Sand Picture in a Glass Bottle with Patriotic American Eagle and Flag

Description:

Sand Picture in a Glass Bottle with Patriotic American Eagle and Flag, Andrew Clemens, McGregor, Iowa, 1876, multicolored sand arranged in a colorless glass bottle, one side of the bottle portraying an American eagle in flight with an American flag, the reverse with "1876" in a small reserve, both designs surrounded by assorted floral, geometric, and shaped multicolored borders, ht. 5 3/4 in.

Note: Andrew Clemens was born in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1857. At the age of five he became deaf and mute after an illness, later earning his livelihood by painstakingly arranging colored sand to make pictures in glass bottles. The sand came from the naturally colored sandstone in the Pictured Rocks area of Iowa. He worked in McGregor, Iowa, and for a short time he made and exhibited his work at South Side Museum, a dime museum in Chicago, Illinois. He died in 1894 at the age of 37.

Provenance: The consignor has provided the following statement regarding the bottle's provenance: "My Great Grandfather, Hermann Grote, immigrated from Ulm, Germany to Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1846, where he became a well regarded business man and restaurateur. He collected beautiful things all his life.

As a youngster, I recall seeing this beautiful sand bottle painting in my Grandmother's study, safely enshrined behind the glass doors of a walnut cabinet; Great Grandfather had left the bottle to her upon his death. The bottle subsequently passed on to my father and then eventually to me in 1980. It has been an admired family treasure for over one hundred and twenty years."

Estimate $3,000-5,000

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