Burr Giffen
Burr Giffen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Burr Edwards Giffen March 3, 1886 |
| Died | April 2, 1965 (aged 79) |
| Known for | Artist, Illustrator |
| Style | contemporary art |
| Spouse | Bertha Tischler Giffen |
Burr E. Giffen (March 3, 1886 - April 2, 1965) was an American artist and illustrator[1] working in New York City. His most famous creation was while he was working for an Advertising Company in 1910. He created the Fisk Tire Company Boy holding a tire and night candle as a proposal sketch in charcoal. This sketch became the company's well-known registered trademarked image in 1910.[2]
Biography
[edit]Burr Giffen was born in Rockford, Illinois. When he reached the age of 4, he moved to Des Moines, Iowa where his father Marvin Q Giffen, was successful in the wholesale furniture business. Burr was noted without an occupation in the 1905 Iowa Census and soon left for New York City.[3]
In 1910, he was working for the ad agency Wagner and Field (established Nov. 1908). Giffen says he got the inspiration for the drawing at 3 A.M., sat down on his bed and rapidly sketched the little boy with a tire over his right shoulder and a candle held in his left hand. Simultaneously. he coined the slogan: "Time to Re-tire."[4]
The sketch was an instant hit with the Fisk Rubber Co., which a few years earlier had introduced its first pneumatic automobile tire. It appeared nationally in Life magazine in 1911.[5]
Norman Rockwell was one of the artists who illustrated the Fisk tire boy, which allowed him to be creative.
Over the decades, the tousle-haired, sleepy-time boy appeared on every Fisk car and truck tire, in ads, on all stationery, booklets, posters, TV slides, calendars, tire store displays and even on clock faces.
References
[edit]- ^ The Standpatter: A Chronicle of Democracy. Ella Hamilton Durley. Illustrated by Burr Giffen. The Herald Square Publishing Company, New York City, 1912.
- ^ "Fisk Tires and the Sleepy Boy", chapter 23, Chicopee Public Library Archives online, 2015.
- ^ ancestry.com Iowa State Census Card no. 439
- ^ Transcript-Telegram (Holyoke, Massachusetts) newspaper, May 6, 1956.
- ^ "Made in Four Styles". Life magazine, August 17, 1911 on page 276.
External links
[edit]- "Fisk Tires and the Sleepy Boy". Doctoral dissertation, Pau Megano-Drigas / University of Barcelona, chapter 23, 2015 (English translation, 2018), starting on page 1902.
- https://www.pbs.org/video/antiques-roadshow-appraisal-fisk-tire-boy-time-re-tire-sign-ca-1920/ PBS Antiques Roadshow on Fisk Tire Boy
- https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/274826668/burr-edwards-giffen Findagrave listing for Burr Giffen