Lot 52

Gorham Manufacturing Company, established in 1831 on Steeple Street in Providence, Rhode Island, was once the world's largest silver manufacturer, rivaled in reputation only by Tiffany and Company. Employing over 2,000 designers and producers of flatware, holloware, and presentation silver, Gorham produced some of the finest and most quintessentially American silver and scupture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Gorham's extensive bronze-casting division afforded remarkable development and a proliferation of trained labor and equipment, which enabled sculptors to work on native shores rather than abroad. Less expensive than marble, bronze was seen as stronger and more practical for both public monuments and domestic statuettes. During the late nineteenth century bronze eclipsed marble as the medium of choice. The name Gorham resounds in American history for the craftsmanship it epitomizes. Christie's is pleased to present an unprecedented collection of fine sculpture from the corporate collection of Lenox/Gorham. The following lots from the corporate collection of Lenox/Gorham will find private homes for the first time.

Cyrus Edwin Dallin (1861-1944)

'The Protest'

Details

Cyrus Edwin Dallin (1861-1944)
'The Protest'
inscribed 'C.E. Dallin ©' (along the base)--stamped 'QALF 25/GORHAM FOUNDERS' (along the edge of the base)
bronze with brown patina
20 in. (50.8 cm.) high

Literature

P.J. Broder, Bronzes of the American West, New York, 1974, p. 100, figs. 91-2, other examples illustrated.
R.G. Francis, Cyrus E. Dallin: Let Justice Be Done, Springville, Utah, 1976, pp. 42-3, fig. 38, another example illustrated.

Lot Essay

The Protest was created for The Winning of the West, the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, where it was awarded a gold medal.
The present work depicts "a Sioux chief vigorously protesting the confiscation of his lands and buffalo by the white man. The highly animated equestrian revealed the defiance of the Indian to broken treaties and to other injustices." (R.G. Francis, Cyrus E. Dallin: Let Justice Be Done, Springville, Utah, 1976, p. 43)

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