Cigar Store Indian Chief

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DETAILS:
6' tall, base 14 1/2" x 14 1/2"
Signed F. Gallagher on back of headdress

PLEASE ALLOW 2-5 BUSINESS DAYS FOR PROCESSING AND 4-6 WEEKS FOR DELIVERY AS THIS INDIAN IS MADE TO ORDER.

SHIPPING $255.00 included in price

Own a piece of American heritage, a Frank Gallagher original sculpture.

You've seen them at Trading Posts; you've seen them at souvenir shops; now you have the opportunity to own your own "Cigar Store Wooden Indian." This truly unique conversation piece, for home, office or store front was carved by the same family that carved the very first one for a man that owned Gallagher’s Furniture Store, in the 1800s.

This wooden Indian is an exceptional example of Frank's work. He carved it from a single large piece of Aspen wood from Colorado and hand painted it with a dashing off white doe skin leather color. This Cigar Store Indian was hand carved by Frank Gallagher and signed on the back.

Frank Gallagher's ancestor, one of the first wooden Indian carvers, started carving his Indians in the 1840s. His great, great grandson, Frank, is known to be one of approximately 12 true full-blooded Man-Dan Indians still living. Unfortunately, the Man-Dan village was infected by small pox which practically wiped out the entire tribe. Frank's ancestor, however, was away from the village at the time, working for a furniture maker. The furniture maker's name was Samuel Gallagher. Following the custom of Indian laborers of that era, Frank took his employer's last name as his own. One of the original Wooden Indians is on display in the Smithsonian Institute. The Gallaghers continue the art of carving as their ancestor would want it; the old way - the right way - by hand.

Cigar-Store Indians were designed to capture the attention of the people walking by to inform them that tobacco was sold inside. It is said that the average cigar smoker in America in the late 1800s couldn't read the sign, "Tobacconist Shop.” Visual trade signs were essentially stand-ins for written sign-posts that might have been incomprehensible to potential customers, many of whom were immigrants. America was quickly becoming a social melting pot of people with diverse origins, the average nineteenth-century American resident lacked a shared common language, and so the sidewalk Cigar Store Indian was vital for business. The image of the Native American became a tradition for these carvings and memorializes the cooperation between some Natives and the colonists. Thus, the Cigar Store Indian came about largely due to necessity but also due to its particular grandeur and style, and is still famous today.

The wide range of Cigar Store Indians is astounding. Traditional Cigar Store Indians are in many forms: sculpted Indian chiefs, braves, princesses and Indian maidens, sometimes with boarded papooses. Most of these displayed some form of tobacco in their hands or on their clothing. Today, the best of the wooden Cigar Store Indians antique sculptures sell for as much as $100,000.

The bulk of the early Cigar Store Indians were carved on the eastern seaboard or mid-western cities by artisans who most likely never encountered a Native American; the figures appear to be white men in native garb. As time passed the American entrepreneurial spirit adapted as did the Cigar Store Indians with it. Some innovative tobacco sellers sought unconventional images for their trade signs to set them apart from the more established merchants. Suddenly a new market sprang up - Cigar Store Indian carvers competed among themselves for the various tobacconists' business, attempting to "one-up" one another in individuality, versatility and depth.

A copy of Arizona Highways magazine with a two page story highlighting the Gallagher family will accompany each sculpture.

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Cigar Store Indian Chief Carved Wooden Indian by Frank Gallagher 6 feet tall

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