European Upper Missouri Wax Figures, Modeled After Karl Bodmer's Mandan  
mid-19th century

lot of 2 male figures; heights 17-1/2 inches and 17-1/4 inches

When Prince  Philip Maximilian of Germany brought the painter Carl Bodmer to America in 1832, they traveled west to the Rocky Mountains on a mission to document the natural history and  native peoples of the area. Two years later Maximilian returned home with 427 of Bodmer's watercolor paintings under  his arm.. He was welcomed by an immense interest in what he had seen and done in the new world.

These two male dolls, which were made as three-dimensional reproductions of some of Bodmer's Indian portraits, are faithful to the clothing styles of the Mandan and other tribes that  he visited.

In 1945 these dolls were acquired by the Trapp Hagen School  of Fashion in New York, which later deaccessioned them. The lance, arrows, and feather fan have been restored

Published:
Historic American Indian Dolls (Fenn 2007: 106-109, plate 33)