Belt Auction

Where have all of the Antique Cigar Store Indian Figures gone today?

I have a book about all of the Circus Wagon Carvings and Cigar Store Indian Show Figures from the 19th Century. They include carvers such as Thomas V. Brooks, Cromwell, unknown artists, Samuel A. Robb, etc. One was at a Chicago Carving shop in about 1921, and it had a Native American Carved Tobacco Figure Chief named Chief Skookum a Cigar Store Indian Statue carved by a European. They also had Carving Shops in New York City. In the Late-18th Century, Cigar Store Indian Statues were a Classic and they had Statues all over the World at this time, and they were actually relatively common at the time. They ranged from Hotels and Motels to Railroad Stations, to Tobacco Shops and even to Shopping Centers and Grocery Stores. They started to become more rare in about the Late-20th Century to last Century, however, these types now, in 2011, unlike the 1990s and 1980s and even 70s and 60s, unfortunately, they are becoming more hard to find and even harder to find every day. These Cigar Store Indians were once as common as Pirate Statues and Cigar Store Indian Reproduction. Nowadays, through antique auctions, and price guides like "Kovels" they cost over $1,000. So, where have all of the Antique Cigar Store Indian Figures gone today?

Public Comments

1. ebay, basements, barns, collectors, eaten by wood worms, burned in fires, thrown out in garbage, breakage, vandalism, decomposing by moisture Any item will get rarer after production has been discontinued. Things last only a certain time. Even if every owner would use a great deal of care for their preservation accidents would happen and destroy items. That's why antiques are more expensive. They are rare. And they are rare because they break and get destroyed.
2. because they were racist and hateful images of native americans , they can't be created , anymore