[AMERICAN FOLK ART] SANBORN, Kate

Hunting Indians in a Taxi-Cab

Boston: Richard C. Badger, (1911). First Edition. First printing. Octavo; publisher's ribbed maroon cloth, decoratively titled in gilt; 75pp. Trace of rubbing and wear to board edges, rear cover, and spine ends; offsetting to endpapers, probably from laid-in newsprint; old evidence of bookplate removal inside front cover. In all, a sound, attractive, Very Good copy.

In her first paragraph of text, the author, perhaps sensing that even for her times the book's title was unpropitious, makes a small attempt to soften the blow: "To make my title complete," she writes, "it should read "Hunting Indians in a Taxi-cab with a Camera." Despite the title, offensive as it is to modern sensibilities, this is a rather benign (and most uncommon) documentary study of a nearly-forgotten aspect of American street-level folk iconography, the cigar store Indian. If not the earliest such study, certainly among the earliest, and long considered something of a holy grail for collectors of American folk art.

Price: $1,500.00

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