Benjamin Franklin was the first diplomat from the fledgeling United States to journey to France in search of aid and diplomatic recognition in 1776. His polymath reputation and rustic, new-world charm made him an instant hit in Paris; likenesses were popular and widely disseminated. According to the research of Tamara Préaud, the former archivist at Sèvres, two busts of Benjamin Franklin were modeled at the French National Manufactory. Both were executed based on prototypes made during Benjamin Franklin's lifetime. One was based on Jean-Antoine Houdon's bust of 1778. The other, which closely relates to the present example, was after the 1777 portrait by Jean-Jacques Caffiéri (1725-1792). The Caffiéri model was produced in at least two sizes and with variations in the number and diameter of the buttons. At the Paris salon of 1777, Caffiéri's terracotta bust was said to be, 'the most solidly realistic of all the Franklin portraits, as if its maker had been on his mettle to meet Franklin's own taste for exactitude'.

For further comments on this model and the subsequent meeting of Franklin and the directors at Sèvres, see C. Coleman Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, New Haven, 1962, pp. 117 and 371-372. A related work is in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York. The original plaster model for this variation is retained at Sèvres and has long been associated with Josse-François-Joseph Le Riche (1738-1812). However, there is no archival evidence to support this attribution.

Étienne-Henry Le Guay l'aîné is recorded initally as a painter and then later as a gilder at the manufactory from 1748 to 1797.