Vintage Nantucket High-Ways, By-Ways and Not-Ways Decorative Map by Tony Sarg, circa 1930

Vintage Nantucket High-Ways, By-Ways and Not-Ways Decorative Map by Tony Sarg, circa 1930

$1,750.00

Vintage Nantucket High-Ways, By-Ways and Not-Ways Decorative Map by Tony Sarg, (Nantucket: 1880 – 1942) circa 1930, a decorative tourist map of Nantucket Island with details of roadways and paths, with island place names. This map was adopted by Young’s Bicycle Shop on Nantucket and re-issued in a smaller size over a number of years in the 1930s and perhaps 1940s.

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Vintage Nantucket High-Ways, By-Ways and Not-Ways Decorative Map by Tony Sarg, (Nantucket: 1880 – 1942) circa 1930, a decorative tourist map of Nantucket Island with details of roadways and paths, with island place names. This map was adopted by Young’s Bicycle Shop on Nantucket and re-issued in a smaller size over a number of years in the 1930s and perhaps 1940s. This one does not bear Sarg’s signature but I have seen others that were signed and remarqued by him. I have never seen one this large. It is a pretty scarce map that does not appear often on the market.

This map was used in the field, as should have been, and consequently has tears and loss around the edges. The color remains strong and true. It has been freshly mounted in conservation matting and a bird’s eye maple frame.

Measures: 19-1/4 in x 34 in
Framed: 21-5/8 in x 36.25

Anthony Frederick Sarg was born in Guatemala in 1880, and after living in Germany, England and New York, he purchased a house on Nantucket in 1921 with his wife and daughter (the artist Mary Sarg Murphy).

Starting as an artist for the Saturday Evening Post, he became best known as an illustrator of children’s books. He was fond of creating animal characters to both educate and entertain young readers, and was noted for his use of whimsy and humor. His books often involved moving parts, a proclivity that led to his creating a variety of toys and puzzles.

Sarg was also extremely important as the reviver of marionette theater in America. In 1935 he also designed the first animated window display for Macy’s Department Store, and continued to create new designs for their holiday windows until his death in 1942. He was also the inventor of the first hot air balloons for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

On Nantucket he opened the Tony Sarg Shop at 38 Centre Street, later relocated in 1929 to the corner of Easy Street and Steamboat Wharf where it became Tony Sarg’s Curiosity Shop. He hand crafted and sold a variety toys, puppets, prints, fabrics, wall-paper, decoupage decorated pantry boxes and other folk art. He is especially remembered on-island for his maps, posters and Nantucket theme decorated boxes.

A major collection of his work is held by the Nantucket Historical Association, and was featured in an exhibition at the Fair Street Museum in 1983. He is currently the subject of a traveling exhibit curated by the Norman Rockwell Museum which is currently on display at the Nantucket Whaling Museum.

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