Alexander Phimister Proctor (American, 1860-1950) Buffalo, modeled 1912, cast after 1913 Bronze with dark brown patina 13 inches (33.0 cm) high Inscribed on base: A PHIMISTER PROCTOR © 1912 Inscribed along edge of base: MODEL OF BUFFALO FOR Q STREET BRIDGE, WASHINGTON, D.C. Stamped along the base: GORHAM CO. FOUNDERS QPF Property from a Distinguished Maryland Collection LITERATURE: A.P. Proctor, Alexander Phimister Proctor: Sculptor in Buckskin, Norman, Oklahoma, 1971, p. 233, another example illustrated (as One of four large bronze buffalos on Q Street Bridge); P.J. Broder, Bronzes of the American West, New York, 1974, p. 114, pl. 104, another example illustrated; K. Solender, The American Way in Sculpture, 1890-1930, Cleveland, Ohio, 1986, p. 15, no. 5, another example illustrated (as Buffalo); T. Tolles, American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Vol. I. A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born before 1865, New York, 1999, pp. 415-17, no. 186-7, other examples illustrated (as Buffalo); P.H. Hassrick, Wildlife and Western Heroes: Alexander Phimister Proctor, Sculptor, Fort Worth, Texas, 2003, pp. 162-64, 169, pl. 34, another example illustrated; T. Tolles, T.B. Smith, The American West in Bronze, 1850-1925, New York, 2013, pp. 76-77, fig. 97, another example illustrated; P.H Hassrick, The Best of Proctor's West: An in-Depth Study of Eleven of Proctor's Bronzes, Cody, Wyoming, 2017, pp. 45-47, pl. 7.7, another example illustrated. By the end of the nineteenth century, the mythology of the Western frontier still retained a powerful hold in the imagination of many Americans. Different manifestations of its geography and inhabitants became devoted symbols which inspired various artistic interpretations from the period. As natural resources like the buffalo were rapidly disappearing due to industrial-scale commercial hunting, the buffalo in particular emerged as a symbol of America's vanishing landscape and an increasingly nostalgic national past. In one such response during the period, this enormous, almost mythical creature of the wooly buffalo was memorialized in Alexander Phimister Proctor's soaring sculpture commission for the Q Street Bridge in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. By this point, in 1911, Proctor was already widely acclaimed for his monumental American sculptural works, including his bronze Tigers that were already installed locally at the Piney Branche Bridge, now known as the 16th Street Bridge, in Washington, D.C. Moreover, the Q Street Bridge commission was not his first iteration of the buffalo subject. A proceeding bronze Buffalo, conceived in 1897, was exhibited in Paris at the National Sculpture Society's Third Annual Exhibition. In preparations later that year, however, Proctor visited Wainwright buffalo sanctuary in Alberta, observing the herd of buffalo that resided on a 200,000-acre nature preserve, again familiarizing himself with the American bison, preparing sketches to take home to Washington (P.H. Hassrick, Wildlife and Western Heroes: Alexander Phimister Proctor, Sculptor, Fort Worth, Texas, 2003, pp. 162-63). The pair of buffalo Proctor eventually finished in 1914 were cast by Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company in Mount Vernon, New York, and were proclaimed in newspapers to be the "largest single casting of bronze ever made in the United States" (ibid, p. 164). Significantly, prior to completion of the final, monumental bronzes, Proctor copyrighted and began casting bronze reductions with Gorham Company Founders, the present work one among them, serving as acknowledgement that he anticipated the strong commercial appeal of such a successful rendering of this iconic American symbol (T. Tolles, T.B. Smith, The American West in Bronze, 1850-1925, New York, 2013, p. 77). Beyond these technical and commercial achievements, Peter H. Hassrick concludes, "Dually reinforcing the demise of the ‘real' West, yet assuring the preservation of the dreams invoked by such American symbols, Proctor's Buffalo represent more than American fauna—they represent the historic West, a vital ingredient in the formation of America's national Heritage" (ibid, p. 164). HID12401132022 © 2026 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

Dirt and dust in crevices.
Overall: 13-½ inches high x 18 inches wide x 10-½ inches deep