Frederic’s Remington Controversial Sculpture of 

Indian Rider Carrying Scalp on Auction Block

It’s an image that today would be considered gory as well as racist: an Indian on horseback brandishing the scalp of a freshly killed enemy.

But in the early 1900s this bronze case of Frederic Remington’s "The Scale" was presented annually to the Brooklyn public school with the best sport’s record.

SELF-PORTRAIT ON A HORSE by Frederic Remington

In December it was featured on The History Channel and was being auctioned off an eBay until the end of 2000 with bids starting at $250,000.

Born in 1861, Remington was an illustrator, sculptor and journalist whose depictions of cowboys and Indians helped burnish the legend of the wild West. His artwork remains widely exhibited today, with pieces on display from the White House to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Looked at in Context

Experts said "The Scalp" must be seen in the context of its time.

Laura Foster, curator of the Frederic Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg, N.Y., said Remington’s career "was based on the fascination of the Eastern public with the idea of the American frontier and the vanishing, nearly extinct species of the wild native American."

"Today, certainly, people have an entirely different view," Foster said. "In Remington’s time the Eastern public was thinking of Native Americans like stuffed heads. …It was generally expected that their culture would not survive, due to manifest destiny."

Alexander Nemerov, a professor of art history at Stanford University and the author of "Frederic Remington and Turn-of-the-Century America," noted that Remington lived in New Rochelle, N.Y. when he created "The Scalp".

"What’s most interesting is to think about Remington as someone who lived in New York City area … and to see his works as inventions or fabrications of the West that speak more to the needs and interests of an urban audience," he said.

One of 11

The sculpture that is being auctioned on eBay was one of 11 casts by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co. from 1898 to 1900. The castings retailed for $325 – a considerable sum at the time.

Cast No. 5 was purchased by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper and was given each year to a Brooklyn public school as an athletic trophy. A brass plate affixed to its base reads: Presented by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle to be held by that Brooklyn school which shall annually be determined by the Public Schools Athletic League to have shown the highest standing in athletics during the year."

References to the trophy can be found in the newspaper’s archives up to 1909, when it was won by P.S. 127. At some point, rough handling by schoolboys cost the horse its tail.

It is unclear where the sculpture was during much of the 20^th century.

"It basically just disappeared," said Cameron Whiteman, art curator at Butterfield’s Auctioneers, which assembled eBay/History Channel collection. "it just showed up in Florida much later."

The sculpture’s current owner is auctioning it off anonymously, Whiteman said.

The sculpture is now on loan to the Remington Art Museum, where, Foster said, people "just eat it up".

But some viewers may not notice just what the bare-chested brave is holding in his upraised hand.

Foster said the museum’s shop sells reproductions of the sculpture. "Sometimes people get it home then bring it back," she said. "They are forced to look at it with a more steady gaze when it’s in their own home."