The first significant production of cast-iron stoves in the American colonies was in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, in the five-plate or jamb stove configuration by which a fire in one room was used to heat an adjoining room by means of the stove projecting through the wall. Freestanding six-plate stoves were in production by the 1740s.

In the early 19th century, stove production began in Albany and Troy, New York. Proximity to the necessary raw materials, to important markets, and to the Erie Canal after its opening in 1825 combined to support a flourishing industry in cast-iron heating and cooking stoves. Woodworking craftsmen and carvers made the patterns required for the elaborate, even extravagant, stoves that drew on contemporary architectural and decorative design.

In 1841, Albany cabinetmaker Alonzo Blanchard patented a “radiator parlor stove” (essentially a radiator connected to a stove in another room) in the form of a cast-iron figure. In 1843, he received a patent for a figure of Washington to be used this way, or as an “ornament.” The figure was described at length in the patent application, which was accompanied by a cast-lead model. Some such figures are marked with the patent date; others are not and are presumed to be the products of the J. L. Mott Iron Works of New York, whether by agreement or by piracy of the design is unknown. Blanchard’s design suggests his familiarity with the 1826 sculpture of Washington by Francis Leggatt Chantrey for the Massachusetts State House in Boston, which depicts the subject in a similar pose and with a similar combination of contemporary costume and classical drapery.