Captain Jinks
Probably by Thomas J. White
(1825-1905)
Probably by Thomas J. White
(1825-1905)
Details & Cataloguing
The History of Now: The Important American Folk Art Collection of David Teiger | Sold to Benefit Teiger Foundation for the Support of Contemporary Art
|
New York
New York
Captain Jinks
Probably by Thomas J. White
(1825-1905)
Probably by Thomas J. White
(1825-1905)
retains the original base
carved and polychromed pine with metal ornaments
Height 83 1/2 in. by Width 19 in. by Depth 20 in.
circa 1880
Brooklyn, New York
Read Condition Report
Read Condition Report
carved and polychromed pine with metal ornaments
Height 83 1/2 in. by Width 19 in. by Depth 20 in.
circa 1880
Brooklyn, New York
Provenance
Walters-Benisek Art and Antiques, Northampton, Massachusetts.
Literature
Art & Auction, December 1994, p. 81;
Tom Geismar and Harvey Kahn, Spiritually Moving: A Collection of American Folk Art Sculpture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998) cat. no. 75, illus. in color;
Ralph Session, The Shipcarvers' Art, Figureheads and Cigar-Store Indians in Nineteenth-Century America, (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005), pl. 104, p. 168, illus. in color.
Tom Geismar and Harvey Kahn, Spiritually Moving: A Collection of American Folk Art Sculpture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998) cat. no. 75, illus. in color;
Ralph Session, The Shipcarvers' Art, Figureheads and Cigar-Store Indians in Nineteenth-Century America, (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005), pl. 104, p. 168, illus. in color.
Catalogue Note
“Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines” was a satirical music hall song that became immensely popular after it was published in Brooklyn in 1868. Delivered by the comically pretentious and inept title character, it was a favorite of soldiers of the time, who sang along with its chorus:
I’m Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines,
I give my horse good corn and beans,
Of course ’tis quite beyond my means,
Though a Captain in the army.
I’m Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines,
I give my horse good corn and beans,
Of course ’tis quite beyond my means,
Though a Captain in the army.
The highly skilled figure carver Thomas J. White worked for a time in the shop of the renowned Samuel Anderson Robb and is said to have used the master as his model for his several carvings of Captain Jinks. Other examples of White’s Captain Jinks are in the collections of the Newark Museum (New Jersey), the Shelburne Museum (Vermont), and the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian (Washington, D.C.), while a fourth was depicted for the Index of American Design.
Suggested Lots
The History of Now: The Important American Folk Art Collection of David Teiger | Sold to Benefit Teiger Foundation for the Support of Contemporary Art
|
New York
New York
