The Zinc Statuettes of Cornelius and Baker

Slush casting of zinc statuettes in the United States was pioneered around 1853 by the Philadelphia-based Cornelius and Baker, then the largest gas-fixture company in the country. The technique permitted three-dimensional castings suitable for chandeliers, table lamps, and mantel decorations to be quickly and inexpensively made. Imitation-bronze paint made the dull gray metal attractive. Statuettes after Clark Mills’s equestrianAndrew Jacksonwere acquired by a number of important collections, including the White House (in 1859). Outside of this, the company’s early domestic “bronzes”—genre figures, copies of French statuettes, reductions of antique statues, and American subjects—are little known.