The Apotheosis of Franklin

Object Type
This furnishing fabric has been printed using engraved copper plates. The introduction of copper-plate printing in the 1750s introduced new possibilities in the development of printed textile design, allowing a fineness of detail and delicacy of drawing which had not been achieved in earlier wood-block printed textiles. It also allowed much larger pattern repeats, which made it particularly suitable for bed hangings.

Subject Depicted
The figure of George Washington, first President of the United States of America, is taken from a painting by the American artist John Trumbull (1756-1843) that had been engraved by Valentine Green in 1781. One scene shows Washington driving a chariot with an allegorical figure of America holding a plaque inscribed 'American Independence 1776'. The other main scene shows the goddess Athene with the statesman Benjamin Franklin and a figure of Liberty bearing a scroll inscribed 'where liberty dwells there is my country'.

Ownership & Use
The popularity of this subject in America can be judged from the variety of surviving examples there, printed in different colours, on textiles of different quality, composition and width with details changed or omitted. The design is known to have been used in the house of the President of Congress, Richard Henry Lee, in New York in 1785, described by a guest : 'My chamber is ... prettily furnished. Which way soever I turn my eyes I find a triumphal Car, a liberty Cap, a Temple of Fame or the Hero of Heroes [Washington], all these and many more objects of a piece with them, being finely represented on the hangings.'