Very Rare Locomobile and Passengers Sculpture, circa 1925

Originally purchased by a woman at a flea market near Baltimore;
Doyle New York, American Furniture & Decorations, November 28, 2007, sale 07AM02, lot 2108;
Jame and Judith Milne, American Antiques Show, New York;
Stephen Score, Boston, Massachusetts.

The Locomobile Company of America, founded in 1899, was one of the first automobile manufacturers. The company, whose name was a conflation of automobile and locomotive, began by making simple inexpensive steam-driven roadsters, but by 1904 was shifting to more lavish and expensive models with powerful internal combustion engines. This charming, five-feet, nine-inch long sculpture depicts a father at the wheel of what is intended to be a top-of-the-line Locomobile Model 48 touring car with its top down and his son and happily alert dog in the back seat. The auto sports a Locomobile sign on its front. The Model 48, which sold for more than $10,000, was made from 1919 until the company closed its doors in 1929.

A similar example, a Unidentified (American), Touring Car, 20th century, carved and painted wood and metal, 1986.65.334, was gifted by Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.