A life-size plaster with two bear cubs won an Honorable Mention in the Paris Salon of 1887. As a young man Bartlett signed a 10-year contract to cast the Bear Tamer with the Paris foundry, Siot-Decauville Perzinka, in 1887. The foundry sand cast two sizes, this cast being the larger size. Bartlett earned about 16%—95 francs of the 600 charged for the sale of each large-size bronze. 10 casts were sold in 1888. Apparently unsatisfied with that arrangement, Bartlett withdrew to his studio for some years during the contract period, installed a small foundry and experimented with casting his own small works in lost wax and doing his own patination. A number of these small studio works were exhibited in Saint Louis at the 1904 World’s Fair. Bartlett had aided both Gorham and the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Works in setting up lost-wax facilities with French foundry workers, but neither achieved commercial viability.

From the exhibition:Frontier to Foundry: the Making of Small Bronze Sculpture in the Gilcrease Collection, December 2014 - March 2015.
Ann Boulton Young, Associate Conservator for the Gilcrease Museum, 2014.