Antique Old Castle Pitcher of the ship "Bon Homme Richard"

The ship was purchased by King Louis XVI of France in early 1779 and placed under the command of John Paul Jones.  Jones renamed the ship Bon Homme Richard (usually rendered in more correct French as Bonhomme Richard) in honor of Benjamin Franklin, the American Commissioner at Paris whose Poor Richard's Almanack was published in France under the title Les Maximes du Bonhomme Richard.