Terra-cotta bas-relief medallion (4.5 inches; 114 mm diameter) by Nini after a drawing by Walpole. Bust of Franklin left wearing a fur cap, on truncation crowned cartouche flanked by palm fronds, hand guiding a kite, to the left incised NINI F1777, all within integral molded frame; integral tube for suspension on reverse as made, a few minor chips and some soiling, overall fine. References: Benezit VI, p.367; Sellers Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, pp. 103-105 and 343-347; Betts 548; Intellectual World of BenjaminFranklin,166; The Papers of Benjamin Franklin.Vol. 23: 232, 296-98.

Benjamin Franklin was one of America's first ambassadors, although the United States did not officially exist, when he was sent to France in December of 1776 to seek French aid in support of the rebellion against England. After a months stay, he wrote to his friend Emma Thompson: "Figure me in your mind as jolly as formerly and as strong and hearty only a few years older; very plainly dressed, wearing my thin gray straight hair that peeps out under my only coiffure, a fine fur cap which comes down to my forehead almost to my spectacles. Think how this must appear among the powdered heads of Paris." A few days earlier, in correspondence from Jonathan Williams Jr., Franklin learns that: "So much is your name respected that I hear the Ladies of Nantes are about making an addition to their head in imitation of your Hair Cap, which they intend to call “a la Franklin."

One of Franklin’s most important contacts and supporters was Jacques-Donatien Le Ray, who had established his fortune in shipping and operated an earthenware and glassmaking factory in Chaumont-sur-Loire. His friendship with Franklin was critical in winning French support for the American cause and Le Ray further assisted the American war effort in organizing and coordinating the American-French naval fleet, including the refitting of the warship USS Bonhomme Richard, used by Captain John Paul Jones. Le Ray commissioned the artist Jean-Baptiste Nini to create a terra-cotta relief portrait of Franklin which his perhaps his best known image. The production and distribution of these wonderful plaques served a political purpose and supported his mission, "to promote France's investment in America." (Intellectual World).

In June of 1779 Franklin wrote to his daughter Deborah in Philadelphia: "The clay medallion you say you gave to Mr. Hopkinson was the first of the kind made in France. A variety of others have been made since of different sizes; some to be set in the lids of snuffboxes, and some so small as to be worn in rings; and the numbers sold are incredible. These, with the pictures, busts, and prints, (of which copies upon copies are spread everywhere), have made your father's face as well known as that of the moon...It is said by learned etymologists, that the name doll, for the images children play with, is derived from the word IDOL. From the number of dolls now made of him, he may be truly said, in that sense, to be i-doll-ized in this country."