Live Auction 19907Important Americana
A CARVED AND POLYCHROME PAINT-DECORATED 'GODDESS OF LIBERTY' CIGAR STORE FIGURE
Lot 472 PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF BARBARA L. GORDON

A CARVED AND POLYCHROME PAINT-DECORATED 'GODDESS OF LIBERTY' CIGAR STORE FIGURE

PROBABLY NEW YORK, LATE 19TH CENTURY

Closed21 January 2022

Estimate

USD 50,000–80,000

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A CARVED AND POLYCHROME PAINT-DECORATED 'GODDESS OF LIBERTY' CIGAR STORE FIGURE
PROBABLY NEW YORK, LATE 19TH CENTURY
73 in. high, 25 1⁄2 in. wide, 26 in. deep

Helena Prenrose, New York
Private Collection
James D. Julia Auctioneers, Fairfield, Maine, 26-28 August 2008, lot 2174

Specialist note

A popular patriotic symbol, this "Goddess of Liberty" is similar to a zinc figure produced by William Demuth and Co. in New York City. It is likely that the carver of the present figure used the zinc figure as a model. For an illustration of Demuth’s figure and further information on the "Goddess of Liberty" see Richard Miller, Avis Berman, Cynthia G. Falk, Lisa Minardi and Ralph Sessions, A Shared Legacy: Folk Art in America (Alexandria, 2014), p. 212.