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The bottom half of a giant 11-foot advertising model of Viquesney's ''Imp-O-Luck'' good-luck charm can be seen standing on the roof of the artist's office building and apartment complex in downtown Spencer, Indiana, 1925.

THE "IMP-O-LUCK"

The ''Imp-O-Luck''
keychain medallion.

Although Viquesney's miniature desktop Doughboy statuette sold in the thousands, Viquesney's actual best seller by far, in terms of actual unit sales, was a good-luck piece patented in 1923 called the "Imp-O-Luck". It consisted of a Leprechaun-like figure surrounded by horseshoes and four-leaf clovers and came in a variety of forms, from keychain charms (left) to statuettes, tie pins, incense burners, lamps, and an expandable ring. The keychain piece alone sold in the "jillions", according to Viquesney researcher T. Perry Wesley. In just one year during the 1920's, the Post Office in Spencer, Indiana logged 80,000 of them.

So successful was the "Imp-O-Luck" that as an advertising gimmick, Viquesney made an 11-foot version to stand on the roof of his downtown Spencer, Indiana studio. Part of it can be seen in a rare surviving photo (above) provided to us by Stanley Griffith, of Bloomington, Indiana.

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CAVEAT!

The keychain medallion version above is often misrepresented and sold on online auction sites such as eBay and elsewhere as "silver". It is not. It's made of what Viquesney called "medallion metal", a lead alloy.

The popular statuette version of the ''Imp-O-Luck'', about 6'' tall. Photo: eBay. Now in the J. Gary Shaw collection.

Detail of the rare tie-pin 'Imp-O-Luck' (about 1/2' wide). Photo: eBay.

The label on the bottom of the ''Imp-O-Luck'' statuette. Photo: eBay.

An ''Imp-O-Luck'' ashtray. Other designs were modified into incense burners and electric lamps. Owen County Courthouse collection. Photo: Harlan Ogle, Monticello, KY.

Above: Patent drawings for the "Imp-O-Luck. Left, 1923, the statuette, and right, 1924, the ash tray version.

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