Chilmark Pewter, "Frenchie", depicting early explorers

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"Frenchie" by the late artist Donald Polland. Made of fine pewter and porcelain. Gold Chilmark logo on piece. The French explorers of the early 17th century were the first Europeans to establish bases in North America for fur trading. The French kings financed a number of different fur monopolies and also were the first to trade excusively with the Indians.Many French entrepreneurs went into the fur business on their own once they arrived in America. These were the "coureurs de bois" (forest runners who went out singly or in small groups to trap or trade for furs). Their best trapping took place in the winter when the pelts, predominantly beaver, were thickest. Polland's "Frenchie" is one such solitary trapper. Dressed in his fur garb and carrying his flintlock rifle, he's dragging a small sled bearing all his earthly possessions behind him. He's the first European (around the early 1600s) to explore the United States beyond the Appalachian mountains from the north (the Spanish had been in New Mexico and Arizona in the 1500s, but they always came up from the south).Manufactured in 1989 by the former Chilmark Gallery of Hudson, Massachusetts. Hudson Creek Pewter Studios, the parent company of The Chilmark Gallery, closed in 2000. Availability of these sculptures is limited to the secondary market, due to their closure. Number 295 read more

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