in different variations and were very common on medieval badges.

The medieval phallus creature sign is made of high-quality bronze or in genuine silver-plated and has an eyelet on the back to attach it to clothing or to wear it as a pendant.

The badge measures 3.5 x 3.5 cm.

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The obscene-erotic phallus badges of the late Middle Ages represent a sub-group of the profane badges, which, in addition to bawdy representations of so-called phallic trees, phallic ships or personified representations of vulvae, include in particular the phallic animal, a half-humanly depicted phallus, which was provided with legs and often also wings and could sometimes wear a crown or small bell.

The most likely interpretation for the phallic insignia of the late Middle Ages is that this was an attempt to defuse sexuality with the aid of comedy and that it was used as a means of promoting communication during gender initiation, especially in the course of the debauched customs at Shrovetide.