Henry Clay Parian Figure by T. Ball
Boston, dated 1858 - Height: 25½ inches
 
A finely modeled parian figure of Henry Clay, after the design by Thomas Ball, depicting the statesman standing beside a draped column and holding a document scroll. Issued shortly after Clay’s death, the figure presents him in the familiar mature likeness by which he was memorialized in the final years of his life. The base bears the impressed inscription “T. Ball Sculp. Boston Mass. 1858 - Patent Assigned to G.W. Nichols,” identifying the sculptor and publisher of this important mid-nineteenth-century American production. While parian figures of Daniel Webster from the same series appear with some regularity, Henry Clay examples are markedly rarer; this is only the second example we have encountered.
 
Produced at a moment when parian ware allowed for the broader dissemination of sculptural likenesses, figures such as this reflect the enduring veneration of Clay as one of the leading political figures of his generation, widely known as the “Great Compromiser” for his role in shaping legislative solutions to sectional conflict in the decades preceding the Civil War.
 
Condition: Excellent, with a few light rub marks.