Seuss, Dr. (Theodor Suess Geisel). The Mulberry Street Unicorn

New York: Dr. Suess Zoo, Inc., 1938. Hand-painted plaster and wood sculpture, mounted to original circular wooden base; original printed descriptive label mounted on bottom of base, "The Mulberry Street Unicorn...Mounted by the Dr. Suess Zoo, Inc...New York City..." Rubbing and chipping to paint; short but stable cracks near base; sculpture sometime reattached to original base.

"Although he has contacted strange and perplexing wild life in all parts of the globe, Dr. Suess frankly admits that the habits of the Unicorn leave him absolutely baffled. 'The Unicorn,' writes Dr. Suess, 'seems to do nothing but just sit and think. About what, no one knows. One can only eliminate certain thoughts as improbable, such as thoughts about xylophones, zippers and Zog of Albania.'"

A rare and original Dr. Seuss unicorn sculpture. Inspired by a visit in 1931 to Dartmouth's Winter Carnival, where he saw ice sculptures of animals and other creatures, Geisel began creating a series of unusual mounted animal trophy heads he called "The Seuss System of Unorthodox Taxidermy". Using real horns and beaks acquired from his father, who was park superintendent of the Forest Park Zoo, in Springfield, Massachusetts, by 1937 Geisel had constructed dozens of three-dimensional beasts. As his sister Marnie described, with some alarm, "He uses them as models for his drawings...or else sells them as decorations for taprooms and bars. They are his main hobby. He makes them out of some pliable material which, after modelling, becomes set and hard. He picks up real horns and puts them onto heads where I am positive horns never grew before. Then he paints them all colors of the rainbow." (Cohen, The Seuss, the Whole Seuss and Nothing But the Seuss, 2004, p. 169).

Later, in the fall of 1937, an exhibition of these pieces was held in New York in order to promote Geisel's new book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Demand for these sculptures led Geisel to create a series of these peculiar heads for purchase, and in April 1938, an ad appeared in Judge magazine announcing "Dr. Suess Returns From The Bobo Isles...with Rare and Amazing Trophies for the Walls of your Game-Room, Nursery or Bar!" This sculpture was one of three creatures created by Seuss for these purposes, the others being "Blue-Green Abelard" and "Tufted Gustard". Following their creation Look magazine declared Geisel “The World’s Most Eminent Authority on Unheard-Of Animals.”

Very rare, typically only the posthumous 1990s reproductions are found. This is one of the finest and most well-preserved of these "unicorns" we have seen.

This lot is located in Philadelphia.

Provenance

From the collection of Justin G. Schiller

Seuss, Dr. (Theodor Suess Geisel). The Mulberry Street Unicorn