Oval bust image of American James Fisk by J.L. Young, measures approximately 17x10" on a 21¼x19" white marble block, velvet matting and affixed to a wooden frame (29¼x25¾"), iron brackets screwed into an internal gilt-lined walnut wooden frame holding bust in place (no screws in marble), all inside a deep and large wooden frame (36¾x33¼" overall).

Signature of James Fisk on an 1871 Season Ticket for the Grand Opera House, “for Col. George W. Hooke & family,” included. James Fisk (1834-1872), American financier and speculator, who, after a short stint of schooling, he went on to be a successful hotel waiter, a ticket-seller for the Van Amberg circus, a peddler salesman with his father’s “traveling emporium,” which he later purchased for himself and “graciously admitting his father to his employ,” and branched upwards managing large war contracts (and by some accounts was involved with cotton smuggling) for the wholesale department of Jordan & Marsh of Boston during the American Civil War. A boastful and flashy young man, Fisk, “with endless impudence and push,” he accumulated considerable wealth, which he soon lost in speculation. In 1864 he became a stockbroker in New York and was employed by Daniel Drew as a buyer. He aided Drew in his war against Cornelius Vanderbilt for control of the Erie Railroad, which resulted in Fisk and Jay Gould becoming members of the Erie directorate. Subsequently, a well-planned raid netted Fisk and Gould control of the railroad. The association with Gould continued until his death. They carried financial buccaneering to extremes, their program including open alliance with Boss Tweed, the wholesale bribery of legislatures, and the buying of judges. Their attempt to corner the gold market culminated in the fateful Black Friday of September 24, 1869. After arguments over money and a Broadway showgirl named Josie Mansfield, Fisk was shot and killed in New York City by Edward S. Stokes, a former business associate, on January 6, 1872. Includes a partial paper label on the back from New York Art Gallery and Auctioneer, William Schaus and Reichard & Co., whose primary years were from the 1880's and 1890's operating on 5th Avenue near the National Academy of Design along with other commercial art galleries / auctioneers. See Johnson & Malone’s "Dictionary of American Biography," Vol. VI, pp. 414-415; and Wikipedia Encyclopedia (under James Fisk). J.L. Young's name etched in the lower left of the bust. Provenance: Purchased from an estate in Brattleboro, Vermont in the 1950's and has remained in the family since then. Fisk was born and is buried in Brattleboro, Vermont.