Manuscript document signed, as President, contracting with sculptor Hiram Powers on behalf of the United States commissioning marble statues of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
Washington, D.C: January 26, 1859.
Price: $4,500.00
About the item
2pp., plus integral blank, folded folio sheet. Countersigned by Edward Everett and Theodore Dehon on behalf of Powers. Marked Original in the top margin of the first page. [With:] A signed CDV of Powers and an unsigned CDV of his wife. Old folds, minor soiling, later ink annotations to verso of CDVs, else very good.
Item #369743
The statues are described as eight feet each, and costing the government an astounding $10,000 per statue. The contract details the timeline for payments by installments. Pencil annotations in the margin indicate that the initial deposit was paid out on March 2, 1859, with additional installments for the clay models of both statues paid on August 3, 1860 and May 18, 1861. The statue of Franklin arrived in Washington in late 1862 and the statue of Jefferson in 1863. Both still stand in the Capitol today.
The cartes de visite were produced by Powers' son, Longworth Powers (1835-1904). Like his father, Longworth lived in Florence and offered "Photographie Américaine" in his studio alongside sculpture.
