#Middlebury #Antiques #FolkArt
Artists don’t spend all their time making large oil paintings and huge statues. 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.
Woodcarver Johannes Scholl went by John after emigrating from Germany to the U.S. One of his folk art whimsies sold at Conestoga Auctions for $4,130. (Kovels.com)
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) 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 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.
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.
Current Prices
Halloween, basket, jack-o’-lantern, papier-mache, textured orange, paper inserts for eyes and open mouth, wire handle, 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches, $220.
Doorstop, black cat, humped back, tail curled up, cast iron, paint, single sided, 10 x 6 1/2 inches, $1,120.
Furniture, chair, Shell, shaped curved back, elongated elliptical seat, leather pads, No. CH07, Hans Wegner for Carl Hansen, 29 x 29 1/2 inches, $1,500.
For more collecting news, tips and resources, visit www.Kovels.com
© 2022 King Features Synd., Inc.
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