Mar 27, 2014 - Sale 2342

Sale 2342 - Lot 47

Price Realized: $ 12,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) DOUGLASS, FREDERICK. Frederick Douglass. Life-sized plaster bust, 28-1/4 x 20 inches; some overall chipping of the light brown surface paint on the head and body, the only chipping to the piece itself at the base. [Chillicothe, OH :Dayton Morgan, 1868]

Additional Details

This very life-like depiction of a middle-aged Douglass was created by sculptor Dayton Morgan of Chillicothe, Ohio. There is a patent number on the back of the bust, so it would seem that Morgan intended to produce at least a few copies. We however could not locate any. Morgan, born in Vermont in 1842, is listed in the 1840 census as a landscape artist. The patent, number 3151 - "Design for a bust of Frederick Douglass" was registered on August 4, 1868 together with a photograph of Douglass that conforms with the bust. Douglass is depicted beardless, with just a moustache.