Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York: Kristin Gelder
212 606 7176
SOTHEBY’S TO OFFER HISTORIC SHIP’S
FIGUREHEAD OF FAMED OPERA STAR
JENNY LIND FROM THE PROW OF THE
CLIPPER NIGHTINGALE FOR SALE
IN JANUARY 2008
REDISCOVERED BY SWEDISH COLLECTOR WHO
WAS SOLD FIGUREHEAD AS “A SCARECROW”
New York, New York – In January 2008, Sotheby’s will offer an historic ship’s figurehead from the prow
of the clipper Nightingale, which navigated the world during the 19th century. The full-length, beautifullycarved figurehead depicts the famed Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind (1820-1887), a figure of worldwide
renown at that time. Sold as “a scarecrow” to the owner of a Swedish farm, the figurehead was
rediscovered by Swedish collector Karl-Eric Svärdskog who, through thirteen years of unfailing persistence,
determination and thorough research, sought to determine her origins and recreate her story. One of only
two known figureheads saved from extreme clipper ships, the figurehead, being offered with a replica of
the recreated original, is estimated to bring $100/150,000* in a sale of Important Americana.
Nancy Druckman, Senior Vice President and head of Sotheby’s American Folk Art department, said:
“This remarkable piece has a fascinating past – which is exceptionally well-documented -- that brings to
life this particular ship and sheds light upon maritime history, as well as aspects of American and Swedish
history.”
Karl-Eric Svärdskog, the current owner of the figurehead, said: “For thirteen years now I have been
married to this woman, ‘Jenny Lind’. She has changed my life completely, and now that I’ve learned her
story, I want to share this extraordinary figure of beauty and history with others.”
J. Revell Carr, former president and director of Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, continued: “Very
rarely, a 19th century figurehead emerges from obscurity and is recognized as the work of art it truly is. It is
even more rare that such a figurehead is identified and reconnected to the history of the ship it once
symbolized. In the Jenny Lind figurehead, we have such a rare find. The story of her discovery and the
efforts that have been lavished on her to bring her out of the mists of the past is fascinating and captures
the interest of everyone who hears it.”
Figureheads were large carved wooden figures that adorned the prow of ships from the 16th to 19th
centuries. Introduced by galleons, figureheads were often used to indicate the name of a ship in nonliterate societies, and in the case of naval ships, to boast wealth and might of the owner. In countries such
as Germany, Belgium and Holland, it was once believed that spirits called Klaboutermannikins, meaning
“water mannekins”, dwelt in figureheads, guarding the ship from sickness, storms, rocks and winds. If the
ship sank the spirits guided the sailors’ souls to the Land of the Dead. To sink without one condemned the
sailor’s soul to haunt the sea forever.
The Story of Jenny Lind’s Rediscovery
In 1994, Karl-Eric Svärdskog, who owns an antiques shop in Gothenburg, Sweden, was approached by his
good friend and supplier Günter. Günter travelled through Gothenburg in an old fire truck promoting his
offerings, and while visiting a farm the previous day, he spotted an unusual find -- a wooden hand
protruding from rakes, shovels and wooden beams in a hayloft. The farmer identified the figure as “a
scarecrow”. Finding similarities between the scale of this figure and one in his own inventory, Günter
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approached Mr. Svärdskog and said: “Do you want to buy a scarecrow?” After much thought, Mr.
Svärdskog examined the figure and was stunned at what he saw underneath layers of cobwebs and dirt: a
saint-like woman with beautifully-sculpted hair and a masterfully-carved blue eyes, red mouth and
pronounced eyebrows. His immediate thought: “This is no common scarecrow.”
Mr. Svärdskog took his “scarecrow” to the Gothenburg Maritime Museum, where the curator agreed with
him. This, in fact, was a ship’s figurehead, evidenced by the hole in her mid-section that was used for the
drift pin fastened to her prow. Her hairstyle and narrow-waisted dress suggested that she was from the
mid-nineteenth century, which were both styles
that were high fashion at that time, and Mr.
Svärdskog soon discovered that the Swedish
opera singer Jenny Lind was a popular model
during that period as one of the world’s first
“stars.” Of the many reproductions of Jenny
Lind, the most convincing was an engraving of a
dramatic scene from Meyerbeer’s Robert le
Diable – and the figurehead corresponded down
to the finest detail. The curator also explained that there was often a connection between a ship’s name
and its figurehead. From the register cards at the Museum, Mr. Svärdskog learned that there had been six
ships named Jenny Lind, but that all had sunk off of Sweden’s coast. Stumped, he looked further and read
that one of the most famous figureheads in the United States was the Jenny Lind at the Mariners’ Museum
in Newport News, Virginia. A smaller figurehead, also said to represent Jenny Lind, is in the maritime
museum in Sandefjord, Norway.
Further research shed light upon the story of a shipbuilder in Eliot, Maine, Samuel Hanscom, Jr., who had
named his new clipper ship, Nightingale, after Jenny
Lind. On June 16, 1851, the Nightingale slid into the
Piscataqua River. She was built originally to carry
passengers across the Atlantic to the Great
Exhibition in London, and was then to be exhibited
in the Thames with her large saloons and luxurious
cabins. Unfortunately money ran out before the
fittings were completed, and the Nightingale was sold
at auction in Boston. Instead she sailed on her
maiden voyage to Sydney, Australia, the first ship to take American diggers to the Australian gold rush.
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From Australia, the Nightingale headed to China and, in light of the lucrative tea trade, she competed in the
famous Tea Races to London for a decade. Then, in February 1860, she was sold in New York to Francis
Bowen, known as “the slave prince.” Her next voyage was from Angola to Cuba carrying 2,000 Africans
in irons. Fortunately, this stage of her career was brief: in April 1861, she was captured by the American
warship USS Saratoga and was taken into government service. During the Civil War, she served as an
armed cruiser for the Federal Navy. After the War, the Nightingale was the flagship for the Western Union
Telegraph Company’s Pacific project. At that time the company was looking into the possibility of tying
together the Old and the New World with a telegraph cable over the Bering Strait, right through Siberia
and into western Europe. The project was abandoned in 1868 and the ship became a freighter. On March
17, 1893, the Nightingale was deserted in the North Atlantic at the ripe old marine age of forty-two. But, Mr.
Svärdskog wondered, if the Nightingale had sunk in the Atlantic, how could her figurehead have reached a
barn near Gothenburg?
A glimmer of hope returned when Mr. Svärdskog read that the Nightingale`s last homeport had been
Kragerö, in southern Norway, a day’s sail from Gothenburg. He persuaded the local newspaper in Kragerö
to run a story with the hope that a reader might be able to offer insight into the quandary, and an older
man responded that one of the Nightingale’s deckhouses was on Kirkeholmen Island off Kragerö. The
owner of the island, Anders Thomassen, confirmed that the Nightingale had been taken to the shipyard
there in 1885 for repairs during which the figurehead were removed. A big house at the old shipyard held
more traces of the Nightingale: the railing on the second-floor landing was a banister from the interior of
the ship; a length of the deck planking with inscriptions --perhaps made by slaves -- was there; a daily log
of the repairs shows that Swedish workers were employed on the project. Perhaps the workers became
enamored with the figurehead, offered to buy her, and took her home after finishing their work? An old
figurehead had little economic value, but could have been an unusual souvenir from their time in Norway.
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The final piece of the jigsaw fell into place when the eldest man on a farm where she was found
remembered that as a little boy, he had heard that a relative had bought the “scarecrow” after it was taken
off a large ship in Norway.
Evidence from Art and Science
Although it was clear to him that his “scarecrow” had come full circle, Mr. Svärdskog knew that it would
be important to find further evidence to seal the fate of his claim. Illustrations of the Nightingale in books
were generally too small to show the figurehead in detail, but Mr. Svärdskog did find an article in the
March 1932 issue of the American Yachting Journal with drawings by Charles Davis of the ship with the
figurehead clearly visible. As he studied them, his heart sank -- they showed the figurehead with both arms
outstretched, and “his” Jenny’s were not. He thought to himself, “For all this time, have I been following
the wrong path?” He examined Jenny closely and noticed that while the right sleeve of her dress had four
rows of ruffles, the left had three. The left arm was anatomically incorrect; it was too long and stout, and
the fingertips protruded awkwardly. The waist on the left side of the dress, however, curved softly upward,
precisely the way the fabric would fall if the arm were held straight ahead and upward. Suddenly, it became
clear to him: her left arm was not original.
A paint analysis of Jenny Lind’s dress showed that it had been painted approximately 25 times in different
shades of white and yellow; the left arm, however, had fewer coats of paint. A wood analysis told the same
story: the figurehead was made of Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.), the species that professional
woodcarvers in New England used for their figureheads; the left arm, however, was Douglas fir
(Pseudotsuga menziesii). The left arm, indeed, was a replacement. With a desire to see her as she was originally,
Mr. Svärdskog had an exact replica made using laser scanning techniques, and a British carver, Andy Peters,
recreated the original position of her arms. He also carved a nightingale which was originally poised on her
finger, ready to fly off and sing for the world.
In the search to determine who carved her, Mr. Svärdskog learned that ships launched in the Piscataqua
typically had their figureheads made in Boston, since the Portsmouth area had no professional carvers
at that time. In his book, Ship Carvers of North America, M. V. Brewington records that both S. W.
Gleason & Sons and John W. Mason were carving figureheads in Boston in the mid-1800s. His
research suggests that Mason was called upon when human figureheads were needed; he found only two
cases where the Gleasons had carved a human figure before Mason closed his shop in 1854. J. Revell Carr,
former president and director of Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, agreed that Mason was indeed
the likely artist of the Nightingale’s figurehead. Many considered him to be America’s foremost wood carver,
and Jenny Lind is thought to be his only extant carving.
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A painting of the Nightingale by Buttersworth shows the clipper underway with Jenny at the bow. In the
background is Castle Garden in Battery Park, New York. An enlargement of the bow shows a white, threequarter-length figurehead with both arms stretched forward, and its base is a light blue scroll. Threequarter figures were uncommon: the majority of human figureheads on American clipper ships were fulllength, upright figures with one foot in front of the other, a position suggesting speed. Jenny may have
been carved this way because she was always portrayed in a dignified manner wearing a long dress. The
drape of the dress would naturally resolve into a scroll, since fashion prevented women from revealing any
part of their legs or ankles. The likely pose of the figurehead’s original arms corresponds to how the arms
are
positioned
in
the
painting.
William Crother’s book, The American-Built Clipper Ship 1850-1856, quotes part of an article in the Boston
Daily Evening Traveller that describes the Nightingale: “The stern is ornamented with a carved figure of Jenny
Lind reposing on a couch, in flowing dress and waving hair; on each side of which is a gilded
representation of a cornucopia. The whole is surrounded by branch work interlined with clusters of grapes.
Her name is also on the stern in blue and gold. The figurehead is a finely carved figure of Jenny Lind,
painted white, set off with gilded ornaments; in the right hand, which is extended, is a gilded bird,
representing the Nightingale with half-spread wings.”
In 2001, to mark the 150th anniversary of the “real” Jenny Lind’s visit to America -- which was also 150
years after the Nightingale first slid into the Piscataqua River -- there was a concert in the Music Hall in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, just a few miles downriver from the figurehead’s birthplace. Jenny Lind was
brought in for the celebration. From 2002-2005 Jenny was also exhibited in the Mystic Seaport Museum,
Mystic, Connecticut, and in 2006 at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City.
*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium
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