Lot 152: Gerhardt, Karl

A square, terra cotta relief plaque (9? x 9? in.; 235 x 235 mm) depicting Clemens in profile in the upper lefthand corner, and George W. Cable in the lower righthand corner, inscribed with the names "Mark Twain" and "Geo. W. Cable" to the left and the right, and signed by Gerhardt at the bottom, 1885, inscribed in ink on the back, in an unidentified hand, "from Mrs. Webster, author of ?My dear enemy.?" A FINE ASSOCIATION PLAQUE BY CLEMENS?S YOUNG PROTÉGÉ. In 1882 Clemens met George Washington Cable, a novelist who wrote sympathetically about African Americans, and whom he described in Life on the Mississippi as "the South?s finest literary genius." (see also lots 188?189). In September 1884, Clemens commissioned Gerhardt to make a medallion of himself and of Cable, for which Gerhardt requested an advance of twenty-five to thirty dollars. The plaque was probably intended to commemorate a joint reading and lecture tour that Clemens and Cable embarked upon in 1885 through the East and Midwest. Two medallions are currently listed in the Smithsonian?s inventory of Gerhardt?s works: one clay model is owned by the Connecticut Historical Society, the other by Yale University. From the inscription on the back, it is possible that this copy of the plaque was presented to Annie Moffett, the daughter of Clemens?s sister who was also the wife of Clemens?s publisher, Charles L. Webster.