This is one of John Rogers’ multi-figure statuettes (called Rogers Groups), which was patented in 1867. These works were known for being relatively inexpensive art objects made of cast and painted plaster and popular decorative art for the period. This piece, entitled “The School Examination,” shows a young girl looking at a slate, while a seated man gestures at something on the slate. The female teacher is standing between them with one hand on the girl’s shoulder and a book in the other, peering at the student’s work. This scene depicts an examination at a rural school, with the man being a visitor from the School Committee. He appears to be calling attention to a mistake in the girl’s work. It should be noted that John Roger’s wife, Harriet (Hattie) Moore Francis, was a teacher prior to her marriage in 1865.
John Rogers (1829–1904) was a famous American sculptor who produced very popular, inexpensive figurines. Instead of working in bronze and marble, he sculpted in more affordable plaster, painted the color of putty to hide dust. Rogers’ statuettes celebrated the lives and values of ordinary Americans. Through his Rogers Groups he offered a snapshot of the manners and customs of the period. Rogers sold rights to his factory and to the production of the Rogers Groups to his foreman William Brush inn 1893, who produced copies in the Rogers Statuette Co. until 1895.