I love when French and American histories intersect

Benjamin Franklin, American ambassador in Paris and one of Micah's two Favorite Founding Fathers, was wildly popular with Parisians who were gripped by a burgeoning fascination with science and the Rousseau-esque qualities his rough-hewn clothing and down-to-earth-ness seemed to exhibit. Marie Antoinette's Lady-in-Waiting, Madame Campan, described his appearance at court "in the dress of an American farmer" and emphasized the contrast between his and the "laced and embroidered coats, the powdered and perfumed hair of the courtiers at Versailles." Franklin recognized his appeal and played the part well. Even with his likeness found on objects ranging from snuffboxes, inkwells and fabric to porcelain and engraved glass, he seems to have kept his ego in check. Or, at least to have had a sense of humor about it. He wrote to his daughter, in July 1779, all these likenesses "have made your father's face as well known as that of the moon... from the number of dolls now made of him, he may be truly said to be i-doll-ized in this country."

Slightly less flatteringly, but wittily, Louis XVI had a Sevres chamber pot made, with Franklin's image in the bottom, as a gift for Diane de Polinac, because she so often sang his praises. Franklin's discovery of electricity prompted a wave of images of lightning bolts in artwork. Author Simon Schama points out, in Citizens, even Jacques-Louis David's famous Tennis Court Oath depiction of revolutionary fervor features "a bolt of electrically-charged freedom cracking over Versailles, as a great gust of wind blows fresh air through the crowd-filled window spaces." Referring to the American Revolution, the tie for Micah's Favorite Founding Father Award, John Adams, sounding peevish, wrote, "It is universally believed in France, that his (Franklin's) electric wand has accomplished all this revolution."