ATTRIBUTED TO ISAAC FOWLE (B. 1783), BOSTON, CIRCA 1840

Isaac Howard Fowle was born in Medford, Massachusetts in 1783. He apprenticed to Simeon Skillin Jr. (1756-1806) and was the brother-in-law to John Skillin (1745-1800). He worked first with Edmund Raymond on Skillins' Wharf from 1806, and by 1813, the Boston City directories list Fowle as a carver working at 3 Ship Street. He is primarily known as a carver of ships' figureheads and examples of his work can be found in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. A related eagle was sold at Christie's New York, January 20-21, 2005, lot 375. This eagles, as well as that sold previously, were made for the Boston courts and were displayed at Pemberton Square until the early twentieth century.