Winter 2016

2016 Antiques & Fine Art 147 Fig. 9: The Hunter, by Cornelius & Baker, Philadelphia, ca. 1858–1859. Bronzed and gilt zinc. H. 41 in. The original design was created by William H. Rinehart (1825–1874) and cast in bronze by Cornelius & Baker. It stands to the proper right side of a monumental clock installed in the Hall of the House of Representatives in the United States Capitol building. Subsequently, Cornelius & Baker made a few copies in bronzed and gilt zinc like this one for general sale. Private collection. Fig. 10: The Indian, by Cornelius & Baker, Philadelphia, ca. 1858–1859. Bronzed and gilt zinc. H. 42¾ in. The original design was created by William H. Rinehart (1825– 1874) and cast in bronze by Cornelius & Baker as a companion to “The Hunter” in fig. 9. It stands to the proper left side of the monumental clock in the Hall of the House of Representatives in the United States Capitol. This example is one of the few subsequently cast in zinc by Cornelius & Baker for sale to the general public. Private collection. have served as adjuncts for lighting. These consisted of small to medium sized figures measuring between four and eighteen inches in height. The subjects were sculpted for aesthetic and nationalistic sensibilities, as with the allegorical figures of Commerce, Science, Prudence, and Eloquence standing amid the arms of the great gaselier made for the Vermont State House in Montpelier (see figures 1, 2), and complemented by the figures of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, William Penn, and the Revolutionary War Minuteman adorning accompanying wall sconces. By the mid-1850s the company was casting increasingly large sculptures measuring from eighteen to over forty inches in height. These were for the most part intended as stand-alone sculptures for display on mantels, table tops, and pedestals (Figs. 9, 10). Whereas most of the firm’s statuettes were probably designed in house under the direction of Charles Page, others were copied with slight changes from imported European bronzes, while a few were adapted from the works of American sculptors, including Hiram Powers (1805–1873), William H. Rinehart (1825–1874) and Clark Mills (1810–1883) (Fig. 11). Allegorical and historical f igures comprised important subject matter for Cornelius and Baker’s parlor sculpture. These statuettes were designed to satisfy style-conscious householders wishes to display their appreciation of art, literature and history, but also to exhibit their ref ined taste. By the early 1860s, Cornelius & Baker had added genre figures (puppeteer, hurdy- gurdy player, Civil War soldier, the biblical figures of Rebekah and Eliezer) to appeal to a growing taste for art that depicted everyday subject matter, perhaps best exemplified in the United States by the pottery genre groups of John Rodgers (Fig. 12). Just as the firm’s lighting met with enthusiastic approval by discriminating critics, so too did its sculpture, as noted in the report of the twenty-fifth exhibition of American manufactures published by the Franklin Institute in 1856. Cornelius and Baker submitted ten statues in addition to many lighting devices for