The Shipcarvers' Art: Figureheads and Cigar-Store Indians in Nineteenth-Century America

Magazine Antiques, June, 2005

The Shipcarvers' Art: Figureheads and Cigar-Store Indians in Nineteenth-Century America

By Ralph Sessions

MA-299

Our price $75.00

Shipcarvers were highly skilled artisans who were responsible not only for the figureheads that adorned the prows of ships but also for the figures that stood outside tobacco shops and other retail establishments. Sessions provides an introductory chapter about the art of figure carving in England and France, followed by discussions of the different figure types: Indians, figureheads, and show figures (caricatures and stereotypes). An appendix includes biographies of the leading carvers of the nineteenth century. 90 colorplates, 32 illustrations.

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