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Lot Essay
A 1879 advertisement for Show Figures, published in a catalogue issued by Metzler, Rothschild & Co., features a virtually identical Indian Squaw by Thomas V. Brooks; see Frederick Fried, Artists in Wood: American Carvers of Cigar-Store Indians, Show Figures, and Circus Wagons (New York, 1970), p. 190.
Thomas V. Brooks (1828-1895) was born in New York. In 1840, he began an eight-year apprenticeship with John L. Cromwell (1805-1873), who at the time was working at 419 Water Street. Brooks began carving ship figures but soon switched to tobacconist figures, which he made in wide variety. After his apprenticeship, Brooks partnered briefly with Thomas Millard, but was on his own by 1853 when he moved to 258 South Street. He worked steadily filling orders and by 1870, his shop was the most productive in New York; it is estimated that his shop could make about two hundred figures a year (Fried, pp. 183). Brooks moved shop twice in the late 1880s, when he went into business with his son, James A. Brooks. Brooks died in Chicago in 1895. Examples of his work can be found in the New-York Historical Society, and the Shelburne Museum, among others.
Thomas V. Brooks (1828-1895) was born in New York. In 1840, he began an eight-year apprenticeship with John L. Cromwell (1805-1873), who at the time was working at 419 Water Street. Brooks began carving ship figures but soon switched to tobacconist figures, which he made in wide variety. After his apprenticeship, Brooks partnered briefly with Thomas Millard, but was on his own by 1853 when he moved to 258 South Street. He worked steadily filling orders and by 1870, his shop was the most productive in New York; it is estimated that his shop could make about two hundred figures a year (Fried, pp. 183). Brooks moved shop twice in the late 1880s, when he went into business with his son, James A. Brooks. Brooks died in Chicago in 1895. Examples of his work can be found in the New-York Historical Society, and the Shelburne Museum, among others.