The Image

uring the height of their popularity, carved wooden figures advertising a wide variety of goods and services were a common sight on the Dstreets of urban and small-town America. Tens of thousands of shop figures were carved in the United States and Canada in the eighteenth and nine- teenth centuries. Images of Native Americans were by far the most popular, but any character that caught the public's imagination—especially after about 1860—could and would be skillfully personified, from the more traditional Turks and Scotsmen to up-to-date baseball players and fashionable ladies. The carvers themselves coined the phrase "the image business" to characterize the wide range of figures that they were called upon to create.' Whether rendered in detailed real- ism or a more stylized and individualized fashion, shop figures represent one of the largest and most expressive of all American sculptural traditions. As reflec- tions of their era, they also speak volumes about several important aspects of American social history, including racial and gender stereotyping, the emergence of a national popular culture, and the birth of modern commercial advertising.

54 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART INDIAN PRINCESS WITH CROSSED LEGS Incised "S.A. Robb, Carver, 114 Centre St." on base New York City 1888-1903 Polychromed wood 7r high Collection of Allan and Penny Katz Business Shop and Cigar Store Figures in America

By Ralph Sessions FATHER TIME Shop figures were so much a tures made during this time were cre- Artist unknown part of the American scene that no one ated by shipcarvers trained in tradi- Mohawk Valley, New York c. 1910 thought to make note of them until tional Anglo-American woodcarving Polychromed wood, they were threatened with extinction techniques who operated through a metal, and hair in the final decades of the nineteenth network of workshops in port cities 52 " high Museum of American Folk Art, century. In 1892, a Philadelphia jour- and towns along the East Coast and, to gift of Mrs. John H. Heminway, nalist wrote: a lesser extent, the Great Lakes. 1964.2.1 Besides producing shop figures, they So familiar in times past has also created figureheads and other everyone become with the cigar maritime carvings, as well as a wide store Indian that we have for- range of architectural and church gotten to look for them. Thus work, and, after the mid-nineteenth the majority of pedestrians century, circus wagon figures. Their have failed to notice the disap- major contribution to the art was the pearance of these figures from development of life-size shop figures, most of our cigar stores which came to be known as show throughout the city. To-day not figures. In this, they were again fol- one in twenty cigar stores is so lowing English precedent, as full-size designated, while in times past representations of Scotsmen had been every cigar store, large and used as tobacconists' signs in the small, was decorated with some British Isles in the eighteenth century. character of Pompey.... 2 The British figures were relatively few, however, compared to the burst A few decades later, they were of creativity that was about to ensue decidedly out of favor, most having on this side of the Atlantic. already been destroyed, relegated to Patterned after figureheads, cellars and back rooms, or donated to life-size shop figures emerged in the local historical societies. As a result, United States around 1840, at a time their numbers are much reduced when shipcarving was entering its last today, and their origins and history major phase of activity. Freestanding have become obscure. figureheads carved in the round were As with many things American, themselves a relatively new develop- the tradition of shop figure carving ment here, having first been copied originated in Europe. By the first quar- from French vessels fifty or sixty ter of the seventeenth century, crafts- years earlier. The Philadelphia sculp- men and merchants had made the link tor and shipcarver William Rush between Native Americans and (1756-1833) is generally credited tobacco. The earliest known represen- with introducing the French style of tation of a tobacconist figure appeared full-length figureheads into the Amer- in 1617 in The Smoaking Age, or The ican carvers' repertoire. According to Life and Death of Tobacco, a long, an early nineteenth-century account, rambling tale of the origins of tobacco he first saw them in the early 1780s on that ridiculed the extravagance of fash- two French frigates that were repair- ionable English smokers. The fron- ing in a Philadelphia shipyard.3 Rush's tispiece of the book is an illustration of innovative designs in the following the interior of a tobacco shop. On the years were very influential and helped counter is a small, vaguely African change the course that figurehead and figure in a feathered skirt with a to- shop figure carving was to take in the bacco roll under his left arm and nineteenth century. several clay pipes at his feet. Known Shipcarvers were a tight-knit variously as a blackamoor, black boy, group, bound by both family and or Virginian, the type remained popu- master-apprentice relationships. lar in England into the nineteenth cen- Among Rush's apprentices, for exam- tury. By that time, it had been joined ple, was Daniel Train, one of the lead- by Scotsmen, Turks, sailors, and other ing shipcarvers in New York at the human types, most rendered in quarter turn of the nineteenth century; records to half life size. show that he actively worked at his Shop figure carving reached its trade between 1799 and 1812. Simeon height in America from about 1840 to Skillin, Jr. (1756/7-1806) and his 1890. The vast majority of the sculp- brother John Skillin (1746-1800) of

56 WIN I I,R luunm7 ' George Washington to Buffalo Bill to MERCURY John L. Sullivan. Fictional characters Attributed to William Rush Philadelphia were represented as well, especially c.1830 Punch of Punch and Judy fame. Polychromed wood According to contemporary accounts, 38" high Maryland Historical Society, he was particularly popular in the 26.11.1 1870s and 1880s. Due to the innumerable and often brief partnerships of master shipcarvers, the frequent relocation of even the most stable workshops, and the itinerant nature of the profession, the attribution of figures to a specific carver or even a specific shop remains largely speculative. Dating is more certain, as a stylistic chronology that roughly parallels developments in the fine arts can be applied to figureheads and shop figures. From the mid- the Boston shipcarving dynasty exe- eighteenth to early nineteenth cen- cuted Rush's design for the frigate turies, shipcarvers like William Rush Constitution in 1797, and a few years and the Skillins combined traditional later their nephew Simeon SkiIlin III baroque-inspired figurehead design (1766-1830) was a partner with the with an overlay of neoclassical dress prominent New York City carver Jere- and accessories. The result was a tend- miah Dodge (c. 1780-1860). Given ency toward dramatic movement, the success of Rush's designs and this deep carving, and generalized faces itinerant and highly competitive pro- with idealized features. At the end of fessional network, it is not surprising this period, neoclassical elements that by the early nineteenth century often dominated, as seen in the Mer- the full-length figure, usually dramati- cury carved around 1830 and attrib- cally posed on a scroll, was one of the uted to William Rush. As the god of most popular figurehead types in commerce and the messenger of the America, along with portrait busts, gods, Mercury was an appropriate eagles, and decorative scrolls. These choice for a tobacconist's sign. Then images remained the major styles until again, the store owner may have sim- the demise of the figurehead tradition ply wanted a distinctive figure carved in the later part of the century. in the latest style. The details of Mer- By merging the tradition of cury's costume, including winged hel- full-size figureheads with that of the met and armor, are crisply rendered, generally smaller shop figures, early while the attention to anatomical fea- nineteenth-century shipcarvers created tures seen in the musculature of the an imposing sculptural form that was neck and legs mark it as the work of a AFRICAN AMERICAN INDIAN readily adaptable to the rapidly master like Rush. Attributed to lob expanding and increasingly competi- As the nineteenth century pro- Freehold, New Jersey tive American business environment. gressed, elements of romanticism c. 1850 Polychromed wood By mid-century, the phenomenon had were adopted by the carvers, particu- 46" high reached the dimensions of a fad and larly in the stereotypical depiction of New York State show figures had become an essential Native Americans in the "noble sav- Historical Association, part of many shopkeepers' operations. age" mode. Carving was somewhat Cooperstown, The carvers responded by producing a shallower than before, but ornamented New York, N-145.61 remarkable variety of figures suitable surface remained the rule, as did ideal- to a wide range of commercial enter- ized faces with eyes that searched the prises. The cigar-store Indian was the horizon in the manner of their figure- most popular and prominent type, but head ancestors. Among the men most new characters reflecting the latest responsible for the development and fashions or public opinions were con- production of the type were four New tinually created. Portraits of politi- York City shipcarvers: John Cromwell cians, popular entertainers, and sports (1805-1873), Thomas Brooks (1828- heroes were commissioned, from 1895), Thomas White (1825-1902),

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 57 and Samuel Robb (1851-1928). enced the depiction of many charac- Thanks to the work of Frederick Fried, ters. The best figures were carved with Robb's workshop is the most familiar. much attention to detail, while faces His was the largest and most success- were frequently handled more natural- ful operation in the final decades of istically. At the same time, these ten- the nineteenth century, producing dencies were often mixed with a many of the finest examples of New strong element of caricature that was York show figures known to us today. also seen in newspapers and the popu- It is also true, however, that Robb lar press. One typical urban type, inherited many elements of his style known at the time as a Dude or Race from his predecessors, as was typical Track Tout, was particularly popular. in all of the old craft traditions. As one carver explained in 1886, Beginning with Cromwell and "Dudes had quite a go for a while. I one or two of his contemporaries, have got fully twenty-five dudes three generations of New York ship- planted around Brooklyn and New carvers worked in a similar style, pro- York now, though dudes are on the ducing thousands of figures that are wane...... 4 Nattily dressed, this ulti- largely variations on a relatively small mate city slicker is rendered as a number of themes. With the exception slightly disreputable character who of special commissions, upon which would no doubt be happy to sell you carvers would indulge their imagina- anything. He is skillfully carved, but it tions in highly individualized concep- is the bold use of paint, which in this tions, the majority of figures were cre- case has been carefully restored, that ated using a standard repertoire of is especially important in creating the poses, expressions, and accessories. overall effect. That is not to say that they were either In large part, these stylistic par- devoid of originality or indistinguish- allels with the fine and graphic arts able from one another. The number of resulted from the fact that the carvers combinations of the various elements were creating works for an American DUDE or RACE TRACK TOUT was seemingly endless, and the best public that—due to the proliferation Artist unknown Probably New York City carvers imparted an individualized of civic monuments, commercial gal- c. 1880 touch to their work. Even in the case leries, and art fairs after mid-century, Polychromed wood of the most popular types of figures, as well as the availability of inexpen- 72" high Heritage Plantation of no two pieces were exactly alike. sive prints and illustrated maga- Sandwich, One of the finest surviving zines—was increasingly aware of cur- Massachusetts examples of the New York show fig- rent developments in the arts. A few ure style is illustrated here, a female carvers even received some academic Indian with "S.A. Robb, Carver, 114 training, including Samuel Robb, who Centre St." incised on the top front attended night classes at Cooper edge of the base. The piece is remark- Union and the National Academy of ably well preserved, from its carved Design in New York City. detail to an original paint surface that Despite the changing styles and shows almost no evidence of retouch- details, however, the figures continued ing. This may be because it spent to be made in the traditional manner. much of its working life indoors, pos- The preferred material was white pine, sibly in a store window, and therefore usually three- to seven-foot sections of escaped the exposure to the elements masts purchased at spar yards in the and other types of wear and tear that maritime district. The larger carving resulted in many figures needing to be shops consisted of one or two master routinely repaired and repainted. In carvers, a few apprentices, and one or any event, the figure's expressive face more itinerant journeyman carvers and cross-legged pose give it a casual, who were engaged on a daily or almost jaunty air that is much more weekly basis, depending upon the lifelike than many of its more static number of orders to be filled. Other contemporaries. master carvers worked alone, with In the latter part of the nine- perhaps only a single apprentice. The teenth century, the emphasis on work proceeded by hand. "While the detailed realism and contemporary carving is mostly done by eye, chalk dress favored for public monuments or pencil lines are drawn on the log for and commemorative sculpture influ- general contour," as a reporter noted

58 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART in 1883.5 For the more popular types of male customers. This highly The Museum of American Folk Art presents that were often repeated, a paper pat- individualized interpretation is a tern was used as a guide. The carvers' unique combination of an eroticized The Image Business: Shop tools were axes, mallets, and chisels. body and a bold, masklike face that While the inspiration for a particular has been noted for its formality and an and Cigar Store Figures figure might come from any number "iconic intensity" suggestive of of different sources, industrialization African sculpture.6 in America never made much headway in a craft The third and smallest group of On View that demanded so much handwork. For carvers were those academically May 11 through October 19, 1997 this reason, show figures made by trained artists who responded to the Heritage Plantation of Sandwich shipcarvers represent a fascinating growing demand for show figures in Sandwich, Massachusetts blend of folk, fine, and popular art. the second half of the nineteenth cen- At the other end of the folk art tury. Included with them are wood- November 1, 1997, through January 25, 1998 continuum are those self-taught carvers trained in the European system, Museum of American Folk Art carvers who fashioned figures for local mainly Germans and French-Canadi- New York, New York markets, often in smaller inland towns ans, who as apprentices had followed a and rural areas. Throughout the eigh- course of study that included instruc- February 18 through April 12, 1998 teenth and nineteenth centuries, car- tion from recognized sculptors. Among Baltimore Museum penters, cabinetmakers, and part-time these artists is Caspar Buberl of Art woodworkers in all parts of the coun- (1834-1899), a Czechoslovakian-born Baltimore, Maryland try produced shop figures on demand sculptor best known for his Civil War or for personal enjoyment. Little can memorial groups. Around 1875, he hop and tobacco be said about common training or modeled a figure of Puck (a character store figures repre- techniques of these generally unidenti- made famous by the English satirical Ssent a major sculp- fied artists, other than what can be magazine of the same name), which tural tradition within the inferred from their work. They repre- was cast in zinc holding a large pen in history of American art. "The sent a diverse collection of individuals one hand and a bunch of cigars in the Image Business: Shop and Cigar who usually operated independently of other. The original figure was probably Store Figures in America," organized by one another, often creating one-of-a- not carved in wood. More likely Buberl guest curator Ralph Sessions, examines kind pieces patterned after those pro- worked in clay and other artisans trans- the origins, sources, and practice of shop duced in the seaport shops. In all, they lated his figure into metal. figure carving and traces its development produced far fewer figures than did the Unlike Buberl, Julius Melchers from the earliest English and American shipcarvers, and again survival rates (1829-1909), a German sculptor and examples—through its most active for the figures are low. As a result, woodcarver who settled in Detroit in period from the 1840s to the 1890s, dur- their work is extremely rare today. 1855, worked in several different ing which thousands of figures were Their artistry speaks for itself, mediums, including wood, plaster, and produced by shipcarvers in urban however, and among the surviving stone. He had apprenticed with a workshops—to its decline in the early examples are some of the most sculptor and master woodcarver in his 20th century. Sessions has selected dynamic and engaging pieces of native Prussia and studied with two more than sixty figures from major pub- American folk sculpture. leading academic sculptors at the lic and private collections for the first One of the most distinctive of Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. For comprehensive presentation of this these is a figure of a woman believed more than forty years, his Detroit important sculptural tradition in more to have been carved in Freehold, New workshop produced architectural than 25 years. Jersey, around mid-century by an sculpture, church carvings, patterns for African American named Job. A pow- decorative castings, and shop figures. Generous grants were provided erful stylization, this figure has an Melchers also conducted classes in for the exhibition by the General abstracted presence stripped of orna- drawing and modeling, and so made a Cigar Co. and the National mentation and yet presented in a typi- major contribution to Detroit's fledg- Endowment for the Arts. cal pose with the left leg raised and ling artistic community. His best shop supported by a bunch of cigars. The figures are sensitively rendered, with a carver was obviously aware of the fig- naturalism that is quite convincing. VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER Columbian Engine Co. 14 ures being made some forty miles to The Fur Trapper attributed to him has Incised S.A. Robb, 195 Canal St." on base the north in New York City. This is several conventional features, includ- New York City 1876-1888 particularly evident in his handling of ing a feathered skirt, catamount pelt, Polychromed wood the two bunches of cigars and the use and left leg supported by a box, but is 2r high of scored fringe at the bottom of the nevertheless far from typical. The New York City Fire Museum skirt and on the sleeves, as well as in masterful carving seen in the handling This firefighter is probably a commemorative figure, carved 15 or 20 years after the the revealing cut of the dress, a rare of form, as well as in the modeling of Columbian Engine Co. 14 had ceased to exist. The figure is wearing a uniform that was typical of New York City volunteer companies around 1860. Professional firefighting but not unknown feature among urban the face and other details, raises it to companies replaced the volunteers in 1865. Columbian Engine Co. 14 was located at show figures designed to catch the eye the level of the extraordinary. the corner of Vesey and Church Streets until that time.

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 51 After 1860 show figures were from earlier in this century is Father FUR TRAPPER marketed nationally by a few large Time, a counter-size figure from the Attributed to Julius Melchers tobacco products distributors. The Mohawk River Valley region of Detroit most successful of these was William upstate New York that was carved c. 1865 Demuth & Company, a New York around 1910. Although his original Polychromed woad 46" high firm that offered a full line of figures purpose is not certain, he is presumed New York State Historical through catalog sales. Demuth also to have been used in a shop, probably Association, Cooperstown, sent salesmen across the country and as a doorbell of sorts. The figure was New York, N-144.61 set up elaborate displays in major once articulated so that the right arm national expositions and indus- moved and the sickle hit the sus- trial fairs, including the World's pended bell. He may also have origi- Columbian Exposition in Chicago in nally been more modestly attired in a 1893. Among the firm's major inno- robe, which would seem to be appro- vations was the introduction of zinc priate for so venerable a character. As figures, an idea that Demuth devel- found, he is a sleek stylization with a oped with Moritz Seelig, a fellow Ger- strong vertical thrust that accentuates man immigrant who operated a the idea of an otherworldly being who foundry in the Williamsburg section marks the inevitable passage of time. of Brooklyn. Demuth's 1875 catalog As such, he is an appropriate offered thirty different zinc figures, piece with which to end this survey. from several varieties of Indians to Father Time represents a direct link Buberl's Puck. He also sold countless with the type of self-taught work that wooden figures through the mail. Both has become so popular today. He and Samuel Robb and Thomas White his kind have always been a part of worked for him, and other New York the shop figure tradition. Once vastly carvers probably did as well. Together outnumbered by their urban workshop they established New York City as a counterparts, they now stand as the center of show figure production and sole heirs, as well as a vital form of distribution, spreading the New York contemporary expression.* style across the country. Show figures had found a niche Ralph Sessions is an independent curator in the rapidly evolving arenas of com- and art historian. He has worked as chief mercial art and popular culture. They curator of the Museum ofAmerican Folk remained quite popular for a time, as Art, director of the Abigail Adams Smith Museum in New York City, and director of carvers continually created new mod- the Historical Society ofRockland County, els that reflected the latest fashions and New York. Sessions is currently a doctoral public opinions. The vogue did not last candidate in art history at the City Uni- long, however. For a variety of rea- versity of New York. sons, including oversupply, changing tastes, and new modes of advertising, Selected Bibliography the production of new figures virtually Apperson, G.L. The Social History of ceased by 1900. They were increasing- Smoking. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, ly seen as old-fashioned, symbols of an 1916. era that was rapidly passing away. Brewington, Marion V. Shipcarvers of NOTES Most of the traditional shipcarvers North America. Barre, Mass.: Barre Pub- 1 "Designed by Whittling Yankees," Tobacco 1 (May 14, 1886), 7. their lishing Co., 1962. P. were out of business anyway, 2 E. Leslie Gillams,"Cigar -Store Indi- craft having been doomed by the Fried, Frederick. Artists in Wood. New ans," Philadelphia Times, December 18, advent of metal-hulled ships several York: Clarkson Potter, 1970. 1892, p. 18. decades earlier. After the turn of the Lipman, Jean. American Folk Art in 3 John F. Watson, Annals ofPhiladelphia century, the lessened demand for shop Wood, Metal and Stone. Meriden, Conn.: (Philadelphia: E.L. Cary & A. Hart, 1830), p.551. figures was easily met by repainting Pantheon, 1948. and recycling older ones. 4 "Designed by Whittling Yankees," op. While the art of the shipcarver Pendergast, A.W., and W. Porter Ware. cit., p. 7. gradually faded from the American Cigar Store Figures in American Folk Art. 5 "Wood-carving," Harper's Weekly 27 Chicago: Lightner, 1953. scene, however, shop figures have (January 6, 1883), p. 13. Pinckney, Pauline A. American Figure- 6 John Michael Vlach, The Afro- never disappeared. The work of self- American Tradition in the Decorative taught artists has continued unabated, heads and Their Carvers. New York: Norton, 1940. Arts (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of made all the more visible in our time Art, 1978), p. 37; Frederick Fried, Artists by the demise of many of the old craft Sanborn, Kate. Hunting Indians in a Taxi- in Wood(New York: Clarkson Potter, traditions. An outstanding example Cab. Boston: Richard G. Badger, 1911. 1970), p. 20.

80 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART