Prince Paul Troubetzkoy Russian, 1864-1936

Chicago based industrialist and diplomat born in 1858, a personal friend of Tomas Masaryk and U.S. presidents Taft and Wilson, Charles Richard Crane owned from 1912 the Crane Company, founded by his father Richard Teller Crane.  Several members of his large family, including his second daughter, Frances Anita, who was later married to Jan Masaryk, son of the first Czechoslovak president, were subsequently portrayed by Troubetzkoy that year in a series of groups and statuettes; the sculptor charged $2,400 at the time for a small figure such as this one.  Charles Crane moved to New York two years later, in 1914, serving as U.S. minister to China in 1920-1921.  He died in 1939 at his winter house in Palm Springs, California, and was laid to rest at his summer residence of Woods Hole, Massachusetts.