A CARVED AND PAINTED LION'S HEAD

James Walter Folger (1851-1918), a Nantucket artisan, was largely self-taught. In 1869, he worked briefly as journeyman to a wood carver in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Upon his return to Nantucket, Folger specialized in carved animal heads, historic dioramas, and other ornamental carvings. He was equally adept as a painter, both in oil and watercolor, and is known for his views of local Nantucket scenes. A Nantucket newspaper, The Inquiry Mirror, reported on February 3, 1883 the exhibition of the present lot in the window of Pitman Ellis's pharmacy, where Folger had previously displayed other carved animal heads.