This spread-wing eagle, with its cross-hatched and faceted feather patterns, is a visual throwback to the fierce heraldic eagles of late medieval and Renaissance Germany. It was made by Wilhelm Schimmel, an itinerant wood-carver active in Cumberland County in the late nineteenth century. His eagles, among his most distinctive products, came in a variety of sizes.

Related examples: Lipman 1948, fig. 141; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont (American Sampler 1987, p. 72, no. 16); a large collection at Winterthur; other examples at MMA and MFA, Boston. Schimmel’s work has been thoroughly discussed by Milton E. Flower (Flower 1943; Flower 1960; Flower 1965, p. 7, no. 3).

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.