Self-taught masterpieces will be sold April 21-22 at Slotin Auction A weekend Spring Masterpiece sale, featuring 1,500 lots of folk art in an array of genres, will be held April 21-22 by Slotin Auction at the Historic Buford Hall in Buford, Ga., just north of Atlanta.
News-Antique.com - Apr 03,2012 - (BUFORD, Ga.) – A weekend sale featuring 1,500 lots of folk art in a wide array of genres will be held April 21-22 by Slotin Auction in the Historic Buford Hall, located at 112 East Shadburn Avenue in Buford, just north of Atlanta. It is the firm's popular Spring Masterpiece Sale, held around this time each year. Internet bidding will be hosted by LiveAuctioneers.com.
The auction will provide bidders with an eclectic and exciting mix of offerings: Southern folk pottery, circus and carnival freak show items, folk erotica, a collection of early hand-made Black Americana items, self-taught artworks, masterpieces and more. Slotin Auction specializes in bringing the strange, the unusual and the vanishing America to auction.
“We have a well-rounded catalog, with many different artists and items. There is much to choose from,” said Steve Slotin of Slotin Auction. He added, “Folk art, while deeply rooted in history and the American experience, is evolving, like any other art form. This sale will reflect emerging trends. It sounds like a cliché, but there really is something for everybody in this sale.”
The April 21 session will kick off promptly at 10 a.m. (EST), with more than 125 lots of face jugs, the crowd-pleasing expressions of Southern folk pottery crafted by some of the most famous artisans in the field: the Meaders family (Lanier, Reggie, A.G., Clete and others); Billy Ray Hussey, members of the Hewell family, Marie and Brenda Rogers, B. B. Craig and others.
Circus and carnival items will feature a paint on canvas “Champion Sword Swallower” side show banner attributed to Neiman Eisman (circa 1930s-'40s), 118 inches by 90 inches (est. $3,000-$4,000); a pair of nymphs carousel side, carved and polychromed painted wood, attributed to Allen Hirschell (est. $3,000-$5,000); knock-down dolls; shooting targets; and more.
Several tobacconist figures will be sold, to include an 1875 Cigar Store Indian, carved and polychromed wood with gesso, 76 inches tall (est. $12,000-$17,000); a rare wrapped and stuffed doll on horseback, 15 inches high, made of carved wood and mixed media (est. $2,000-$3,000); and a 93-inch-tall Indian figure, carved wood with layered paint (est. $1,000-$2,000).
Two lots certain to spark bidding wars are an unusual cut molded sheet metal centaur weather vane made by an anonymous craftsman around the third quarter of the 19th century, large at 60 inches by 71 inches (est. $8,000-$10,000); and an original graphite on joined paper by Martin Ramirez, titled Caballero and depicting an armed man on a horse (est. $35,000-$45,000).
A pair of works by William Hawkins will also get paddles wagging. The first is a 1982 enamel on Masonite landscape rendering with figures titled Trail Riders, 60 inches by 48 inches (est. $20,000-$30,000). The other is a 1982 enamel on paneling with glitter painting titled AIU Citadel, artist signed and dated with a birth date, 39 inches by 50 inches (est. $10,000-$20,000).
Sister Gertrude Morgan is a name synonymous with Slotin Auction, and this auction has several of her works, to include an unsigned paint and
