Cybis "Columbia - Citizen Genet Affair" - Ltd. Edition - Large, Beautiful and Very Impressive.

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We have copied the following from the The Cybis Archive. It is the only site that we recommend for our … Read more We have copied the following from the The Cybis Archive. It is the only site that we recommend for our clients looking for information on Cybis creations since the company closed.
The first Cybis patriotic portrait was Columbia, a limited edition possessing a very unique characteristic regarding numbering. She was introduced in 1967 and was completely sold out by the end of 1968. She was priced at $1000 which was higher than usual for a limited edition during the 1960s. The sculpture is 15” high overall and sits on a 7.5” square wood base.
The unique trait of this sculpture is the numbering, which rather than being the typical 1-200 instead runs from #1776 to #1976; thus, the piece that normally would have been #1 is numbered #1776, and the final piece should be numbered #1976. This is very confusing/misleading if a person doesn’t know that in this ONE instance, the number does not represent the edition SIZE!

The 1979 Cybis catalog lists this as “Columbia 1776 through 1976, Commemorative issue of 200.” However, a basic math check shows that this is incorrect: If the first piece/event is #1776 and the last is indeed #1976, comes to a total of 201 sculptures — not 200! This begs the question of whether the final piece in the series is “1975” or “1976”; the Cybis literature does say “through 1976″ which indicates that #1976 was the final one. An edition size of 200 would only be correct if the last piece/year in the series is 1975. It would be nice to know for sure, so if anyone reading this has a Columbia for 1976, please let me know! There is a contact-form link at the bottom of the post.
In addition to the retail production run there were three additional sculptures made in 1969 for presentation by President Richard Nixon to the Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin. The plaque on those three Columbia sculptures reads: “Here Men From The Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We Came In Peace For All Mankind.” A second shield, round and bearing the symbol of NASA, was also added near Columbia’s feet. A photograph of this sculpture appears in Cybis in Retrospect. The brass plaque that is affixed to the retail #1969 sculpture says simply “COLUMBIA Apollo 11 Mission 1969”
Thanks again to the The Cybis Archive.

***Please note that the physical colors of this item may vary from the pictures in the listing, given the quality of the camera, the lighting and the background used. See less