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paumille-38 · ‎11-14-2017

I have a really nice sculpture that I know very little about. Can someone help me? It looks like a man sowing the fields. I am not even sure what it is made from, but looks bronze. It has a foundry mark, but I can not make it out. It also has B.B. etched in the side of the base and is numbered 110/200.

Thanks for your help.

sonomabarn67 · ‎11-14-2017

Johnny Appleseed?

gone_4_good · ‎11-15-2017

I am assuming it is bronze (metal) not resin

Here is similar theme sculpture

https://www.aspireauctions.com/#!/catalog/48/256/lot/8615

The BB is probably a foundry mark

maxine*j · ‎11-15-2017

@sonomabarn67 wrote:
Johnny Appleseed?

No, I don't think so. iThe guy is hand sowing and you don't plant apple trees that way. Well, you can, and of course nature does it that way, but John Chapman knew what he was doing and didn't just scatter seeds around and hope. For all his eccentricities, he was a skilled nurseryman.

From the angle in the top photp, the guy looks like Abe Lincoln, and I imagine Abe did some hand sowing, at that. But from the angle in the second one, it looks nothing like Lincoln.

Anyhow, hand sowers are the subject of innumeral works of art -- paintings, sculptures like this, statuary -- but this particular one doesn't ring any bells with me, nor does the "B.B." There seems to be more writing on the base, but I can't make it out.

argon38 · ‎11-15-2017

Could you post another few close-ups of that signature (?) on the base, taken from different angles?

maxine*j · ‎11-15-2017

Yeah, no matter how much I squint, I can't make it out. The second bit looks almost like "Burger" but that doesn't get me anywhere, right offhand.

sonomabarn67 · ‎11-15-2017

http://www.mormonshare.com/lds-clipart/johnny-appleseed

I think this settles it, JA was a scatterer and rarely did plantings except for events, trade shows, etc. He learned this technique from deer who would eat apples and leave droppings containing the seeds. That's what the internet says.

sonomabarn67 · ‎11-15-2017

Image result for johnny appleseed drawing

More proof!

argon38 · ‎11-15-2017

@maxine*j wrote:
The second bit looks almost like "Burger"

For what it's worth, I thought so too.

argon38 · ‎11-15-2017

@sonomabarn67 wrote:
http://www.mormonshare.com/lds-clipart/johnny-appleseed

I think this settles it

I don't know... it's just there are so many generic sower sculptures out there:

https://www.google.com/search?q=sower+sculpture&complete=0&dcr=0&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUK...

maxine*j · ‎11-15-2017

@sonomabarn67 wrote:
http://www.mormonshare.com/lds-clipart/johnny-appleseed

I think this settles it, JA was a scatterer and rarely did plantings except for events, trade shows, etc. He learned this technique from deer who would eat apples and leave droppings containing the seeds. That's what the internet says.

Well, the internet has it dead wrong, although that's awfully hard to believe. Must be a first.

John Chapman was a trained and very skilled nurseryman. He travelled about establishing nurseries, fenced and all, and actually hoped and intended to share in the profits therefrom. Yeah, I know, that isn't nearly so romantic as wandering about aimlessly singing and sowing. He started in Pennsylvania, where I live, and he died and was buried in Indiana, where I grew up. So, you see, I am the absolute EXPERT here.

sonomabarn67 · ‎11-15-2017

I guess if we could actually see what's in that bag of his; seeds, apples, or is he sowing the seeds of discontent?

sonomabarn67 · ‎11-15-2017

Also, a well intended image done in bronze can quickly go astray. Look what happened to Lucy!

maxine*j · ‎11-15-2017

@sonomabarn67 wrote:
I guess if we could actually see what's in that bag of his; seeds, apples, or is he sowing the seeds of discontent?

Hmmmmm. If they are apples or appleseeds, it cannot be John (Johnny Appleseed) Chapman. However, if they are the seeds of discontent, it might well be Chapman, slightly crazed preacher that he was. You know, you may be onto something!