This monumental Sultana has survived intact with an original paint surface that shows almost no evidence of retouching, a very rare condition among nineteenth-century tobacconist figures, which spent much of their working lives outdoors exposed to the elements. Her many details, including a jeweled and feathered turban, fringed sash around her waist, and a basket of cigars and tobacco boxes cradled in her left arm, make her one of the finest known examples of a New York shoe figure, as this type came to be called in the second half of the nineteenth century.

It is also interesting to note that the Sultana holds the bunch of cigars aloft in her right hand in a manner that is strikingly similar to the way in which the Statue of Liberty holds her torch. While Liberty was not erected on Bledloe's Island until 1886, her configuration was well known in the United States in the 1870s. Her torch was, in fact, displayed at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. Other cigar store figures share the Sultana's pose, so it is possible that one or more carvers were inspired by Bartholdi's famous statue.

The New York show figure style was developed by three generations of shipcarvers, a small group of men who were bound by master-apprentice relationships and a number of short-lived business partnerships. Among the five master carvers most responsible for the style were Samuel A. Robb (1851–1928) and Thomas White (1825–1902). Robb operated the most successful workshop during the last quarter of the century, first at 195 Canal Street from 1876 to 1888 and then at 114 Centre Street from 1888 to 1903. White joined him when he opened his Canal Street shop, forming a productive relationship that lasted more than twenty years. In an article that appeared in the New York Times in 1890, a reporter discussed a number of notable figures that could be seen in the New York area. He then added that "nearly all of these figures came from Robb's shop, and many of them are Thomas White's handiwork."

After about 1870, William Demuth, a New York tobacco products distributor, offered a full line of show figures through catalog sales. Both Robb and White carved for him, and other shipcarvers probably did as well. Together, they established New York City as the leading center for production and distribution, spreading the New York show figure style throughout the country. Found in upstate New York, this figure may have been ordered in this way.

Ralph Sessions, "Sultana," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 547.

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