Tobacconist’s Figure

Description

Wooden Native American novelty statue of a "Tobacconist's Figure", ca. 1879, by John Philip Yeager. This figure was made by Yeager (1823-1899), a cooper, and well-known Baltimore wood worker of the nineteenth century. He briefly emigrated to Montreal before coming to Baltimore in 1847. Yeager typically carved or decorated ships. For this "cigar store Indian," the artist used his daughter Eva Isabelle as the model for this figure that once stood outside of a tobacco shop on Madison Avenue, near Biddle Street, in Baltimore.