A Rare Pair of Turned, Painted and Gilded Barber poles, American, 19th Century

the tall, tapering poles with spiralling red, white and blue stripes beneath gilded finials; old rigging holes at top.

The barber's poles hung outside a barber shop in Tulley, New York.

Exceptionally rare and large pair of polychrome painted wood barber's poles, dating from last quarter nineteenth century.  The base of the poles has a diameter of approximately 4 1/2  inches and tapers to approximately 3 inches just below the finial.  The finials have a large compressed ball above a double banded molding.  The lower foot of each pole is blue and then the spiraling of red, while and blue patterns continues up the pole.  The white and blue stripes are approximately the same width and the red stripe is consistently wider.  The finial retains traces of the original gold leaf and gesso.  The backside of the base of each pole was cut at an angle so when mounted flush to the barber shop the poles projected forward off the building.  There are a pair of holes approximately a foot down from the top used for bracket which probably was attached to a chain to stabilize the poles.  The poles are mounted on a contemporary black metal base.