Bronze Hound's Art Collection: Indian Fisherman by Earl Cary "Jack" Haines (May 11, 1927

I know very little about this exquisitely sculpted bronze. I purchased it in an online auction from a charity thrift store which had received it as an anonymous donation. They were just as curious as I was about it and tried many of the same research avenues that I use, with sadly similar results. It took me awhile but I finally wrested from the web a scant bit of information about the artist and this I shared with the folks at the charity. They were as happy as I was to learn even as much as I did about it.

Earl Cary "Jack" Haines of Wichita, Kansas was a machinist, a tool and die maker specifically, for the Coleman Company (famed makers of camping equipment among many other things). It was said that only he could fix the machines used in the factory and so quickly that they hardly lost any time on the production lines. His hobby was woodcarving and he was a master. I stumbled across the website of a woodcarver who collects older carvings and he had one of Jack's pieces listed. The signatures matched and it was obvious to me that it was the same Jack Haines who sculpted my bronze. His obituary mentioned that a few of his carvings were cast in bronze, too. He had attended art shows and expositions where he displayed and sold his carvings, mostly throughout the southern Midwest of the US, from the 1970's until his passing in 1991.

This is a large bronze, easily commanding a significant amount of space on the average coffee table. The patina is polychromatic and in perfect condition, free of any visible damage or rubs. Depicted here is a muscular Indian man, likely in his late teens to early 40's, nude save for a brief and seemingly wet loincloth. His long black hair is parted in the middle and pulled back into two braids that hang over his shoulder and chest. He is standing on two rocks in a stream and is twisting down and to his left as he aims a bow held in his left hand with arrow at the ready at a leaping fish tail in the pooled water below. Rocks line the edge of the pool and dot the water in which he stands. The pose is very naturalistic, the colorful patinas masterfully applied. The bronze is signed by the artist but is not dated, nor is a foundry mark present. It is mounted on a finished wood base that was custom made to fit the unique footprint of the bronze. A brass plaque affixed to the base provides the title, artist's name and that is 1 of 15 that was to be made in the edition, though how many were actually cast remains a mystery.

It is quite breathtaking and immediately captures the attention.

I'll update the pictures as soon as I take new ones.

Enjoy.