Tobacconist Figure: Sultan

Dateca. 1875

OriginAmerica, Mid-Atlantic or New England (probably)

MediumPainted eastern white pine (Pinus strobus)

DimensionsOverall: 76 x 17 1/4 x 17in. (193 x 43.8cm)

Credit LineAcquisition funded by Winthrop Rockefeller

Object number1956.705.1

DescriptionA full-length, polychromed, freestanding woodcarving of a bearded man standing on an integral base. His proper left arm hangs loosely along his side; his proper right arm is bent at the elbow, its hand supporting a bundle of cigars at about waist height in front of the figure. The man wears baggy red pants that are gathered at the ankles; black shoes with slightly upturned toes; a brown shirt worn over a long-sleeved white shirt; a black armband; a wide blue-and-white striped sash at the waist; a blue, brown-lined cape, which hangs over his proper right side, held in place by a gold chain; a black-and-white turban with a gray top and gold-colored cording and, crowning it, a blue plume of three feathers. His beard is black, nearly waist-length, and falls to a point; he also bears a long, droopy, black moustache. The top surface of the base is rough chiseled and set into a smooth-sided black-painted trapezoidal four-sided box.

Artist unidentified.
Label TextTobacco originated in the Americas but, at a very early date, Spaniards introduced it to the Ottoman Turks, who capitalized on the tobacco craze by cultivating the plant and widely exporting its dried leaves. Turkish tobacco never truly rivaled American-grown crops in Europe or the British colonies, but it had a sizable body of staunch adherents. A 1669 engraving of a Dutch tobacco shop shows a Turk-like figure mounted (as many early figures were), above the shop's doorway.
In America, tobacconist figures of Turks and their variants, Sultans (male) and Sultanas (females), remained a minority, heavily out-numbered by Indians. Nevertheless, as a generic type, these exotic-looking figures lingered into the closing years of the nineteenth century, partly due to their vague, and therefore flexible, associations. By changing the statues' accessories from tobacco to various other items, the figures could advertise a broad range of goods. Their commercial effectiveness lay in their ability to arrest customers' attention.

InscribedThe number "52" appears within a circle on the proper left side of the base. The meaning of the number has not been determined.
ProvenanceProbably Anthony W. Pendergast, Terre Haute, Indiana (see n. 1 below); to Rudolf Frederick Haffenreffer, Jr. (1874-1954), Bristol, RI; on 10 October 1956, sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, NY; purchased at the foregoing auction by The Old Print Shop, New York, NY, acting as agent for CWF.

n. 1: Ownership prior to Haffenreffer is undocumented. However, Fried ("Bilbliography"), p. 238, states that "most" of the Haffenreffer figures sold by Parke-Bernet in 1956 were "once part of the collection of Anthony J. [sic] Pendergast." Also, Krech ("Bibliography"), p. 115, states that Haffenreffer tended to buy entire collections at a time.

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