  We present near-infrared J and H surface photometry of 24 of the nearby
Seyfert 1.8, 1.9 and 2 galaxies from the CfA Seyfert sample. The excellent
angular resolution of HST probes spatial scales as small as tens of parsecs in
most of these AGN and is sensitive to the presence of nuclear bars and other
potential signatures of the AGN fueling process that channels host galaxy gas
and dust to the nuclear region. We have used elliptical isophote techniques to
search for nuclear bars in all of these galaxies and have employed a
two-dimensional fitting technique to model the nuclear point source and surface
brightness distribution of a bright subsample of these galaxies in an attempt
to alleviate the impact of the nuclear point source on our sensitivity to
nuclear bars. We find stellar nuclear bar candidates in four of these galaxies:
Mrk 471, Mrk 270, Mrk 573, and NGC 5929, nearly 20% of the total sample. The
percentage rises to ~30% when systems with disturbed morphologies or high
inclinations are excluded. The nuclear bars in Mrk 573 and Mrk 270 exhibit some
evidence for dust lanes along their leading edges, analogous to the structures
seen in host galaxy bars, while the dust lanes in Mrk 471 and NGC 5929 exhibit
a more complex morphology. The fact that most of these AGN do not appear to
contain stellar nuclear bars suggests that they are not the fueling mechanism
for most low-luminosity AGN.
