Silent Greeters to the World of Tobacco

 

QUESTION: When I was a little boy, my mother used to take me shopping with her in our little midwestern town. On the way to the emporium, we used to pass by a strange looking shop. I didn’t like to go by it because there was a large fearsome figure standing out front. The figure was a large Indian—yes, back then we called them Indians— carved in wood. He had a gruesome look on his face which scared me, so I covered my eyes as we walked passed. I always wondered why this shop had such a frightening figure out front. Today, most tobacco shops are low key and look like any other shop on the street. What is the origin of the cigar-store Indian? And why did tobacco shop owners choose an Indian to stand out front?  

ANSWER: Many people today haven’t ever seen an authentic cigar-store Indian. And with the sensitive climate about Native Americans, they probably never will. But back in the 19th century they were a common site along the main streets of small towns across the country.  

Cigar-store Indians, with their serious chiseled faces, conveyed a sense of grandeur as they greeted customers to tobacco shops. Designed to capture the attention of passersby, most of whom in the 19th century lacked a shared common language, the sidewalk wooden Indian became a symbol of the tobacco retail business. Because American Indians introduced tobacco to the Europeans as early as the 17th century, European tobacconists began using figures of American Indians to advertise their shops. 

Most of these silent greeters stood just outside the door, often mounted on wheels so that they could be rolled in and out. The origin of the wooden Indian dates back to England in 1617, when tobacco shop owners placed small wooden figures called "Virginie Men," depicted as black men wearing headdresses and kilts made of tobacco leaves, on countertops to represent tobacco companies.

Eventually, the European cigar-store figure began to take on a more authentic yet highly stylized appearance, and by the time these figures arrived in America in the late 18th century, they had become authentic Indians, fairly accurate and beautifully carved.

Carvers of these shop figures came from among the makers of ship figureheads. During the late 19th century, the demise of the clipper ship era forced figurehead carvers out of business. These craftsmen gradually turned to producing wooden Indians. Production flourished from about 1840 to the end of the century. In the 1890s, city ordinances required that figures be confined to the interiors of shops, and gradually the statues went out of use. Instead of attracting customers on the outside, they served as mere decoration inside.

While a few makers produced cigar-store Indians of cast iron, most used wood. Carvers used axes, chisels, and mallets on white pine or even quartered ships’ masts, then painted the completed figures in a variety of colors and designs.

While some of these wooden Indians appeared inviting, happily greeting customers, others appeared defensive, as if guarding the store from shoplifters, thieves, and "no smoking" ordinances.

American carvers sculpted Indian chiefs, braves, princesses and Indian maidens, sometimes with boarded papooses. Most of these displayed some form of tobacco in their hands or on their clothing. They generally depicted stereotypical chiefs and squaws, clothed in fringed buckskins, draped with blankets, decorated with feathered headdresses, and sometimes shown holding tomahawks or bows, arrows and spears. Their facial features rarely resembled members of any particular American Indian tribe.

Female wooden Indians, also known as “Pocahontas,” appeared four times more than their male counterparts in classical or Egyptian-inspired poses. Carvers occasionally donned them with headdresses of tobacco leaves instead of feathers and dressed their male figures in the traditional war bonnets of the Plains Indians.

Carvers produced about 300 cigar-store Indians annually—yet there are relatively few original ones left today. Those that do exist reside in museums and in private collections. Historians believe carvers created over 100,000 cigar-store Indians. Since the carvers all competed with each other for the tobacconists' business, each tried to out do the other in individuality, versatility and depth. A few artists even used Native Americans as models.

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Is Nemadji Pottery Calling You?

 

QUESTION: On a trip out West I traveled through southern Colorado. I stopped at an antique shop and saw a unique vase covered with swirls of what looked like colored paint. The dealer said the vase was an example of Nemadji pottery and that it had been made by Native Americans but wasn’t sure from what tribe. What can you tell me about my vase?

ANSWER: Nemadji pottery originated in the Arrowhead region of Minnesota and is touted to be Native American pottery. But there’s nothing Native American about it. In fact, some antiques dealers sell this pottery under the belief that it is Native American.

Nemadji pottery is unglazed rustic pottery with colorful swirled designs on the outside. No two piece look alike. They all have unique colors and come in a variety of forms. Reminiscent of ancient Indian pottery, it's not surprising the colorful swirl pots became one of America's hottest tourist collectibles.

Clayton James Dodge founded the Nemadji Tile and Pottery Company in Moose Lake, Minnesota, in 1923 to make Arts and Crafts ceramic tiles. He shipped its trademark "fire flash" earthenware tile made from regional clays by railroad to destinations across the country. During its peak years, the demand was so strong a crew of 30 men worked three shifts to produce the colorful tile for homes and churches. But the Stock Market Crash of 1929 put an end to sales.

Determined to ride out the Great Depression, Dodge developed an inexpensive tourist pottery that could be mass-produced and shipped from his Moose Lake factory. But to create it, he needed to find a master ceramist. That person was Eric Hellman, a Danish immigrant who had earned a bachelor's degree in ceramic engineering at the Technical Engineering Institute in Copenhagen. Hellman had previously worked at porcelain houses in Copenhagen and Meissen, Germany. But by the time he met Dodge, he had given up throwing pots for fear the clay dust would destroy his lungs. The promise of steady work and a paycheck changed that.

Within the year Hellman developed a line of hand-thrown pottery for Dodge using the colorful clays taken from the hanks of the Nemadji River northeast of Moose Lake. He created molds from these original pieces, then taught unskilled laborers to recreate them by the slip cast method. Hellman also introduced a "cold striped painting process," which gave Nemadji pottery its distinctive look as no two pots were alike.

To apply the paints, workers filled a galvanized wash-tub with water and a dash of vinegar. They then gently floated onto the water small droplets of oil-based enamel paint. By blowing gently across the paint, workers caused the droplets to merge creating colorful bands of paint. Blowing down into the middle of these floating bands created a circle of clear water into which a pot. was lowered by hand. When the blowing stopped the paint returned to the center of the tub. The worker then lifted the pot out with a twisting motion creating a swirl design.

 Pottery created between 1929 and 1972 was made with red to buff colored clays found near Moose Lake. Workers treated the interiors of these early pots with a quick swish of shellac, recycled from pot to pot, creating a beautiful patina. 

Once Hellman had created this unique pottery, he left the company. That's when Dodgers began promoting the pottery in earnest. He realized he had a good product but needed a hook to grab a share of the tourist market.

For that, Dodge sought to tie his pottery's to Minnesota's Indian Country. A practicing attorney, Dodge used his knowledge of the law and talents at creative writing to carefully create a legend describing the geology of Minnesota's Arrowhead region, its first primitive ancestors, and the remnants of ancient Native American pottery discovered there. While he never said Indians made Nemadji, Dodge drew a dotted line between the Ojibwa tribe and his pottery. And shopkeepers and tourists connected the dots.

The legend Dodge created went something like this .”The name "Nemadji" is the Ojibway word for “left-handed.” Nemadji pottery is made by skilled craftsmen whose deft hands throw pieces of clay on potters' wheels just as the Chinese centuries ago turned their pottery, which is today priceless. These craftsmen are under the three-thin of a skilled ceramist whose life has been spent in the production of pottery of an artistic type. Nemadji pottery expresses the soul of the Redman, who, though long since gone to the Happy Hunting Ground, still haunts our shores and woods."

Dodge had his legend printed on a pad of paper and sent with his pottery to trading posts and tourist stops, including the famed Wall Drug Store in South Dakota. When a pot sold, the shopkeeper tore a printed legend from the pad and gave it to the customer. Eager to purchase a small token of their trips to “Indian Country” and the Wild West, many tourists didn't hesitate to exchanged their nickels and quarters for a piece of Nemadji "Indian" Pottery with documentation of its noble history.

Since Nemadji sounded like an Native American tribal name, most people thought it was genuine Native American pottery. Dodge was clever enough say his pottery was “inspired” by Native American designs. And the tourists loved it. 

Dodge created rubber stamps to mark each pot. One of the earliest stamp marks features the image of a Native American arrowhead encircled by the words “Nemadji Pottery Moose Lake, Minnesota.“ Another early stamp reads handmade “Nemadji Indian Pottery from Native Clay.”

Most marks carry the words Nemadji Pottery or Nemadji Indian Pottery. Some are stamped with the words “Badlands Pottery of Nemadji Blackhills Pottery,.” used on pieces sold at Wall Drug in South Dakota during the 1930s and 1940s.

After 1950, pottery marks included the words Nemadji potting and the image of either an Indian head or an Indian in a canoe.

Over time, people misplaced the small pieces of paper from the pad and memories faded_ Eventually the owners of Nemadji referred to it simply as "Indian Pottery" and the Indian myth became reality.

But myths die hard, and today Nemadji pottery often appears for sale in antique stores and on the Internet as Indian-made, ancient Indian, or as rare Ojibwa pottery.

Legends aside, Nemadji commands moderate prices in the collectibles market. And as the interest in this true American tourist pottery increases, so do the prices. Small hand-thrown Nemadji pieces made by Eric Hellman in Moose Lake in the early 1930s have recently sold in the $100 range. Nemadji pottery produced before World War Il using red clays dug from the banks of the Nemadji River command prices ranging from $75 to $95.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the Sears Catalogue and the items sold in it in "Sears' Book of Bargains" in the 2021 Fall Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.