Folk Art Auctions

Folk art auctions feature a wide range of objects that reflect the artist’s craft traditions, and traditional social values.  Folk art is generally produced by people who have little or no academic artistic training.  Folk artists usually use established techniques and styles of a particular region or culture.

Folk art auctions include paintings, sculptures and other decorative art forms.  Some artists also consider utilitarian objects such as tools and costumes as folk art.  For the most part, the category of folk art auctions exclude works by professional artists.

It has been my experience that folk art auctions have something for just about anyone.  I found a folk art painting of a cat in a peach tree that was done by the artist Tascha.  The artist also noted on the folk art auction that they create unique ceramic tile art.

I found an interesting folk art auction for a carnival knock-down dummy in the shape of a large cat.  It was made around 1930 and is twice the size of similar items.  I researched the item on a non-auction site and found that it is worth a lot of money.

Another folk art auction that I found and was sad to bid up past my budget was a handmade set of miniature dominos.  The set was in a folk art decorated maple case.  The set dates from the mid to late 1800’s.  It was really exquisite and I’m sorry that I missed out on it.

I really liked another folk art auction that I found for a modern fraktur.  A fraktur is a specific kind of Pennsylvania German folk art.  The fraktur I found was a watercolor of a marriage record.  It was very colorful and looked like it held very special significance to its original owners.

I found a wood box from Maine in an estate auction locally to me in Orange that really appealed to me.  It was rather small, but was painted chrome yellow and was trimmed in forest green.  The paint was crazed and worn and it was made in the late nineteenth century.  There were no visible nails and the hardware was reported as looking original.

The folk art auction that I missed out on that was way out of my price range was for an Andrew Clemens sand bottle.  The sand bottle was date 1887 and was covered in patriotic decorations.  It was an apothecary style bottle with a stopper and it contained at least ten different colors of sand.  The bottle ended up selling for five hundred dollars.  I’m sure that it has ended up in an excellent collection of folk art.

I found an amusing folk art auction for three wooden carvings.  The name of the piece was Three Articulating Folk Art Whimseys and were all made by the same artist. The carvings were accented with sheet metal neckties.  The first carving in the folk art auction was of a cobbler, a blacksmith and a gentleman with a donkey.  The second carving was a diminutive soldier and the third was a cobbler smoking a pipe.  I think that this piece of Americana was purchased at a low price of three thousand dollars and was worth much more.