"Henry Walton" Paint-decorated Leather Fire Bucket

Description:

"Henry Walton" Paint-decorated Leather Fire Bucket, painted by Henry Walton at Elmira, New York, c. 1851, the fire bucket embellished with polychrome paint decoration, with a banner inscribed "HENRY WALTON" over a spreadwing eagle with a banner in its beak inscribed "E PLURIBUS UNUM" and grasping an olive branch and arrows in its talons, "No.1" painted in an oval reserve, over a banner inscribed "ELMIRA" and the year "1851" on a dark green ground with red painted collar and handle, ht. approx. 16 3/4 in.

Exhibitions: The traveling exhibition at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, May 10-June 26, 1988, Everhart Museum, Scranton, Pennsylvania, July 30-October 2, 1988, and New York State Museum, Albany, New York, November 12, 1988-January 29, 1989.

Literature: This fire bucket is illustrated and discussed in the exhibition catalogue Artist of Ithaca: Henry Walton and His Odyssey, The Herbert Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, pp. 10 and 68. It was noted on p. 10 that the fire bucket and three paintings done in Elmira (which indicate Walton had set up a studio in that town) were among the last items he painted while in New York State before his departure to California, during the time of the Gold Rush.
Estimate $15,000-25,000

minor retouch to area on l.r of "Elmira" banner in the "LM" area, a few small spots u.l., and an area to lower right of decoration. There is a 1 1/2 in. split on the lower part of the back seam, minor paint losses.

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