Onsite
Highest Bidder
$12,500
Sold
sold
Click image to enlarge
- Estimate
- $12,000 / $16,000
Gold Horse ListingDescription
30" (76 cm.) Bisque socket head with angular highly chiseled features, dark brown glass inset eyes, incised age wrinkles accented with red lines, thickly modeled grey brows, very pronounced sharp nose, closed mouth in smiling expression, large ears, original white mohair beard and wig, composition and wooden Sonneberg jointed body, wearing traditional Uncle Sam costume including tall hat. Condition: generally excellent, very, very faint 1" hairline at front forehead rim (under wig) is likely original. Marks: S 15. Comments: Cuno and Otto Dressel, from their series of American historical heroes, circa 1890; this image of Uncle Sam as a symbol of America was inspired by the original 1870 era drawings of Thomas Nast. Value Points: exceptionally rare Exhibition size, of which no other examples are known to exist, has exemplary sculpting and quality of bisque.
Stuart's Take
While working in Seattle on the collection, when this doll was revealed during the process, I was left completely in awe. For some reason I had not seen it in their collection before and was completely shocked at the grand size and resulting portraiture. It's quite the Uncle Sam and you really have to see it to believe! An interesting marking conjecture about these Dressel historical characters is that the S marking most likely denotes 'Sam." Why do we speculate on this? Because on the portrait also done of Admiral Dewey you will find a marking of "D."