FRENCH OR SPANISH COLONIAL, 19TH CENTURY | 'Bug Bear' Moneybox

carved and applied with mother-of-pearl and kilali beads fixed with black pitch, on a bentwood stand

Private Collection (acquired in Paris in 1895)
Possibly Leander McCormick, Chicago
Michael Reese Service League Thrift-shop, Chicago (possibly donated from the above)
Philip W Ward, Chicago (acquired from the above circa 1956)
Christie's, New York, 13 May 1980, lot 23 (where attributed to Paul Gauguin)

Christopher Gray, Sculpture and Ceramics of Paul Gauguin, Baltimore, 1963, no. 118, illustrated pp. 255-56 

Un-restored condition. There is a fracture to the stand. One of the eyes on the coconut has been re-glued. There are some cracks and fractures on the craved coconut. This object is of great charm and shows the kind of wear one would expect to see when considering its age.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The history and attribution of the present lot is almost as extraordinary as the work itself. The piece probably originates from French Polynesia and is first recorded in a letter of a, likely American, female collector in Paris in 1896. Where it was intriguingly described as a ‘South Sea Curio. Reported to have been old native handiwork. However discovered to be the recent work of a [….] Frenchman who for a time lived in the islands’. The coconut resurfaced in 1956 when it was bought by Philip W. Ward from a thrift-shop in Chicago. Having discovered the signature P G O to the underside of the coconut, Philip Ward hoped to prove that the mysterious Frenchman was in fact the celebrated post-impressionist artist Paul Gauguin on one of his expeditions to Tahiti. Christopher Gray published the present work in his 1963 monograph on Gauguin’s sculpture and ceramics, and athough he did not formally attribute the work to Gauguin, he explored Ward’s theory that the mystery coconut carver may indeed have been the great artist.

In 1980 the work was sold at Christie's in New York, and a confusion at the time meant that the work was catalogued as being by Paul Gauguin - using Gray’s monograph as the supporting evidence for the attribution. The attribution has since been disputed, but the work remains a fascinating and joyous piece of folk art whose history has been bizarrely entwined with one of history’s greatest artists.