Franklin stands on a flat square base, his left side supported by the base of a broken column. He gazes ahead, and strides forward on his left foot. In his right hand is a rolled document. A hat is tucked under his left arm. He wears a rumpled coat, waistcoat, and knee breeches; with stockings and buckled shoes. At his neck is a loosely knotted tie.

Another example of this terra cotta statuette exists, in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, New York, the 1926 bequest of Annie C.Kane. That object's dimensions are 15 1/4 in. (38.7 in ) x 6 3/8 in. (16.2) x 5 3/4 in. (14.6); its identification number is 26.260.24.

The image has served as the source for numerous copies, from very small to life-sized. It is the origin of the countless nineteenth-century English Staffordshire figures with titles as various as "Benj. Franklin," "Geo. Washington," and "The Old English Gentleman."
William Johnston (see below) suggests the work may have been begun in 1788, "the year that Louis XVI commissioned a plaster model to be used at the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory."

Image of Franklin made shortly after his death