?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
(ART.) HARDISON, INGE. "Giants in History." Six anodized plaster busts of noted African Americans: Benjamin Banneker, Charles Richard Drew, Norbert Rillieux, Garrett Morgan, Lewis Latimer, and Granville T. Woods. Each bust is more or less the same height, 6 x 8-1/2 inches; with a bronze finish surface; several of the busts have nicks to their bases, one corner of the Norbert Rilieux seriously (about one inch); the Drew bust has a 2 x 1 inch diagonal corner chip that has been re-glued; a couple of the others with a slight abrasions. Overall these pieces are all in quite good condition, but should be seen. Tennessee: Old Taylor Distillers, circa 1970's
The artist that created these busts is Inge Hardison (1914 - ), an accomplished sculptor, painter, photographer and teacher. Ms. Hardison began this series she called "Giants in History" in 1963, created for the Old Taylor Distillery Company in Tennessee; the series continued for almost a decade. She created these beautiful portrait busts of Americans who have made significant contributions, but who were not as well-known as they should have been. Among them: Charles Richard Drew (1904-1950), who developed blood plasma, saving untold numbers of lives during WWII, Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), who helped survey the land area that is now the District of Columbia; and Lewis Latimer (1848-1928), who was responsible for many of the inventions credited to Thomas Edison. There are many, many others in Hardison's Giant's Series of the "under-known," all have become scarce.
