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The last Lucifer Match By Ball Hughes, Boston, 1865 Poker work on wood panel, 11.5 in. high by 9.5 in. wide excluding original carved and incised wood frame Digital image thanks to Frances Felix

The last Lucifer Match,detail By Ball Hughes, Boston, 1865 Poker work on wood panel, 11.5 in. by 9.5 in. in original carved and incised wood frame Digital image thanks to Frances Felix

The last Lucifer Match Pyroengraved inscription on the back of the plaque By Ball Hughes Poker work on wood plaque, 11.5 in. by 9.5 in. Digital image thanks to Frances Felix

The last Lucifer Match Detail of the inscription on the back of the panel By Ball Hughes, 1865 Poker work on wood panel, 11.5 in. by 9.5 in. (not including the frame) Written inscription on the back reads: "This picture of the last Lucifer Match was burnt with a red hot Poker from the celebrated painting by J.T. Lucas Ball Hughes. Fecit. Boston. 1865." Visible in detail above is: Ball Hughes. Boston. 1865." Digital image thanks to Frances Felix

Frances Felix, came across her piece by chance at a new and used consignment shop. She herself is a teacher of pottery and porcelain restoration and conservation. In addition, she likes to buy, sell and trade in antique jewelry, and does about five antiques shows a year. Part of her display includes antique objects that appeal to her. Of the Ball Hughes pyroengraved panel above, she says, "My heart skipped a beat when I saw this picture, and although I knew nothing about this art form, I just had to have it."

The artist Robert Ball Hughes was the renowned sculptor who did the Alexander Hamilton statue that was burned in the fire of 1835 (for which models remain in the Metropolitan Museum of New York). He was also renowned as the miniaturist engraver who modified the Gobrecht design of Lady Liberty that appeared on many U.S. minted coins from 1840 on.

In an 1891 column in The New England Magazine entitled, "The Old Masters of Boston," Samuel L Gerry wrote the following words of praise about the artist:

And now flits across the memory a brilliant sculptor, whose familiar face and tall figure were well known in our streets. Ball Hughes was without controversy a genius, as is evidenced by his well-known group of the Widow Wadman and Uncle Toby, and the fine statue of Bowditch, both I think in the Art Museum. He was cut down in the prime of life, yet not by the hand of death. Many knew him in his later years by his poker drawings, which he did for small returns. It was like "a giant cracking nuts." We have never had in Boston natural powers for art superior to his. In all his obliquities he was a gentleman.

An October 2001 column by Peter J. Stevens in the Boston Neighborhood News entitled It Happened Here Dorchester's First Couple of the Arts In the 19th Century: Mr. And Mrs. Robert Ball Hughes Put Dorchester on the National Arts Scene provides a vignette of the artist's life.

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If you have any questions or any information or any comments regarding Robert Ball Hughes, this work of his or any others, please e-mail Frances Felix and the E-Museum Curator.

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© 2004, 2009 Kathleen M. Garvey Menéndez, all rights reserved.
Last updated 8 November.