John Rogers (1829-1904)
John Rogers was born in Salem, Massachusetts, but spent his early life in many places in New England and the Midwest, including Cincinnati. Rogers created plaster figural groups from 1859 to 1892 on the subjects of everyday life, the theatre, Shakespeare, the Civil War and horses. He created about 80 of these humorous genre images and purportedly over 80,000 casts were made. At a time when it was in vogue to have parlor statuary in one’s home, Rogers provided appealing high quality durable plaster works a prices ranging from $10 to $20 each, well within the financial reach of many for whom marble or bronze statuary was not.
A New England mechanical engineer, Rogers decided to become a sculptor after seeing a friend model small figures in clay. He sought instruction in Paris and Rome in 1858, but found he had little in common with the artists there, who worked in marble in a Neo-classical style. When he returned to the United States in the spring of 1859 and took a job with the Chicago city surveyor, he began modeling small figure groups in clay in his spare time. His first successful works were Checker Players and The Slave Auction. In 1860 he moved to New York and with a staff of 25 workers began mass producing his sculptures in plaster. He continued producing his plaster works until 1892 when he concluded with The Watch on the Santa Maria. About 80 different groups were created in these thirty-three years, a few with two differing versions. The group’s popularity determined the number of copies issued, ranging from a few hundred to thousands. Reproduction rights to the figures were sold in 1893 and they were manufactured for several more years by the Rogers Statuette Co. A nearly complete collection is owned by the New York Historical Society.
Rogers Groups vary in height and weight generally ranging from about fourteen to twenty-three inches high and ten to fifty pounds. Groups are signed John Rogers New York with a date (if patented) and titled on the front of their base. The condition in which they are presently found also varies from being almost “like new” to being “basket cases.” They generally are taupe (putty) in color with a hint of sheen and often have a heavy patina. (Be aware that sometimes these groups have been polychromed by someone other than Rogers. The polychroming may have been done tastefully or dreadfully. In either case, however, polychroming detracts from the groups as Rogers originally conceived their creation.)
Information, in part, courtesy of http://www.johnrogers.org.