September 29, 2021 The Bill Myers Collection
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/29/2021
This horn is featured on pages 112-113 of "The Folk Art of Early America: The Engraved Powder Horn" by Jim Dresslar. It is also published in the Herman Dean Collection catalog photographs and the Huntington Museum of Art in Huntington, West Virginia. This horn, attributed to the Pointed Tree Carver, measures about 15" overall. The dark spout section is carved with vase and ring turnings. The main body is tapered and has a relief carved scalloped edge just below the spout section. The body is profusely professionally engraved and colored with still vibrant polychrome colors. Near the top, there is large and detailed engraved British Crest. Below is another crest, probably a family crest with two lions clutching an intertwined pretzel with a banner below "WILHELM/1764/HERMAN". Below is a castle with an onion dome with cross on top. Other designs include potted flower and three hunters with flintlock rifles, one firing at a fox and the other two at two antlered deer. These features, along with the many paintbrush shaped trees, are signatures of the Pointed Tree Carver's work. The flat wooden plug is neatly carved with "I H/1799", probably the initials of a descendent. According to a search of Revolutionary War records, Johannes Wilhelm Herman was born in 1736 in Saxe Prussia. In 1766, Wilhelm and his family came to America on the ship Pallidum, sailing from Holland. In 1766 he swore the Oath of Allegiance in Philadelphia, PA, where he signed his name as Johann Wm. Herman. Wilhelm settled his family in Berks County, PA. The 1785 tax records show him as owning land, cows and horses. The records in the office of the Adjutant General, War Department, Washington, D.C., show that William Herman served from 1777 to 1780 as a drummer in North's Company, Col William R. Lee's Regiment of the Continental Troops in the Revolutionary War. Around 1786 Wilhelm and his family moved from Pennsylvania to North Carolina where they settled in Lincoln County. He died in 1813 in Catawba County and is buried there. CONDITION: Very good overall with a pleasing dark honey patina and excellent polychrome reds and blacks. There is a small sliver missing to the top layer towards the bottom of the spout section. There is a small hairline crack at the base of about 1/2". There was once a flange for strap attachment, which was removed during the period of use. A very attractive and historic powder horn. DMG