The Pantheonic Statuette of Norton I

May 30, 2023 / John Lumea

It’s well known that souvenir photographs and lithographs of Emperor Norton were sold in San Francisco shops during the Emperor’s lifetime.

Norton biographer William Drury takes it considerably further to claim that, by the early 1870s, there was a whole cottage industry of “Emperor Norton statuettes, Emperor Norton dolls, Emperor Norton mugs and jugs, Emperor Norton Imperial Cigars” — and even that there were peddlers hawking Emperor Norton merch at his funeral.

I find no evidence to support much of what Drury asserts — but…

In 1877 — a couple of years before Emperor Norton died in 1880 — a German immigrant jeweler and sculptor in San Francisco created a highly accomplished statuette of the Emperor that deserves a much closer look than it has received.

Although there is no ready evidence that this nearly-two-foot-tall statuette was sold in shops, there is evidence to suggest that it was a fixture in San Francisco saloons — and even that the Emperor himself had a copy in his apartment.

Among other things, I document here the three known copies of the statuette and offer a glimpse into the life and work of the sculptor.

There even are cameo appearances from historians of Ancient Rome and the Oxford English Dictionary.

It’s a fascinating story, previously untold.

A Closer Look at an Emperor Norton Treasure Hunt Medallion

June 14, 2022 / John Lumea

The Emperor Norton Treasure Hunts, produced by the San Francisco Chronicle between 1953 and 1962, loom large in modern Nortonian lore.

The central symbol and talisman of these treasure hunts is an elaborate 7” medallion. When winning competitors discovered and dug up a plastic version of this medallion, they were gifted with a keepsake bronze “original” that was struck by Shreve & Co., the legendary jeweler established in San Francisco in 1852.

But, it’s never been clear exactly what these medallions looked like — front and back — until now.

New close-up photographs of one of the original 1953 medallions is on the flip.

Of Medals and Medallions: Four Artifacts of Mid-20th-Century “Norton Culture”

April 17, 2020 / John Lumea

The period of the 1950s and ‘60s was a high-water mark of the Norton Cultural Complex in San Francisco.

Probably the best-known engine of “Emperor Norton awareness” during this time was the San Francisco Chronicle’s Emperor Norton Treasure Hunt. But, there were many other Norton-related projects, too — and some of them left behind beautiful physical traces.

At least three — perhaps all four — of the Nortonian artifacts discussed here trace their origins, production and promotion to the Chronicle.

And, two of them — a medallion and a medal — are relics of a “Grand Order of the West” that remains very mysterious indeed.

Includes rarely seen photographs.

The Emperor Norton Trust

Filtering by Tag: medallion

The Pantheonic Statuette of Norton I

A Closer Look at an Emperor Norton Treasure Hunt Medallion

Of Medals and Medallions: Four Artifacts of Mid-20th-Century “Norton Culture”