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EARL'S DOUGHBOY DATABASE GRANDMA QUATER'S DOUGHBOY LAMP A TRIBUTE TO T. PERRY WESLEY
Viquesney Doughboy Myths
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MYTH 1: The first completed Viquesney Doughboy was placed at Centralia, Washington.
No, although that seems to have been the original intent. In April of 1921, Viquesney was notified in a letter from the American Legion that his statue had won its design competition and was to be "adopted ... as its National Memorial" that was then being being planned for Centralia's George Washington Park. But the statue that stands there today is another WWI memorial statue, The Sentinel, by Alonzo Victor Lewis, dedicated in 1924.
What went wrong? Nobody knows for sure. The most likely explanation is that before his statue could be completed for Centralia, Viquesney was sued in 1922 for copyright infringement on behalf of sculptor John Paulding, who had filed his own copyright for a similar design Doughboy statue six months ahead of his competitor. Obviously it wouldn't have reflected well upon the American Legion to have the winner of its design award involved in litigation over artistic originality, and it probably withdrew its award. The situation would have been extremely embarrassing to both sides; indeed to this day, the American Legion won't answer any inquiries about why the memorial at Centralia isn't Viquesney's, and steadfastly denies it ever endorsed his statue. And for his part, in January of 1922, Viquesney suddenly and mysteriously sold out to his business partner Walter Rylander, packed up and left his 15-plus years base of operations in Americus, GA,and returned to his hometown of Spencer, Indiana,never to go back to the South again. But even thereafter, when he eventually recovered his company from Rylander in 1926, Viquesney continued to claim in his advertsements that his Doughboy was "100% endorsed by the American Legion".
The Sentinel at Centralia, WA
This isn't Viquesney's Doughboy.
Photo: Lettie Gavin
Myth 2: The first completed Viquesney Doughboy stands in Spencer, Indiana, the sculptor's hometown.
Again, no. Spencer didn't get its Doughboy until May 29, 1927, years after many others had been installed at other locations. It seems as though Viquesney was waiting until he could reaquire his Doughboy company from his former business partner, Walter Rylander, to whom he had sold it in 1922. This he did in January 1926, and once Viquesney was in control again, he offered his Doughboy at cost to the town of Spencer, which readily accepted.
MYTH 3: The first completed Viquesney Doughboy stands in Americus, Georgia.
Still no, although closer to correct than the two previous beliefs. Although Viquesney was living in Americus, Georgia at the time he completed his first Spirit of the American Doughboy in March, 1921, and the statue was put on public preview in the lobbies of the Rylander Theater and Windsor Hotel in that city, it had been already ordered by the city of Nashville, Georgia in August of 1920, before it was even finished. It was later shipped there, where it still stands today. Americus did get its own Viquesney Doughboy a few months later, on November 11, 1921.
MYTH 4: All Viquesney Doughboys are bronze castings.
Many people over the years have just assumed their city or town's Viquesney Doughboy to be the usual bronze casting. But as these statues eventually get restored one after the other, it's becoming evident that the 1920 copyright version is actually formed from sheets of machine-pressed copper or bronze welded or riveted together. And in the case of the later 1934 copyright version, another surprise: People who thought these were also made of copper or bronze are discovering they're made of cheaper copper-plated zinc. Apparently Viquesney wanted to cut costs to make the statue more affordable during the Great Depression. These later zinc statues, however, unlike the copper version, are true casts. Even the rare (three known) 1922 stone version isn't what it seems; advertised as "pure Italian marble", it was made of a mixture of ground marble and gypsum pressed into a mold and held together with some sort of binder.
MYTH 5: The popular miniature 12" desktop Doughboy was the model for the full-size statue.
No. Although Viquesney produced many other miniatures with the thought and hope that they would materialize as full-scale monuments (and a couple of them did), the miniature Doughboy came only after Viquesney was swamped with requests from Veterans for a miniature of his newly completed life-size statue. However, he did sculpt a clay model for use while working on the original.
MYTH 6: The Doughboy miniatures were made of bronze.
Unfortunately, no. Wording in Viquesney's ads, referring to the "bronze" finish of the statuette, sometimes led readers to believe the whole statuette was bronze. The most expensive version, at $6.00, was bronze plated, but was still cast of an easily breakable lead alloy called pot metal, which often didn't last long, with children running about the house. The fragile bayonet and rifle assembly was usually the first casualty.
MYTH 7: "Doughboy lamps" found today on eBay and elsewhere today are just homemade conversions of the 12" statuettes, and thus not worth as much because of this "modification".
Well, not exactly. Although all Viquesney "Doughboy lamps" are nothing more than the 12" Doughboy statuettes with shades and electrical hardware added (which anybody handy enough could do), they were, from at least 1922 and on into the late 1930s, sold as the "American Doughboy Art Lamp" from the factory, and are in fact just as valuable as the statuette version to collectors (and possibly more so, since ones with original hardware and in operating condition are quite rare, and the original shade is almost impossible to find; I've only seen one in good condition, below).
To see old original ads for the Doughboy lamp and statuette, go to Les's Web site (Grandma Quater's Doughboy Lamp, link at left).
A Viquesney Doughboy lamp with an extraordinarily rare original shade
(but with the usual damaged rifle).
Myth 8: Other Doughboy statues in similar poses are later imitations of Viquesney's work.
Actually, Viquesney was late to the gate. Sculptor John Paulding, Viquesney's main competitor, installed a version of his Doughboy on May 30, 1920, 10 months before Viquesney finished work on his, but because of the latter's cheaper production methods and flamboyant advertising style, he was able to bypass and eventually outsell Paulding to the point where many people now erroneously believe Paulding's Doughboy is the imitation of Viquesney's, rather than the other way around. Further, Viquesney, who was living in Americus, GA at the time, may have been inspired by (at best), or totally ripped off (at worst) the design of an unsigned 1920 stone Doughboy in Eufaula, AL (pictured below) which, except for no gas mask pouch and no fieldpack, looks nearly identical in pose and appearance to his own 1922 stone version.
This unsigned 1920 stone Doughboy in Eufaula, AL,
is almost identical in appearance to Viquesney's 1922 stone version.
Photo: Eufaula, AL, Chamber of Commerce.
Myth 9: There is at least one Viquesney Doughboy statue in every state of the Union.
Despite Viquesney's extravagant claim in his brochures that there was at least one Spirit of the American Doughboy statue in every state of the Union (except Alaska and Hawai'i, which were still U.S. territories during the sculptor's lifetime), there are nine states (California, Delaware, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, and Rhode Island) which have no record of ever having a Viquesney Doughboy. Omaha, Nebraska, had one once, but it was vandalized and donated to a WWII scrap metal drive. Thus there are currently ten "lower 48" states which have no Viquesney Doughboy.
