Winter 2016

2016 Antiques & Fine Art 169 The sale of a jaunty carved and painted wooden figure of Santa Claus made in New York City by Samuel Robb in 1923 (Figs. 1, 1a) achieved international headlines in 2014 when it established an auction record price of $875,000. 1 Less well known are the history of its creation and discovery, and the heartwarming story of love and reconciliation that connects it to the family of the most renowned maker of American trade figures. The figure’s discovery and survival are due to Frederick Fried (1908–1994) (Fig. 2), the pioneering scholar of American folk sculpture and author of The Pictorial History of the Carousel (1962). While conducting research for a definitive study of American trade figure carvers, Fried sought out individuals with first-hand knowledge of the carvers. 2 Interested in Samuel Robb, the proprietor of the most important carving shop in New York City during the third quarter of the nineteenth century (Fig. 3), Fried was keen to interview Robb’s reclusive daughter, Elizabeth, but was unable to locate her address. When the usual sources— city and telephone directories, census reports and insurance records—proved fruitless, he drew upon the undisputed fact that Samuel Robb had died in 1928, and that his daughter had presumably arranged for her father’s burial. He tracked down the retired undertaker and successfully obtained Elizabeth Robb’s address in northern Manhattan. Though initially reticent at being contacted and threatening to call the police, after several months of effort and letters from the Smithsonian, she finally agreed to speak with Fried and they eventually became friends. From Miss Robb, then seventy-six years old, Fried obtained a treasure trove of original photographs, archival material, and oral family history, 3 but it was the last item that Elizabeth Robb shared with Fried that made the greatest impact: a unique Santa Claus figure made by her father. Samuel Robb was born in Manhattan in 1851, the son of Peter Robb, a Scottish-born ship carpenter who immigrated to the United States in 1841, and Elizabeth Anderson, a member of an established New York family of ship carvers. Robb’s professional career was based in lower Manhattan, where he first served a teenage apprenticeship (probably in the shop of Thomas V. Brooks) and was later employed by William Demuth, whose company manufactured and distributed wooden and metal tobacco-related advertising pieces for which Robb carved wooden models, from which the metal castings were produced. During this period Robb received a certificate in perspective drawing from the Free Night School of Science and Art at Cooper Union, in 1872, and continued with fine arts studies at Fig: 1a: Detail of back side of Santa Claus. Fig. 2: Frederick Fried in 1982 with Robb’s Santa Claus, Avenue Magazine (1982).