John Lawrence Sullivan (1858 to 1918) is generally agreed by boxing historians to be the first Heavyweight Champion of the modern era. He was the last bare-knuckles or London Prize Ring Rules-style champion, but later fought with gloves according to the Queensberry Rules, which made him the link between old style and modern fighting. Nicknamed the “Boston Strong Boy,” he was born in the Roxbury district of Boston of Irish immigrants. He developed a combative nature coupled with a fondness for alcohol much like his father, Michael, who worked as a construction laborer. John L. had attempted several times to learn a trade, but his ego and physical strength made him perfect for prize fighting.

His first fight occurred in 1878 and was little more than a barroom brawl. Sullivan was publicly challenged by a local tough while attending a benefit night hosted by the Dudley Street Opera House in Boston. At that time, Massachusetts law prohibited prize fighting; however, it did permit “exhibitions” of physical strength and skill. The organizers of the benefit accommodated both men, and Sullivan proceeded to quickly knock his opponent into the on-stage piano. By 1881, he had developed a reputation as being able to “lick any man alive,” frequently offering cash payments of up to one thousand dollars to any man who could last four rounds with him. During the 19th century, no formal boxing titles existed, but Sullivan, being quite the self-promoter and publicist, traveled the world, fighting anyone who would challenge him. He organized several coast-to-coast tours announcing that he would fight anyone under the Queensberry Rules for $250.00. He rarely had to pay out cash to any of his challengers. He preferred fighting with gloves because it was safer, prolonging his career and earnings potential.

Sullivan is considered the last bare-knuckle champion as no one after him fought in that manner. He actually fought bare-knuckle only three times but his image was created because his most famous fights up to the Corbett fight in 1892 had been bare-knuckle bouts. The celebrated Kilrain fight in 1889 is considered a turning point in boxing history as this was the last fight under the London Prize Ring Rules. That fight was attended by an estimated 3,000 spectators arriving by special trains to a secret location in Mississippi (Richburg, near Hattiesburg). In those days, prize-fighting was illegal in most locales, with many fighters being arrested and jailed following their bouts. They fought 75 rounds over nearly three hours before Kilrain’s manager threw in the towel.

Sullivan remained undefeated until his fight with “Gentleman Jim” Corbett in 1892, losing after 21 rounds under the Queensberry Rules. He “retired” after that fight but continued to appear in boxing exhibitions over the next 12 years in addition to side careers as a stage actor, orator, celebrity baseball umpire, sports reporter and saloon owner. During the height of his boxing days, most of his money was spent on travel, fines and alcohol, but he became sober in his later years, often supporting the temperance movement. He died of complications from his earlier active alcoholism at the age of 59 and is buried in Boston. Since prize fighting was illegal and was not well-organized in Sullivan’s era, the record-keeping is often inconsistent, but he will always be considered the first Heavyweight Champion of the World. He was selected as a charter member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990 with a record of 35-1-2 (30 KO).

Information courtesy of Cowan’s Auctions, Inc.

Frederick Maxfield Parrish was born July 25, 1870 in Philadelphia to Stephen Parrish, an American artist famous for his landscapes, illustrations and engravings and his wife Elizabeth Bancroft Parrish. It’s not surprising that, finding himself surrounded by the tools of his father’s trade, that Frederick (he would begin to use Maxfield as his name later in life) would begin to draw to amuse himself. Around 1881, the Parrish family traveled to Europe, and during the trip, Frederick contracted typhoid. It was during his recuperation that he turned his attention to art in earnest under his father’s tutelage.

Maxfield studied widely as a young man, abroad in England and France, and at home at Haverford College, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and at the Drexel Institute, where he had the opportunity to work with Howard Pyle, one of the greatest illustrators in American history. While at the Drexel Institute, he also met Lydia Austin, a young instructor, who he would marry in 1895. Parrish himself found work as an illustrator, working in Philadelphia until 1898, by which time his various magazine illustrations for publications and his burgeoning career as the illustrator, especially of children’s books (for authors such as L. Frank Baum and Kenneth Grahame), allowed the young couple to purchase a home, The Oaks, near his parents in New Hampshire.

A Maxfield Parrish-illustrated copy of Edith Wharton’s Italian Villas and Their Gardens. (p4A item # D9749561)

Susan was initially hired to assist Lydia Parrish with the care of the Parrish children. (Perhaps due to Maxfield’s health concerns, the Parrishes waited until relatively late in life, for the time, to have children, with Lydia being almost 40 when their youngest child was born.) Susan quickly became Maxfield’s model and assistant, and eventually, they began an affair. Estranged from Lydia, who continued to live in the main house on the property, Maxfield ultimately moved into his studio where he lived with Susan.

Print of Maxfield Parrish’s Daybreak, one of the many works for which Susan Lewin served as a model. (p4A item # D9972315)

Susan certainly must have served as a muse, because Parrish’s popularity skyrocketed in the years between 1905 and 1920. His art was in demand by publishers (he did dozens of covers for Collier’s) and advertisers from Colgate to Oneida, and he also had murals commissioned by wealthy patrons like Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Another mural, created in the Tiffany studio, incorporated 100,000 pieces of Tiffany glass, and drew the attention of Cyrus Curtis, the owner of the Saturday Evening Post, who commissioned a mural for the Post’s Philadelphia headquarters. (Many of Parrish’s murals still decorated the public spaces they were designed for, and visitors can see them in places as varied as the Curtis Building in Philadelphia and the St. Regis’s bar in New York.)

A Maxfield Parrish-designed tobacco tin for Old King Cole tobacco. (p4A item # B107122)

Success allowed him to shift his focus away from advertising by the mid-1920s. (He was so well-known that by 1925, it was estimated that 25% of the homes in America owned a Parrish print and the deep lapis lazuli blue he favored had become known as ‘Parrish blue’. Parrish chose to move toward painting works of art that reflected, in some ways, his first job as an illustrator, and in many ways, this is the era of work for which Parrish is best remembered, androgynous, mystical figures in fantasy landscapes. By 1931, he announced that he was changing directions yet again, concentrating this time on landscapes.

A Maxfield Parrish landscape, Winter Dusk, from 1943 (p4A item # C215356)

In 1953, Lydia, who had for the most part left Maxfield in 1911, died, and he was left alone with Susan. Susan, perhaps frustrated by Maxfield’s lack of interest in marrying her after so many years together, left to marry someone else in 1960, and it was at that point that Maxfield Parrish stopped painting at the age of 90. He remained at The Oaks in Plainfield, New Hampshire until his death at 95 on March 30, 1966.

“Marly Horses,” paired sculptures also sometimes known as “horse tamers,” or just “horses restrained by grooms,” have their origins in France, probably by way of ancient Rome. Since the early days of Rome, a pair of sculptures, each of a man with a horse, have been on Quirinal Hill in the city. The spirited horses and the men seeking to control them are a discourse on power that has appealed to various political figures throughout history, and the theme has been replicated frequently.

A pair of bronze Marly horses. (p4A item # D9812387)

A Ludwig Bemelmans painting of the village of Marly-le-Roi from 1957. (p4A item # D9943544)

Sadly, Marly’s fate was link to the fate of the royal family. Damage was done during the French Revolution, and the property was sold around 1800. The chateau was completely demolished and sold off in pieces, but Napoleon later bought back the estate, so while the chateau is no longer there, the park still exists. The Chevaux de Marly (Horses of Marly) statues, completed in 1745, were moved in 1795 to Place de la Concorde, the square in Paris where the guillotine had been in operation during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, as part of a post-revolution makeover. (The Champs-Elysees runs between Place de la Concorde with the Chevaux de Marly and the Obelisk of Luxor in the east to the Place Charles de Gaulle with the Arc de Triomphe in the west.)

The Marly Horses remained in the Place de la Concorde for almost two centuries, until they were moved to the Musee de Louvre in 1984, where other Marly sculptures are now housed. There, they have been conserved, and cement copies have been placed both in the Place de la Concorde and in the grounds at Marly.

The motion and dramatic moment captured in Coustou’s works along with their prominent iconic placement in Paris made the sculptures immensely popular, and throughout the nineteenth century, numerous versions were replicated in bronze and smelter on a smaller scale for Victorian homes.

For more information, visit the Musee de Louvre’s website at http://www.louvre.fr/.

Hollie Davis, p4A Senior Editor, June 26, 2009

Dr. John Stith Pemberton (1831 to 1888), an Atlanta pharmacist, invented Coca-Cola in 1886. A year earlier, he had introduced an alcoholic beverage called “Pemberton’s French wine coca”, but the temperance movement was then gathering momentum in the United States, prompting him to develop an alcohol-free product. Pemberton mixed a combination of lime, cinnamon, coca leaves, and kola nuts to make the famous beverage. When Coca-Cola was first introduced, the syrup was mixed with ice water. One day Pemberton’s assistant, Venable, accidentally mixed the syrup with carbonated water instead. The combination was so refreshing that they decided to sell it that way as a fountain drink.

A nineteenth-century soda fountain was a chemical reactor that generated its own carbonated water right in the drugstore. Carbon dioxide gas was formed inside a lead-lined chamber by the reaction between marble chips and sulfuric acid. The gas then dissolved in water inside the fountain. When a spigot was opened, carbonated water spurted out, propelled by gas pressure. Proprietors learned to operate the spigot with a dramatic flair, leading to the expression “soda jerker.’ Earlier in the nineteenth century, carbonated water used to contain some sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). By 1880 it no longer did, but the term “soda” has persisted into the 21st century as a synonym for soft drinks.

Another pharmacist, Asa Griggs Candler (1851 to 1929) bought Pemberton’s secret recipe in 1887. Candler, a marketing genius, devoted an unprecedented $50,000 a year to advertising the beverage.

An early Coca-Cola advertising clock, part of Asa Candler’s marketing campaign to promote the drink.. (p4A item # D9757411)

Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time on March 12, 1894. Previously, the drink had been sold only by the glass. Bottling was an important part of Candler’s promotional strategy, since a sealed container would allow customers to enjoy ‘Coke’ at home instead of only consuming it at the neighborhood pharmacy.

An early Coca-Cola bottle.. (p4A item # D9866869)

The first Coca-Cola bottle was designed by Joseph Biedenham and was manufactured in Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was a straight-sided cylindrical container with raised molded-in lettering. The classic fluted green bottle, known as the “contour bottle,’ was designed in 1915 by a Swedish artist named Alexander Samuelson. Legend states that Samuelson wanted to pattern his bottle after one of Coke’s ingredients, but the contour bottle looks nothing like either a kola nut or a coca leaf. Its shape does somewhat resemble a cacao pod, although there is no cocoa in Coca-Cola.

Industrial designer Raymond Loewy (1893 to 1986), whose claims to fame include the Lucky Strike cigarette package, a Sears Coldspot refrigerator, the blue / white paint scheme on Air Force One, and several locomotives for the Pennsylvania Railroad, is often credited with designing the Coke bottle. Loewy was not the original designer, but he did re-design the contour bottle in 1955. He made it sleeker, he created new package sizes, and he eliminated the raised “Coca-Cola” lettering that used to be molded into the glass. Thereafter, the logo was painted onto each bottle.

Soft drink bottles were substantially constructed of thick, heavy glass. They were designed to be washed and re-used thousands of times. Customers paid a deposit at the grocery store and returned the empties later for a refund. The deposit for a single-serving bottle was 2 cents, then 5 cents, and ultimately 10 cents when returnable bottles were finally discontinued in the early 1980s. Aluminum cans and polyester bottles weigh far less than the glass containers they replaced, an important consideration during times of soaring energy costs.

Beginning in the 1930s, Coca-Cola’s winter advertising campaigns featured a fat bearded man in a red suit trimmed with white fur. Coca-Cola was not the first to depict Santa Claus that way, but it certainly helped to popularize that image of him. (Previously, Father Christmas had often worn brown clothing.) Santa liked to pause for a Coke break during his rounds, and of course he would play with the toys that he’d just delivered. Some of the most enduringly popular promotional images have featured Santa beside a Christmas tree, Coke bottle in hand, operating an electric train. More often than not, the train was lettered for the Santa Fe Railway. Coca-Cola has marketed a dizzying plethora of branded merchandise including picnic coolers, beach balls, clothing, beach towels, toy vehicles, and much more.

Further Recommended Reading

Warman’s Coca Cola Collectibles: Identification & Price Guide by Allan Petretti

Petretti’s Coca-Cola Collectibles Price Guide: The Encyclopedia of Coca-Cola Collectibles

B.J. Summers’ Guide to Coca-Cola: Identifications, Current Values, Circa Dates

Reference note by p4A.com Contributing Editor Joseph H. Lechner, Ph.D.

While traveling in 1875, Charles E. Hires, a Philadelphia pharmacist, first tasted root beer. Root beer, traditionally made with sassafras, was a popular “small beer” or low-alcoholic drink in the colonial era, and was becoming popular in an alcohol-free format. While root beer has a long history, it has a wide range of recipes that call for everything from birch bark to vanilla, molasses to juniper berries, so Hires set out to create his own version, which he initially sold as packets of powder. Soda fountain owners or housewives would buy the packets for a quarter, and by adding water, yeast and sugar, they would have five gallons of root beer or root tea, as it was occasionally called.

With the encouragement of a friend, Hires took his product to the Centennial Exposition, held in Philadelphia in the summer of 1876. He gave away free glasses of root beer, which were surely appreciated during the hot Philadelphia summer, and he also made the smart marketing move of advertising it as a “temperance drink” while the temperance movement was picking up steam.

Hires marketed his root beer with slogans like “The Temperance Drink” or “The Greatest Health-Giving Beverage in the World,” but he did draw fire with the word “beer.” On the one hand, it was believed that calling the mixture root beer would give the product a boost from the popularity of beer at the time, but on the other, Hires had to work to convince the temperance folks that his drink was alcohol-free.

In the years following the Exposition, Hires continued to market his drink to the temperance crowd, and he also developed a liquid extract or syrup for use in soda shops. He began to ship root beer in kegs, and he even patented a dispenser called the “Hires Automatic Munimaker” that he sold to the soda fountains that were popping up everywhere. By 1890, Hires had formed a corporation, and the company began bottling root beer.

One of the Hires Automatic Munimakers. (p4A item # D9798307)

Today Hires Root Beer advertising material is very popular with collectors, from tin trays to dispensers to mugs. Especially popular are items from the 1910s depicting what collectors refer to as “the googly-eyed man.” This young man was an actual person, Josh Slinger, and a soda jerk!

A Hires advertising tray featuring Josh Slinger, the Googly-Eyed Man. (p4A item # C244349)

Born Robert Atkinson Fox on December 11, 1860 in Toronto, Canada, Fox studied in Canada and Europe prior to arriving in America. He eventually went on to become one of the early 20th century’s most popular, most diverse, and most reproduced artists of his time with his work appearing as art prints, calendars, advertising pieces, ink blotters, candy and handkerchief boxes, jewelry boxes, magazine covers, children’s books, newspaper inserts, postcards, thermometers, and a myriad of other forms.

Once considered the step-child of Maxfield Parrish collectors, Fox collecting has blossomed into one of the most interesting and challenging forms of any early 20th century collectible. It’s true that many collectors gravitated to Fox collecting after the price level of Maxfield Parrish collectibles began to increase beyond the levels of many collectors. And it’s also true that R. Atkinsion Fox was at times called a “Parrish imitator” because of the similarities of many of his most popular works. Yet many other artists of the time also attempted to capitalize upon the idyllic and romantic style popularized by Maxfield Parrish in their attempt to give the public what they wanted. However, few other artists of his time went on to provide the volume of work and diversity of subject matter as R. Atkinson Fox.

During his lifetime Fox produced more than 1,000 works of art. Rather than concentrating upon one or two specialty areas as did so many artists of his time, Fox was a generalist. He could paint basically any assignment given to him by a publisher, usually painting from a photograph or from memory. His subjects included enchanted gardens, landscapes, countrysides, cottages, animals and pets (Fox was generally regarded as a leading painter of cows); lovely women, Indians and Indian maidens, the wild west, historical and contemporary themes, hunting and fishing scenes, adventure, ships, and much more. It is this diverse subject matter that makes Fox prints so appealing to so many collectors. Some collectors collect anything Fox-related, others collect only specific categories.

A typical R. Atkinson Fox pastoral painting of cattle. (p4A item # D9968479)

(a) Pseudonyms Occasionally Fox produced works which he felt weren’t up to his personal standards. More often, he was directed to sign his work with a “pseudonym” by a publisher who wanted to present the image to potential clients that their company carried the works of a larger stable of artists than it actually did (at times Fox may have been the only artist in their employ). In all, Fox used more than twenty-five different pseudonyms, sometimes with a variation of his own name (R. Atkins); more often with a totally different name (John Colvin, Arthur DeForest, Dupre, Elmer Lewis, and Chas. Wainright just to name a few). Usually a Fox pseudonym is just as collectible as a Fox-signed print.

(b) Although Fox probably had a mental title for every work he created, apparently he failed to keep a master written list. And even if he titled a picture, that title was often changed by either the publisher who originally commissioned the work, or a subsequent user authorized by the publisher to re-use the print. Some prints were cropped differently, and other prints were used on multiple forms (art prints, calendars, advertising pieces, etc). Unless Fox collectors are 100% certain of the print’s title, it will be called an “Untitled” print. Signed-untitled Fox prints are as collectible as signed-titled Fox prints.

(c) Fox collecting can be so confusing at times that Fox collectors have established a category called “Fox Maybes”. Unless a picture thought to be a Fox can be confirmed with a 100% degree of certainty, it falls within the Fox Maybe category. As a general rule, Fox Maybes’ are not as valuable to Fox collectors as certified Fox prints.

(d) Two of Fox’s nephews, G.B Fox (also known as Garnet Bancroft Fox) and W. Gordon Fox, were also painters in a manner very similar to R. Atkinson Fox. And to complicate things even further, they too used pseudonyms.

Fox married Anna Gaffney in 1903. They lived in New Jersey until about 1924, when he moved his family to Chicago and continued his work until his death in 1935 at the 74.

p4A.com acknowledges the scholarship of Michael A. Ivankovich in developing this information.

N.C. Wyeth was born Newell Convers Wyeth on October 22, 1882 in Needham, Massachusetts, the oldest of four boys, who spent their young lives outdoors doing farm chores, hunting, fishing, or exploring the countryside. N.C. displayed an early talent for art, encouraged by his mother, and by twelve, he was producing quality watercolors. After drafting courses at the Mechanics Arts School, he went on to study illustration art at the Massachusetts Normal Arts School and the Eric Pape School of Art, taught by George Loftus Noyes and Charles W. Reed.

In 1902, N.C. was invited to attended Howard Pyle’s School of Art in Wilmington, Delaware and Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, where he was able to study under the man known as the father of American illustration, and after just a few months with Pyle, Wyeth received his first commission as an illustrator, a bucking horse for The Saturday Evening Post‘s February 21, 1903 edition. In 1904, the Post again commissioned him to illustrate a Western story, and at Pyle’s insistence, Wyeth traveled west to gain firsthand knowledge of the world he was to paint. After visits to the Navajo and stints as a cowboy and a mail carrier, he returned to the East, only to travel west again in 1906 for another study trip.

On April 16, 1906, N.C. Wyeth married Carolyn Bockius of Wilmington, Delaware, and they settled on 18 acres in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, just across the Delaware-Pennsylvania line. Commissions flew in from all the prominent publications of the day, and Wyeth found little time for his own art. Although the illustration work offered a good living, the growth of Wyeth’s family kept pace, and he found it hard to leave commissioned work behind.

Henriette (1907), Carolyn (1909), Nathaniel (1911), Ann (1915), and Andrew (1917) proved to be a remarkable group of children, with Andrew Wyeth (father of James Browning “Jamie” Wyeth) becoming one of the greatest American artists of the 20th century, while Henriette (who married one of N.C.’s proteges, Peter Hurd) and Carolyn also made a living as artists. Ann, who also married one of her father’s students, John W. McCoy, was an artist and composer, while Nathaniel (who married Howard Pyle’s niece, Caroline), the only Wyeth to attend college, worked as an engineer for DuPont where he helped develop the plastic pop bottle.

In the 1910s, Wyeth’s illustration commissions began to shift, and he moved away from Western art for periodicals to illustration art for children’s books. Perhaps his most famous efforts were his first – the 1911 edition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, and editions of such classics as Kidnapped, Robin Hood and Rip Van Winkle followed over the next decade.

A first edition of an N.C. Wyeth-illustrated edition of Robin Hood. (P4a item # D9821092)

An N.C. Wyeth commercial illustration for Interwoven Socks. (P4a item # D9783249)

An N.C. Wyeth illustration from his early days at Chadds Ford. (P4a item # D9937983)

A 1938 painting by N.C. Wyeth of a fisherman hauling traps, done during his summers in Maine. (P4a item # A078296)

In some respects, Wyeth did not begin to gain respect for his own work until the 1930s, when museums began to seek out copies of his work. During this time, the family began summering at Eight Bells, an old sea captain’s home named after a Winslow Homer painting, and Wyeth began painting seascapes. In 1941, at the age of 59, he became a member of the National Academy.

Tragically, on October 19, 1945, N.C. Wyeth and his three-year old grandson, Newell Convers Wyeth II, Nathaniel’s son, were killed when Wyeth’s car was struck by a train while crossing tracks near Chadds Ford.

Wyeth, a prolific artist, is well-represented in a number of museum collections, including the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford and in Maine both the Portland Museum of Art and the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland. The Brandywine River Museum also maintains and offers tours of N.C. Wyeth’s home and studio.

Sitting Bull, the man who would later become the Hunkpapa Sioux chief, was born in South Dakota, near the Grand River. His Lakota name was Tatanka-Iyotanka. In his thirties, he began to build his reputation as a warrior, leading war parties in Red Cloud’s War against a number of Dakota Territory forts. Although the U.S. negotiated with the Sioux in order to end the war and although Chief Gall signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie in July of 1868, Sitting Bull, who never trusted the government’s promises, refused to acknowledge the treaty and continued to lead raids in the area into the 1870s.

It is, however, the events of June, 1876 for which Sitting Bull is known: leading a large band of warriors (historians debate the numbers, but estimates range from 900 to 2000) against roughly 650 officers, troops and scouts, annhilating the advance troops. Of course, public outcry brought even more troops and scrutiny to the Sioux, and Sitting Bull was forced to retreat with approximately 200 Sioux to Canada during the spring of 1877. For several years Sitting Bull refused to surrender and offers of a pardon, but by 1881, the combination of the weather, hunger, and dwindling numbers forced him to return. After surrendering at Fort Buford, Sitting Bull and his band were transferred to Fort Yates, and later to Fort Randall, where they were held for nearly two years.

An O.S. Goff cabinet card portrait of Sitting Bull. (p4A item # D9994743)

Sitting Bull’s autograph on an autograph album page. (p4A item # D9961940)

In the late fall of 1890, James McLaughlin, the U.S. Agent in charge of Standing Rock, became concerned that the Ghost Dancers were about to leave the agency and that Sitting Bull might accompany them, potentially become a roving band with a prominent figure to promote rebellion. McLaughlin decided to send men to arrest Sitting Bull on December 15, 1890. Perhaps worried about not appearing in control, 43 men arrived just around dawn to arrest Sitting Bull. Some of Sitting Bull’s people encouraged him to resist, and perhaps concerned that the situation would get out of hand, members of the police began to attempt to use force. Members of Sitting Bull’s community were outraged. Catch-the-Bear, a Sitting Bull supporter, shot Bullhead, one of the policemen, setting off a round of gunfire that left Sitting Bull and six policemen dead along with seven Sioux. Two policemen would die later of wounds.

Sitting Bull’s body was taken to Fort Yates for burial. In 1953, his Lakota family had his body exhumed and moved so that he could be reburied closer to his place of birth, but there is some discussion that the body moved was not that of Sitting Bull.

Hollie Davis, p4A Senior Editor, January 29, 2010