Mar 29, 2018 - Sale 2471

Sale 2471 - Lot 149

Price Realized: $ 162
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 200 - $ 300
(BUSINESS.) Berg, Harold; photographer. The iconic Staten Island blacksmith Joseph Bishop. Silver print, 10 x 8 inches; inked photographer's stamp on verso. [Staten Island, NY, circa 1970s]
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Additional Details

Joseph W. Bishop (1904-1986) was a second-generation blacksmith in the Sandy Ground neighborhood until his shop was destroyed by a mysterious fire in 1982. The photograph was consigned in a portfolio describing him as "the last African-American blacksmith in New York." Accompanied by two clippings from the Staten Island Advance describing Bishop and his work. The first, from 12 August 1973, is apparently from the same period as the photograph, and describes Bishop as the last working blacksmith on Staten Island. The second is dated 11 December 1983.