Colonial America
Hand-Colored “Metamora” King Phillip Son of Massasoit
c. 1832 Hand-Colored Engraving titled, “Metamora” (King Phillip Son of Massasoit), by Frederick S. Agate, Rawdon, Wright Hatch & Smillie, published by D.H. Williams, Boston, Choice Extremely Fine.
This fine quality, vividly Hand-colored steel plate engraving has no date, but we believe to be about 1830 due to the engraver Frederick S. Agate, at Boston, published by D. H. Williams. It measures about 4.5" x 7" adhered at each corner with tan paper tape onto a larger 9.25” x 6” blue lined later sheet that has extensive notations regarding the engravings subject matter and printed text. This c. 1832 engraving featured Edwin Forrest as Metamora, by artist Frederich Styles Agate. The colors are vibrant, the context historical and most interesting for display. Scarce.
Much of the success and impact of Metamora; or the Last of the Wampanoags was due to the acting talents of Edwin Forrest. He reportedly spent a month living with an Indian chief in New Orleans as research. His interpretation of the noble savage focused greatly on physical characteristics he gave Metamora.

Many of the now long-standing stereotypical attributes of how an actor should portray an Indian are due to Forrest, including the monosyllabic "ugh" grunts, certain tonal and facial expressions, his body carriage (including a particular way of walking in a straight line), and an emotional stoicism imbued with grandeur and pathos. Once enraged, however, the Indian character reverted to the ignoble savage.

Forrest's own physique and voice were impressive, and in one particular scene he wielded a Tomahawk on a White man with terrifying power, electrifying the audience with the sheer bluntness of his brutality and forever ingraining the image of the wild savage in the minds of the audience. In doing so, Forrest was making it clear that such a creature must be removed, nobility aside, for the sake of civilization. That the two stereotypes could coexist in a single character was not a problem for audiences.

Fenimore Cooper also had already played an important role in thetrend of both romanticizing and demonizing the Indians in a single work. In his most famous novel, The Last of The Mohicans (1826), Chingachook and Uncas (the good Indians) are idealized as the noble savage, while Magua and the other Hurons (the bad Indians) exhibit subhuman tendencies; they revel in violence and eat their meat raw.