A CARVED AND PAINTED TOBACCONIST FIGURE OF AN INDIAN PRINCESS

With her dynamic stance upholding a cluster of tobacco leaves, this princess is a commanding presence that would have welcomed visitors to a New York City tobacco shop. An identical model of the princess figure offered in this lot is cited as being in the collection of Dr. Louis C. Jones of Cooperstown, New York. Attributed to Thomas V. Brooks, it is illustrated by Frederick Fried, Artists in Wood (New York, 1970) fig. 159, p. 186. The restoration visible to the headdress at the juncture of the forehead and a central feather in the headdress matches the restoration of the present lot, suggesting that these are the same figure.