Artists don’t spend all their time making large oil paintings, huge statues or even sketches and doodles that help them create a new and different style. Many worked for years before they found the special, individual look that pictured the world in a unique way.
But a different group of artists made folk art carvings, squashed pottery vases and sewer tile statues with the free materials found nearby.
The most ambitious made strange towers of bottles and scrap wood or carved fancy trim for a ceiling from local trees. Collectors and museums started to recognize folk art as another way to look at the world about the middle of the 1900s, but only in areas where formal art museums were rare.
Today museum collectors of unique folk art like carousel horses, carved duck decoys and George Ohr pottery vases pay thousands of dollars for great examples. Even the anonymous carvings used to trim buildings or decorate gardens are collected.
John (or Johannes) Scholl (1827-1916) carved with a jackknife and then used paint. He was a woodcarver whose work was praised long after his death. He made folk art whimsies, carved decorations of fancy shapes that are thought to be among the most important pieces of folk art in the 20th century.
A recent Conestoga auction sold a 28-inch-high piece of folk art by Scholl. It was a carved wooden whimsy that sold for $4,130 after 13 bids.
Q: I had a friend who had a display cabinet filled with pink Depression glass. One day, the top glass shelf broke and fell onto the second shelf and then the bottom shelf. It was a disaster of broken glass. It got me thinking about Depression glass. Is it valuable?
A: Depression glass was very popular with collectors about 1950s through the 1980s. Depression glass is an inexpensive glass that was made during the 1920s and early 1930s in many colors and patterns by dozens of factories in the United States. The name “Depression glass” is a modern one for machine-made glass of the 1940s through 1970s. Prices vary, but large serving pieces are getting high prices in antique stores. We are sorry about your friend’s loss! He should have followed our tip. Glass shelves should be checked anytime you change what is displayed. Glass bends and can break when there is too much weight.
Q: I bought a painting of a lovely seascape that appears to be from the 1800s. That is all the information I received about it. It pictures a sailing ship, cliffs along the shoreline and a rising moon. The seascape looks English to me, but what do I know? I’m a girl who was born and raised in Nebraska! I would like your assistance in helping me find out more about it. I’d like to know where it might have come from, its possible artist, about when it was painted and a possible value.
A: We don’t appraise paintings, and it’s not possible to determine the value of a painting from a photograph. It must be seen by an expert. Without a signature or mark, it’s almost impossible to tell the age of the painting. If the scene is an identifiable place, you might be able to guess where it came from or when it was painted from the landmarks and buildings. An unsigned painting is rarely worth much unless it can be attributed to a well-known artist, has an attractive old frame or has some other special feature.
Q: I love Japanese pottery and recently started looking at Satsuma pottery. Can you tell me about the pieces called “American Satsuma”?
A: Satsuma is a Japanese city where most of the Japanese pottery pieces found today were made after 1860. It has a beige, crackled glaze and is usually decorated with scenes or people in blue, red, green, orange or gold. During World War I, Americans could not buy undecorated European porcelains. Women who liked to make handpainted porcelains at home began to decorate white undecorated Satsuma “blanks.” Early pottery pieces made in Satsuma have floral designs asymmetrically spaced, with much open space. These pieces are known today as “American Satsuma.” Later pottery has geometric designs in the art deco style. The deco designs are less popular with collectors.
Tip: Put a dab of toothpaste on the back of a picture frame. Press the picture back against the wall where you want the nail to be. It will leave a mark that will wipe off.
On the block
Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions.
Glass pitcher, water, cranberry and white spatter, oval bottom, pinched neck, flared top, quatrefoil scalloped rim, clear ribbed handle, 8½ inches, $70.
Clothing, dress, shirt, tunic, knit, black with wide gray shawl collar and bottom band, front tie detail, label, Balenciaga, Paris, size 40, collar to hem 38½ inches, $125.
Halloween, basket, jack-o’-lantern, papier-mache, textured orange, paper inserts for eyes and open mouth, wire handle, 7½ by 7½ inches, $220.
Tiffany silver salt set, shell form, ball feet, marked “Tiffany & Co. / Sterling,” 2¾ by 2¼ inches, four pieces, $395.
Advertising sign, Melons, red arrow pointed right, pine, light and dark green letters, elongated “O” shaped and painted like a watermelon half, pink ground, circa 1925, 11¼ by 60 inches, $530.
Porcelain figurine, rabbit, sitting, turquoise fishnet pattern, gilt nose and feet tips, marked “Herend / Hungary” with cipher, 11¾ by 4½ inches, $860.
Cinnabar box, cover, square, lacquer, relief carved dragons among clouds and geometrics, tapered top ending in a square with sunburst, black lacquer inside, Chinese, 3 by 3 by 3 inches, pair, $945.
Doorstop, black cat, humped back, tail curled up, cast iron, paint, single sided, 10 by 6½ inches, $1,120.
Furniture, chair, Shell, shaped curved back, elongated elliptical seat, leather pads, No. CH07, Hans Wegner for Carl Hansen, 29 by 29½ inches, $1,500.
Jewelry, pendant/charm, egg, green textured enamel, rose cut diamond zig zag band, rubies at points, 14K gold and silver, original box, Henrik Wigstrom, Faberge, 1908-1917, 1 by ⅝ inches, $5,125.
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