Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
CLEMENS, Andrew
CLEMENS, Andrew. (Dubuque, IA, Jan. 29, 1857—McGregor, IA, May 14, 1894). Clemen's father was a locksmith and wagon-maker who moved the family to McGregor, Iowa, to take advantage of the business provided by the gold-rush and settlement of the west. (1) When he was five years old, Clemens had what his family called "brain fever" (encephalitis). After attending the Iowa school for the deaf-mute, he came home in the summers and started going to the MISSISSIPPI RIVER near McGregor, Iowa. (2) In what is today Pikes Peak State Park, the Paleozoic formations of the central United States form bluffs and gullies. The Ordovician St. Peter Sandstone is famously pure and white with well-rounded quartz grains providing the raw material for glass-making and other applications. (3)
At Pictured Rocks, however, waters carrying iron oxide minerals percolating down through the St. Peters' sandstone and stained it. (4) Clemens and his brother Alexander collected this colored sand into as many as fifty to one hundred sacks each containing about ten pounds. The boys found there were as many as forty-two different shades ranging from pink and read to green and blue. The purest white sand was found at White Springs Cave in West McGregor. (5)
In the early 1870s, Clemens began to make sand art bottles which were sold in a local shop whose owner also made and sold them. (6) The sand was ground by Clemens using a mortar and pestle. The grains allowing the creation of the finest detail was nearly the texture of dust. The material was poured into bottles with a special tiny homemade scoop holding one-fourth of a teaspoonful. This scoop was fastened to a slender hickory wand nine and one-quarter inches long. With one hand he controlled the colored sands inside the bottle with a curved tool; he used a straight tool to measure the perspective on the outside of the bottle. He used four packers to press the grains of sand down tightly as he worked toward the mouth of the bottle. Since he often used round-top bottles with the opening and stopper at the bottom, he had to do all of his intricate work upside down.
The pictures or designs were held together in the bottle only by the pressure or the sand's own weight and the wax-sealed stopper of the bottle. (7) To ensure the sand did not move, he sealed the bottle with a cork and then pounded the jar on a piece of rubber for thirty minutes. This was followed by attempting to push the cork in further. When the cork would no longer move, his work was finished. (7) His images depicted geometric shapes, historical figures, flowers, and nautical scenes. They are crystal clear and vibrantly colored, and never used any glue. (8)
As his abilities grew so did his notoriety. Clemens was able to turn out some of his more simple sand bottles in three days. These cost $1.00. Bottles illustrated with sand paintings of houses, locomotives took as much as three weeks and were sold for up to $8.00. His jars soon became fairly popular with orders coming from around Iowa and the rest of the country. He often designed bottles to order for clients who wished to commemorate special events. (9) Clemens offered clients an order sheet which offered bouquets, steamboats, or marine scene as central images. (10) Small jars sold for a dollar or two and larger ones sold for $6 or $8. (11) It is estimated that the artist produced hundreds of bottles during his lifetime, but much less than that survived. (12)
Auctioneer Wes Cowan sold the "Sweetheart Sandbottles," made for Helen Wimmler, Milwaukee and Henry Reinken, Manitowoe, (sic) Wis., in 2005 for $24,500. The same two bottles were sold on eBay on February 16, 2010 for $19,000 after five bids. In June 17, 2014 Gavel Auctions sold one of Clemen's creations for $16,800 after two bids. (13) On July 13, 2015 Cowan's Auction sold a Clemen's sandbottle for $23,000. (14) This record was quickly surpassed when two bidders at an Eldred's Auctions on July 31, 2015 drove the price of a Clemen's sandbottle featuring a sailing vessel and an eagle and American flag to $72,000, six times the lot’s pre-sale estimate. (15)
---
Source:
1. "Grain-by-Grain: The Amazing Sand Bottles of Andrew Clemens," Through the Sandglass. Online: http://throughthesandglass.typepad.com/through_the_sandglass/2009/01/grainbygrain-2-the-amazing-sand-bottles-of-andrew-clemens.html
2. "19th Century Sand Art by Andrew Clemens," Antiques Roadshow--Roadshow Archives, Online: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200203A34.html
3. "Grain-by-Grain,"
4. Rischmueller, Marian Carroll. "McGregor Sand Artist," State Historical Society of Iowa: The Palimpsest, May 1945 issue (Vol. XXVI, No. 5), Online: http://clipclop.tripod.com/andrew/dox/sandartist.html
5. Day, Mike, "Painting With Sand," Telegraph Herald, March 7, 2025, p. 7A
6. Scholeiki, Roy. The Sand Art Bottles of Andrew Clemens, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2015 Review in The Annals of Iowa, Book Reviews and Notices, Volume 75, Number 3, Summer of 2016, p. 276
7. Day
8. Downing, Glen Ray. "Seeing the World in Grains of Sand," Idaho State Journal, July 6, 1973, Online: http://clipclop.tripod.com/andrew/dox/sandgrains.html
9. Barnes, Sara. "Intricately-Detailed Sand Art from the 19th Century Made Without Using Glue," Online: http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/andrew-clemens-sand-art
10. Scholeiki
11. Ibid.
11. "The Sand Art of Andrew Clemens," Redtree Times. Online: http://redtreetimes.com/2011/02/20/the-sand-art-of-andrew-clemens/
12. Downing
13. iGavel Auctions. Online: http://bid.igavelauctions.com/Bidding.taf?_function=detail&Auction_uid1=3455727
14. JustCollecting.com. Online: https://www.justcollecting.com/miscellania/andrew-clemens-sand-bottle-brings-23-000-to-cowans
15. Darryl Mozena/ Eldred's Auctions. Online: http://www.artfixdaily.com/artwire/release/4913-eldred%E2%80%99s-auctions-andrew-clemens-sand-art-bottle-for-world-record