Lederstrumpfbrunnen Lederstrumpfbrunnen The Lederstrumpfbrunnen (literally: "leatherstocking fountain") is a fountain in the German city of Edenkoben. It commemorates the frontiersman Johann Adam Hartmann (1748-1836), who was born in this city and considered by some as a possible inspiration for the character Natty Bumppo of the Leatherstocking Tales novels by the American writer James Fenimore Cooper. The three main sculptures around the fountain are Hartman/Bumppo depicted as a hunter with a rifle and accompanied by a dog, the Indian chief Chingachgook (another famous character from the novels) and the artist Max Slevogt (1868-1932), who created some of the best known illustrations for
The Deerslayer New York State, which is the setting of four of his five "Leatherstocking Tales". This novel introduces Natty Bumppo as "Deerslayer": a young frontiersman in early 18th-century New York, who objects to the practice of taking scalps, on grounds that every living thing should follow "the gifts" of its nature, which would keep European Americans from taking scalps. Two characters who actually seek to take scalps are Deerslayer's foil Henry March (alias "Hurry Harry") and the former pirate 'Floating Tom' Hutter, to whom Deerslayer is introduced "en route" to a rendezvous with the latter's lifelong friend Chingachgook (initially apparent in