Producer unknown to us
Stirring paddle
Americas, Mexico
Before 1940
Wood, carved
Erich Hösel (professor and sculptor) probably acquired the stirring paddle during his trip to the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904
Purchased by the museum from Herta Hösel in 1962
MAm 7785
This stirring paddle is made of a narrow board with ornamental carvings. One end is carved with the figures of two roosters.
The previous owner, Erich Hösel (1869–1953), was a Saxon sculptor who worked at the Porcelain Manufactory Meissen for many years. On a business trip to the United States in 1904, he visited the St. Louis World’s Fair, also known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, which celebrated the westward expansion of the United States beginning in 1803. While there, he attended “ethnological expositions” and a lifelong artistic interest in Indigenous North America was sparked. On this trip, he acquired a number of valuable ethnographic objects of Indigenous communities and subsequently became active in German networks of enthusiasts and collectors, for example, in the Karl May Museum in Radebeul. By purchasing a large part of his estate in 1962, the Leipzig Museum was able to partially replace its wartime losses in the North America collection.
Frank Usbeck