A POLYCHROME WAX RELIEF OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

ATTRIBUTED TO BERNHARDT KASPAR HARDY (1726-1819)

Details

A POLYCHROME WAX RELIEF OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
ATTRIBUTED TO BERNHARDT KASPAR HARDY (1726-1819)

On a glass ground and in a giltwood frame under glass; with a cartouche at upper left inscribed 'ERIPVIT COELO FVLM...'; the reverse with a suspension loop and with an old label indistinctly inscribed '460' (?).
Damages to cartouche; minor restorations.
8in. (20.3cm.) high, overall

Literature

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
J. Bennett Nolan, Problems in Waxes, Antiques, XX, December 1932, pp. 221-3
C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, New Haven and London, 1962, pp. 407-8, pl. 34
E. J. Pyke, A Biographical Dictionary of Wax Modellers, Oxford, 1973, pp. 63-5

Lot Essay

A number of related wax portraits of Franklin, some with the inscription and some without, are known (Nolan, loc. cit., lists seven). Although signed waxes by Hardy are known, these pieces are generally - and plausibly - attributed to him. As Sellers points out, details of the composition suggest that it is probably based on the Lavater engraving of Franklin (Sellers, loc. cit.). The inscription, which may be translated as 'He tore the lightning from the sky and the sceptre from the tyrant', alludes to Franklin's invention of the lightning conductor in 1753, and to his importance in the American War of Independence.

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