Sebastian Miniatures of John Rogers Statues

Prescott Woodbury Baston was born in 1909 in Arlington, Massachusetts. As a child, he closely observed while his father worked as a miniaturist for Olmsted Brothers, the architectural firm that designed New York's Central park and the Cloisters, and the Boston Public Gardens.

P.W. Baston's own artistic ability eventually led him to the designing and manufacturing of a line of small figurines of famous early American people, places and professions. These chalk-like ceramastone figurines are known as Sebastian Miniatures. From 1938 to present, many thousand of different figurines graced residences of collectors the world over.

Mr. Baston's admiration and emulation of the work of John Rogers was demonstrated in 1952 when he sculpted a series of three pieces taken directly from the works of Rogers. The figurines were about 3" tall and sculpted to scale. The subjects selected were "Neighboring Pews", "Weighing the Baby" and "The Favored Scholar." Five hundred of each of these diminutive brownish plaster groups were made. Sebastian collectors, however, did not like the absence of color, so fifty of each group were painted in color, even though they were not originally modeled with color separation in mind.

In 1975, Mr. Baston enlisted the Lance Company to cast these same three designs in fine pewter. Unfortunately, the casting differences between molten metal and liquid ceramastone prohibited production of any more than six pewter sets. As such, no pictures of the pewter models were available for this website.