An Early Andrew Clemens (American, 1857-1894) Eagle Sand Bottle

Dated 1876

dated on one side and with eagle, flag and shield depiction to other.
with remnants of paper label to underside.
Height with stopper 5 5/8 inches.
Height without stopper 4 5/8inches.
Diameter 2 1/8 inches.

This lot is located in Cincinnati.

This diminutive bottle features an eagle, shield and flag motif, variations of which would become mainstays of Andrew Clemens’s designs, surrounded by bands of undulating lines and geometric patterns that he would also continue to perfect. Anecdotally, Clemens began making sand bottles as a child, and there are several known bottles that date to the early 1870s. However, the earliest mention of his sand art business comes in the North Iowa Times in 1874, when Clemens was 17 years old. In addition to "bottoming cane chairs," the article states that he is “putting sand from Pictured Rocks in bottles of various sizes, arranging the different colors in a handsome manner...”[1] Clemens famously collected sand from exposed sandstone in the Pikes Peak area near McGregor, Iowa. He was inspired by not only the vivid natural color of the sand but also the strata and swirls of color in the rock faces. The ‘Deaf Mute of McGregor, Iowa’ bottle [2] and the Louisa Fessman bottle [3], both made in the early 1870s, show Clemens’s focus on these decorative patterns, not yet incorporating figural motifs. At this point, he was using the coarse sand directly as it was collected, resulting in cruder designs and less distinct lines. Later, he would begin crushing the sand into finer grains that would allow him to create more detailed imagery.

In 1875, articles about Clemens begin describing bottles with figural imagery and around this same time, he began incorporating the eagle and flag motif. At this point, he had developed a decent tourist trade, and, in advance of the Centennial, patriotic designs were especially sought after. Multiple bottles from the mid-late 1870s show the eagle with either a flag or shield, while the bottle offered here depicts both.

While the quality of Clemens’s craftsmanship progressed greatly in the first half of the 1870s, the skill demonstrated in this bottle only hints at what he would eventually achieve. This is evident in direct comparison with the similar, but later, bottle offered in Lot 172.

[1] North Iowa Times, June 25, 1874, in Roy Sucholeiki’s The Sand Art Bottles of Andrew Clemens. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2015.

[2] See Roy Sucholeiki’s The Sand Art Bottles of Andrew Clemens. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2015, pg. 26, fig. 3.7.

[3] See Roy Sucholeiki’s The Sand Art Bottles of Andrew Clemens. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2015, pg. 26, fig. 3.8.