I think it would be safe to say that on both sides of the Atlantic commercial Figurative woodcarvings have in the past been looked on as the Cinderella of the art world, Figureheads, Cigar-store carvings and Showground figures, have for far too long been dismissed under the category “folk-art”, giving the impression of an almost unsophisticated and naive art form, Ralph Sessions in his new book “The Shipcarver’s Art Figureheads and Cigar-store Indians in Nineteenth-century America” published by the American publishers Princeton University Press in May 2005, Sessions has finally put this misnomer once and for all to rest, this book has been long overdue, but well worth the wait, beautifully illustrated with 90 colour plates and 32 halftones, we follow the tradition of figurative carving in North America from the early days of the fledgling United State of America, with it’s style and attitudes still heavily influenced by it’s European Heritage and traditions, through to the mid Eighteenth century and the early years of the Nineteenth century, with the emergence of a new and vibrant nation state, and with it the establishment of several small and important dynastic family groups, working on the East Coast of America, included in this area of trade were the workshops of the Skillin and Fowle families of Boston Massachusetts, together with the Anderson’s, and Dodge’s taking prominence in the New York area.

As with all trades and tradesmen a woodcarver is in essence a carver, not matter what the subject he is carving or finial usage of that carving was to be, and as such would naturally for the sake of the business take on a variety of commissions, whether it be Maritime, architectural or for that matter a private commission, the skill needed to carve a Ships Figurehead for the bow of a vessel, was and in many ways still is to understand and appreciate, the particular and distinct factors governing it’s position, attitude and working life, of all the decorative carvings produced by the hand of man, a ships figurehead by the very nature of it’s working life had to be of a robust construction, without loosing the artistic and aesthetic integrity of the piece, carvers on both sides of the Atlantic had to work within a series of rules governing the fastening of the carving to the bow, with lacing slots, recessed on the stem of the vessel to accommodate the carving, while at the same time long drift pins, would be driven through the front of the carving, and the abutting vessel timber with a threaded bolt, fastening the carving to ship, insurance from loss at sea, and at the same time a costly replacement, for the ships owners.

Ralph Sessions has illustrated the first part of this book, very several of the more iconic figureheads surviving in American collections today, notably Isaac Fowles

Beautiful full length female figurehead “Lady with a Scarf” carved during the 1820’s and now part of the Bostonian Society collection at the Old State House in Boston MA, to the magnificent “Peace” undoubtedly one of the truly great maritime related carvings to have survived, again we see a full length female figurehead carved by William Rush between 1805 and 1810 and now part of the collection of the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, plus Herbert Gleason’s “Glory of the Seas” carved in 1869, and now on display at the India House Art collection, India House, New York, all three carvings show in great detail the artistic and creative merits of North American carvers, sadly for Figurehead carving this would be a relatively short period , towards the third quarter of the nineteenth century, developments both internally and internationally saw the decline in ship building on the North America seaboard, the number of workshops working exclusively on shipcarving began to decline, but not the quality of carving, as can be seen in two relatively late figureheads, Charles A L Sampson’s “Belle of Oregon” carved in 1876, and now part of the collection of the Mariners Museum at Newport News Va, and the “Lady Edmonton” carved in 1882 by the Canadian carver John Rogerson, also now in the collection of the Mariners Museum at Newport News Va, with this reduction in trade and the loss of commissions new markets had to be found, in many ways this decline in Figureheads saw the emergence in greater numbers of the Cigar-store or tobacconist carvings, a style of carving that had it’s antecedence in pre-revolution America, figurative carvings depicting Wooden Indians and the Noble savages, plus a host of other National types, such as Chinamen and the Highlanders from Scotland, several superlative examples of this art form can be seen in such carvings as “Indian with a Pipe” attributed to the Robb workshop of New York, and now in the collection of the Eleanor and Mabel Van Alstyne collection of American Folk Art, at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, to a stunning Scottish Highlander in the Shelburne Museum Vt, with an equally attractive “Highland Lassie” in the Historical Society of Becks County Reading PA.

Reading Ralph Sessions “The Shipcarvers Art” it is possible to visualize and understand the importance of such carvings in the history of Art, in the case of Ships Figureheads as part of the Worlds rich Maritime Heritage, with Cigar-store and Tobacconist figures, enriching the streets of Nineteenth Century, New York, Boston and countless other Cities and Towns throughout the United States of America, as one tradition began to wane, another more vibrant and fascinating would take it’s place, for many years Frederick Fried’s work “Artists in Wood” American carvers of Cigar-store Indians, Show Figures, and Circus Wagons, published by Clarkson N Potter Inc Publishers of New York in 1970, became the principal work on the subject, this has now been succeeded by “The Shipcarvers Art” anyone interested in this fascinating and interesting subject will be drawn to the scholarly text, and wonderful illustrations this work offers it’s reader.

Ralph Sessions should be congratulated on a work of both historic and artistic merit, a publication that will I am sure be the definitive and authoritative work on this until now neglected art form.