Sculptural Fantasy: The Important American Folk Art Collection of Stephen and Petra Levin
Sculptural Fantasy: The Important American Folk Art Collection of Stephen and Petra Levin
FINE AND RARE CARVED PINE PORTRAIT BUST OF DANIEL WEBSTER STERNBOARD, THE WHALING SHIP DANIEL WEBSTER, SAG HARBOR, NEW YORK, CIRCA 1847
Auction Closed
October 10, 05:49 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
FINE AND RARE CARVED PINE PORTRAIT BUST OF DANIEL WEBSTER STERNBOARD, THE WHALING SHIP DANIEL WEBSTER, SAG HARBOR, NEW YORK, CIRCA 1847
a bust portrait of Webster carved in the half-round, wearing a blue-painted jacket and black tie, on a leaf-carved base. Restorations to the nose and lip.
Height 29 in. by 22 in. by 7 in.
Sotheby's, New York, The Barbara Johnson Whaling Collection, Part I, December 11-12, 1981, sale 4758, lot 506;
William Greenspon, New York;
Sotheby's, New York, Important Americana, January 22-23, 2010, sale 8608, lot 518;
Allan Katz, Woodbridge, Connecticut.
Holly Solomon and Alexandra Anderson, Living With Art, (New York: Rizzoli International, 1988), p. 96.
The ship Daniel Webster of Sag Harbor, New York was built in 1833 and made a number of whaling voyages to the Pacific before being re-fitted to carry passengers to the California gold fields in 1848.” This carving decorated the ship’s flat stern board and may have been part of a larger horizontal plaque. A logbook of the Daniel Webster’s 1833–1839 Pacific voyage is in the collection of the East Hampton Library, Long Island.
Daniel Webster (1782–1852) was a powerful and much admired Whig politician who represented Massachusetts for nineteen years in the senate, unsuccessfully ran for president three times, and also served as US secretary of state under three presidents.