Friday, March 27, 2009

1894 American Folk Art Carving of a Man in a Chair






Very nice folk art carving of a man in a chair, dated 1894, currently for sale on eBay.

The seller describes it as being recently found in an attic of a Victorian mansion in New England.

Someone still has a bit of disposable income...it's currently at $511.99 with 4 days left. Expect it to go higher than that for sure.

Update: Sold for $3602.00

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Then expect to find it in a shop in New England for 4 times that amount.

Anonymous said...

How do you find the time to find these wonderful objects? WOW

Joey said...

Ha, yeah, you're pretty much right!

Joey said...

Hey Red-SSR,

I guess I'm a little obsessed with American folk art, especially sculpture. The hard part is, I don't have a lot of money, so I can't go out there and just get whatever I want from dealers. That's why it's a lot of digging, but I think that's where most of the fun comes from too!

Scott said...

I think this sculpture has a wonderful African enthroned figure vibe. That or an early European reliquary (spelling?) figure.
Love it, but I find the end price astonishing for a pretty seriously damaged piece. Check out what it went for...

Joey said...

Yeah, can you believe that winning bid? I was watching the final seconds and my jaw dropped when that came through. That's a very aggressive price, especially for eBay and like you said, considering some not so minor damage. My initial thought was that it would have ended at about $1500.00.

Scott said...

Hey Joey-
I agree, around $1500 is what I would have expected. Online auctions are funny that way- sometimes you see crazy high prices. I wish I saw more crazy LOW prices, but that dosen't seem to happen too often.
I wonder if the winning bidder has buyers remorse? Hopefully they don't care and just love the piece-it's a nice one.
Even though I've gotten some great stuff online, I still prefer making discoverys in person.
Like you I enjoy the hunt, and I also enjoy learing new things from interesting people.
In my opinion, a good flea market is contemporary America's diverse equivalent to an old-time village marketplace... no livestock, but lots of really interesting crap...

Anonymous said...

Guys, that is the wonderful thing about folk art. How do you put a price on someting unique? It's a nice piece and I am happy for the both the seller and buyer. I agree with one of the posters. folk art can get very expensive and it is often times turns people off to not even try. However, the important thing is to keep on hunting for that treasure and you will find it if you put the time and effort in, nothing comes easy.

Joey said...

And ultimately, if you really love the piece, you forget about the price, but you have the piece forever.

Joey said...

And ultimately, if you really love the piece, you forget about the price, but you have the piece forever.