AMERICAN, 19TH CENTURY

Chalkware was produced in America and Europe from the eighteenth to the twentieth century and was an inexpensive alternative for decorative sculptures made of marble, wax, earthenware, porcelain, glass or wood. Animals were common forms; human figures were more rarely seen, although prominent figures such as George Washington and Jenny Lind were popular. During the 1920s and 1930s, chalkware was popular among other notable American collectors, as Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Electra Havemeyer Webb, Henry Ford and Henry Francis du Pont. For a more detailed discussion of chalkware, see Amanda E. Lange and Julie A. Reilly, "Chalkware," The Magazine Antiques (October 1994), pp. 496-505.

As shown in a November, 1927 photograph, this bust was prominently displayed on the center of the fireplace mantel in "Museum [Room] No. III" (the Blue Room) in the attic of Blairhame (Blair Family album; Morrison H. Heckscher, "Natalie K. Blair's 'museum rooms' and the American Wing," The Magazine Antiques (January 2000), p. 184, pl. IV).