Folk Art Highlights

Andrew Clemens (American, 1857-1894) patriotic sand art bottle, dated 1889. Glass bottle with round flat-top stopper and a tall cylindrical body filled with multicolored, layered sand in decorative stripe, swag and diamond patterns, one side with vignette of a spread-winged eagle a 36-star American flag, the alternate side with a detailed floral vignette including forget-me-nots, rose and pansy, enclosing a date of 1889. Height 6 5/8″. Provenance: the estate of Stanley Horn, Nashville, Tennessee, by descent in his family to current consignor. Note: Andrew Clemens was born in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1857 and later moved to the town of MacGregor. At the age of five, he contracted an illness (possibly encephalitis) which caused him to become deaf and mute. He attended the Iowa School for the Deaf. As an adult, he began working with sand from the naturally colored sandstone in the Pictured Rocks area of Iowa to form detailed pictures in glass bottles. Clemens created his designs using self-made tools including “brushes” of tiny hickory twigs; no glue was used. The bottles were well received by the public – particularly riverboat travelers to MacGregor, seeking souvenirs – and he was able to earn a livelihood selling sand art bottles until his death in 1894 at the age of 37. While many were sold, few have remained intact over the years. (Source: the Des Moines Register). PRE-APPROVAL IS REQUIRED TO BID ON THIS LOT. PLEASE CONTACT CASE ANTIQUES, INC. AT THE KNOXVILLE GALLERY FOR DETAILS. 865-558-3033 or BID@CASEANTIQUES.COM. CONDITION: Stopper is original with 1/8″ chip and 2 short hairlines to edge (these do not extend through (stable)). [See more photos →]

Important African American “TVA” Quilt, designed by Ruth Clement Bond and made by an unknown quilter working in the TVA dam sites at the juncture of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee, circa 1937. The hand-stitched cotton quilt with cotton batting depicts a young black man with government-uniformed white arm on his right shoulder and a fiddle or guitar in his left hand, held by a woman whose face appears in partial profile upper right foreground and whose form is suggested by two partial curves in the foreground, right edge. The man’s head is turned toward his right with his knees bent, against a background of sinking sun and light green foliage. Pale brown border with quilted vine and bud stitching and solid light orange backing. Unsigned. 81″ H x 62″ W. Note: This is one of five known surviving quilts in this pattern, named one of the top 100 quilts of the 20th century by judges elected from the Alliance for American Quilts, the American Quilt Study Group, the International Quilt Association, and the National Quilt Association. This lot includes a 1978 photograph of the quilt taken at “Seay-Me-Home,” the vacation home of its then-owner, Maurice Seay, along with a copy of a typewritten document dated 1976 found with the quilt, describing Seay’s connection to the quilt. It states this quilt was given as an expression of gratitude by workers at the Pickwick Dam Village to Maurice Seay, director of the educational program at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) dam sites during the Depression era. It was designed by Ruth Clement Bond (1904-2005), an African American educator, civic leader, and designer who “helped transform the American quilt from a utilitarian bedcovering into a work of avant-garde social commentary” (Source: The New York Times obituary of Mrs. Bond, Nov. 13, 2005 – https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/13/obituaries/ruth-clement-bond-101-quilter-and-civic-leader-is-dead.html ). Bond accompanied her husband, Dr. J. Max Bond, to the TVA dam construction sites where he had been hired in 1934 as a personnel manager to work with the black construction workers. He was, at the time, the company’s highest ranking African American official. Mrs. Bond supplied wives of the workers living at the various sites with quilt designs, many rich with symbolism, including this one, which exhibits elements reminiscent of paintings by Harlem Renaissance artist Aaron Douglas (particularly his mural series, “Aspects of Negro Life,” 1934). This is one of five quilts in this particular pattern known to exist along with one smaller related textile. The smaller textile is in the collection of the Museum of Art and Design in New York, one quilt is in the Michigan State University African American quilt collection, and a second quilt is in the private collection at TVA Headquarters. The whereabouts of the other two, both documented prior to 1990 by author and quilt researcher Merikay Waldvogel, are unknown. A detailed discussion of these so-called “TVA Quilts” can be found in Waldvogel’s book, “Soft Covers for Hard Times: Quiltmaking and the Great Depression” (Rutledge Hill Press, 1990). It contains information from interviews with Bond and two of the quilters, Rose Marie Thomas and Grace Tyler. All offered slightly differing titles and meanings for the quilt. Bond herself stated “The man with his banjo is full of frivolity. He is between the hand of the government [TVA] and the hand of a woman. He must choose between the government job and the life he has known…we wanted to show that he chose the TVA job. It has a hopeful message…things were getting better and the black worker had a part in it.” (p. 80). Note: The Seay paperwork dated 1976 (which appears to have been compiled for an exhibit at Western Michigan University the same year) indicates this quilt was made in Northeastern Mississippi, however, the other surviving quilts all have strong ties to the Wheeler Dam construction site in North Alabama. CONDITION: Central image in very good structural condition with even fading and a 3″ area of tiny scattered stains lower left; a couple of tiny areas of separation in stitching at lowermost edge of guitar and on subject’s left lower leg at edge. Border with overall fading in addition to discoloration and significant color loss along lower section. Scattered smaller areas of border have barely noticeable discoloration (largest is 1″L, positioned along right edge). Documentation with this lot includes a note from this quilt’s original owner, Maurice Seay, dated 1988, stating that the bottom of the quilt “was stained and faded as it hung on the north wall in the cabin.” [See more photos →]

Andrew Clemens (American, 1857-1894) patriotic sand art bottle with the original label. Apothecary style glass bottle with round flat-top stopper and a cylindrical body filled with multicolored, layered sand in decorative stripe, swag, wave, and geometric patterns, one side with vignette of a 30-star American flag, the alternate side with a banner enclosing the name MRS. A. HARRIS. The base retains the original paper tag reading PICTURED ROCK SAND PUT UP BY A. CLEMENS DEAF MUTE McGREGOR, IOWA. 5 5/8″ H. Note: Andrew Clemens was born in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1857 and later moved to the town of McGregor. At the age of five, he contracted an illness (possibly encephalitis) which caused him to become deaf and mute. Clemens lived his entire life in Iowa, near Pikes Peak State Park. He and his brothers frequented an area of the park called Pictured Rocks, which was famous for its sandstone bluffs that were veined with iron and mineral deposits, resulting in over forty different shades of stone. He attended the Iowa School for the Deaf and as an adult he began working with this sand to form detailed pictures in glass bottles. His brothers helped to gather the sandstone and grind it into fine powder which Andrew used for his designs. Clemens created his designs using self-made tools, including “brushes” of tiny hickory twigs and bent fish hook tools; no glue was used. Clemens secured the sand with a scrap of velvet near the stopper, then sealed the lid in place with wax. The bottles were well received by the public – particularly riverboat travelers to McGregor, seeking souvenirs – and he was able to earn a livelihood selling sand art bottles until his death in 1894 at the age of 37. While many were sold, few have remained intact over the years. (Source: the Des Moines Register & The Smithsonian Institution).

PROVENANCE: Private Illinois collection.

CONDITION: Both the stopper edge and bottle rim with slight scattered chipping. [See more photos →]

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Helen La France (Kentucky, 1919-2020) oil on canvas landscape painting depicting an African American congregation gathering for a church picnic upon the grounds before a church's open door and having automobiles scattered across the grass, a family arriving via the dirt road in a horse-drawn cart lower left, children playing a circle game lower right, and ladies preparing a long table beneath the trees mid-ground. Signed "Helen La France" lower right. Inscribed with title and "Shelton Gallery", en verso of stretcher. Housed in a simple wood frame. Sight: 17 1/2" H x 23 1/2" W. Framed: 19 1/4" H x 25 1/4" W. Biography: "Self-taught African American artist Helen LaFrance was born on a Kentucky farm and began painting in her 40s. She is known for her 'memory paintings' drawn from her recollections of life growing up in the rural South. Several museums and private collectors, including Oprah Winfrey, own examples of her work." (Source: "Helen LaFrance Folk Art Memories" by Kathy Moses). Helen LaFrance died November 22, 2020 in a Mayfield, Kentucky nursing home at the age of 101.

PROVENANCE: Private Southern collection, acquired from Shelton Gallery, Tennessee.

CONDITION: Overall excellent condition. [See more photos →]

Helen LaFrance (American/Kentucky, 1919-2020), "Church Picnic," oil on canvas painting depicting parishioners gathering outside a white frame church. Natural wood grain frame. Signed "Helen La France" lower left and dated 1998. Sight – 30" W x 22" H. Frame – 32" W x 24" H.

Artist biography: African American artist Helen LaFrance is best known for her "memory paintings," based on her 101 years of life in Graves County, Kentucky. Her parents, James Franklin Orr and Lillie May Ligon Orr, were tobacco farmers, and Helen spent most of her life no more than ten miles from her birthplace in Mayfield. Her mother taught her to draw and paint, helping her mix colors from wildflowers, berries, and laundry detergent, but she did not begin painting full time until her 40s, when she started selling her work at local art shows and fairs. Her subjects mostly focused on scenes of ordinary rural life, such as church picnics and river baptisms, although she occasionally portrayed dramatic events in the life of her community, such as tornadoes and floods, and African scenes inspired by her family''s ancestral heritage. LaFrance''s work (which also comprised quilts, wood carvings, and dolls) began attracting nationwide interest in the 1990s, and with a burgeoning market of collectors that included famous names such as Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King and Bryant Gumbel, she continued painting well into advanced age. In 2011 she received Kentucky''s Folk Art Heritage Award. Her work recently became the subject of a retrospective at the Speed Museum in Louisville, and is also in the permanent collections of the St. Louis Art Museum and the Owensboro KY Museum of Fine Art.
PROVENANCE: Private Middle Tennessee collection, acquired directly from the artist.

CONDITION: Excellent condition, no damage noted. [See more photos →]

Southwest Virginia sideboard pie safe with tins having intricate punched urn, flower, and star designs, total of eight punched tin panels, all with old green paint. Walnut primary and poplar secondary. Rectangular top over one long drawer and two side drawers, all dovetailed; four paneled doors inset with painted tins; interior fitted with two shelves; solid paneled sides, all resting on short turned and tapered legs. 51 1/8″ H x 65 1/4″ W x 18 1/2″ D. Probably Washington County, VA. Third quarter of the 19th century. Provenance: Brad Swanson Collection, Abingdon, VA. CONDITION: Overall general wear, some warping to top, some of the wooden knobs worn, one missing. Crack to front left corner of top, wear and losses to upper corners of a couple of doors and drawers from use. Interior with later added support to accomodate more shelves. [See more photos →]

Knoxville, Tennessee genealogical sampler, signed Isabella M. Baker, 1848; executed in silk needlework on linen, with floral vine border and stitched garden at lower edge; features three rows of upper case letters, one row of lower case letters and one row of numerals, plus seven geometric dividing bands, all sewn in eyelet, cross stitch and four-sided stitch. Center field contains marriage, birth and death information for Isabella’s parents, C.H. Baker and M.L. White, and family, 1831-1847. 23 3/4″ H x 24 1/2″ W unframed. Note: This sampler has been documented for the Tennessee Sampler Survey. The survey’s genealogical research found Isabella (Belle) McNutt Baker was born Oct. 30, 1836 in Knoxville, TN. Her parents were Caleb Hodnett Baker, Sr. and his second wife, Mary Lawson White. Through her mother, Isabella was the great-granddaughter of Gen. James White, the founder of Knoxville. Isabella was listed as a sophomore in the 1848-1849 catalog of the East Tennessee Female Institute, successor of the Knoxville Female Academy. As she was not listed in the catalog for 1847-48, it is not certain that she completed her sampler there. However, if she did, her embroidery teacher would have been Mrs. Mariah McAnally, wife of Rev. David R. McAnally, principal of the school. Isabella married Benjamin J. Stephenson, a druggist, in 1856 and gave birth to four children. She died in 1913 and is buried in the Old Gray Cemetery in Knoxville. (A copy of the Tennessee Sampler Survey genealogy report, including guide to initials on sampler, is available on request). Condition: Overall good condition with some fading and discoloration. 3/8″ x 1/2″ and 3/8″ x 3/8″ tears near upper right corner. CONDITION: Overall good condition with some fading and discoloration. 3/8″ x 1/2″ and 3/8″ x 3/8″ tears near upper right corner. [See more photos →]

Punched Tin Andrew Jackson parade lantern, cylindrical with domed top and handle, the punched design reading “Andrew Jackson Forever” across the body with ” Jan 8th 1832 ” across the top, surmounted by a row of stars. Exhibited Cheekwood Museum of Art, “Nashville Collects”, circa 1990. 13-1/2″ H x 5-1/4″ diameter. Provenance: estate of A. Welling LaGrone Jr., Nashville, Tenn., purchased from Sotheby’s (lot 762, unknown sale number/date). Note: Jan. 8, 1815 was the date associated with General Jackson’s victory in the Battle of New Orleans. This was likely a commemorative piece, possibly made around the time of his re-election. Condition: Lacks top handle, two small holes in base, 1 broken hinge with lost nail. [See more photos →]

George Wilhelm Frye, (Germany/Alabama, 1822-1872) oval oil on canvas painting of Southern historical interest, depicting a bearded African American man standing beside a posted newspaper, attired in a white shirt, red pants and suspenders, a straw hat and black boots. The subject holds a brush tinged with whitewash or white glue and a paint pail, and just behind him, on the wall, is posted the front page of the Louisville Commercial Newspaper (1869-1902). Signed lower left margin “W F”. Unframed. 26 3/4″ H x 21 3/4″ W. Exhibited, The Howard Steamboat Museum “Fall Into Art” exhibit, 2010. Provenance: Estate of Lynn Scholl Renau, Louisville, Kentucky. Note: Lynn Renau was awarded the Isaac Murphy Award for her groundbreaking research about slavery and African American history in Kentucky. This painting, which hung over her desk, was among her most prized pieces. Frye’s decision to title the newspaper “The Louisville Commercial” and give it such visual prominence is significant, especially when viewed beside his working class, African American subject. Founded by the DuPont family in 1870, The Louisville Commercial was the only Republican daily newspaper in Kentucky, and it also circulated in Southern Indiana and Middle and West Tennessee. According to one period description quoted in “Chronicling America,” “its rigorous exposure of corruption and wastefulness in municipal affairs has given it strong local popularity and influence; it is a favorite in families and with business men, and the saloons and gambling dens are bitterly hostile towards it.” Biderman DuPont, sole owner of the paper by 1874, had supported the Union cause and in an 1860 letter to his mother, wrote that “Slavery is a moral evil….” (source: Timothy J. Mullin, “The du Ponts in Kentucky,” DLSC Faculty Publications, Western Kentucky University, 2009). In an 1873 ad the newspaper boasted it had “met the Democratic papers at every point and exposed their misstatements” (American Newspaper Directory, Vol. 4). Biography: “George Wilhelm (William) Frye (1822-1872) was a portrait artist from Germany who established a studio in Huntsville, Madison County; he also painted in Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee. His depictions of life in the western Black Belt of Alabama were important records of the antebellum period in the state. He also tutored future Alabama artist Maria Howard Weeden for two years. Historians are able to follow his career through court records and the newspaper advertisements Frye placed in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee; several advertisements in Alabama newspapers announce his relocations. By 1845, Frye had settled in Louisville, Kentucky, where he painted portraits, and he opened a second studio in Huntsville by March 1847 while maintaining the Louisville location at least into 1848. On May 18, 1848, he married Virginia Hale in Hunstville; the couple would have four children. He became a U.S. citizen on August 29, 1854, in Madison County. During the next several years, Frye opened temporary studios in numerous locations around the South, including Memphis, Tennessee, and advertised his services there for four months in 1857. Frye’s growing reputation as a portrait painter prompted the Agricultural and Horticultural Society Fair of West Alabama to enlist him as a fine arts judge in 1859”. (Source: “The Encyclopedia of Alabama” by E. Bryding Adams). Alternate spelling George William Frey. CONDITION: Canvas is embrittled, loose from stretcher on right side, and stretcher creases evident at top and left sides. Right side has significant 21” L. vertical crease with loss and flaking and 8 perforations, largest 2” L. Left side with 3 perforations, largest 2” L. ?” L. tear center above male figure’s head. Various abrasions and scratches with loss, largest 1 ½” L. No inpainting or alterations detected with black light. [See more photos →]

Helen LaFrance (American/Kentucky, 1919-2020) oil on canvas painting depicting a rural landscape with African American farmers tending a patch of monumental cabbages. A man climbs into a cart drawn by two horses while a woman viewed from behind sits on a fence before a barn. Another figure walks toward a distant house at right. Signed "Helen La France," lower right. Titled "Cabbage Patch Near Barnyard" and inscribed "Shelton Gallery" to stretcher. Housed in a simple black frame. Canvas: 21 7/8" H x 27 7/8" W. Frame: 23 1/4" H x 29 3/16" W.

Artist biography: African American artist Helen LaFrance is best known for her "memory paintings," based on her 101 years of life in Graves County, Kentucky. Her parents, James Franklin Orr and Lillie May Ligon Orr, were tobacco farmers, and Helen spent most of her life no more than ten miles from her birthplace in Mayfield. Her mother taught her to draw and paint, helping her mix colors from wildflowers, berries, and laundry detergent, but she did not begin painting full time until her 40s, when she started selling her work at local art shows and fairs. Her subjects mostly focused on scenes of ordinary rural life, such as church picnics and river baptisms, although she occasionally portrayed dramatic events in the life of her community, such as tornadoes and floods, and African scenes inspired by her family''s ancestral heritage. LaFrance''s work (which also comprised quilts, wood carvings, and dolls) began attracting nationwide interest in the 1990s, and with a burgeoning market of collectors that included famous names such as Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King and Bryant Gumbel, she continued painting well into advanced age. In 2011 she received Kentucky''s Folk Art Heritage Award. Her work recently became the subject of a retrospective at the Speed Museum in Louisville, and is also in the permanent collections of the St. Louis Art Museum and the Owensboro KY Museum of Fine Art.

PROVENANCE: Private Southeastern collection, ex-Shelton Gallery, Nashville TN.

CONDITION: Overall very good condition. Minor stretcher marks to lower left corner and center left edge. Paper accretions to lower half, largest 1/4" x 1/4" to cabbage patch soil, center left. [See more photos →]

Charles M. Wysocki (American, 1929-2002) oil on canvas painting, titled verso “Windmill,” of a country road winding through a New England village with windmill, barns, houses, horses and buggies, figures and animals. Signed lower right. Label en verso for Hirshl & Adler Galleries, New York. Birdseye maple frame with giltwood liner. 35″ x 35″ sight, 42″ x 42″ framed. Biography (Courtesy Askart: The Artists’ Bluebook): Charles Wysocki grew up in a Polish immigrant community in Detroit. He worked as a sign painter in the Army and, through the GI Bill, enrolled at the Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles. He began his career as a commercial artist, but during a vacation to New England in 1960, was inspired to pursue a career in fine art, focusing mainly on Americana scenes. Wysocki was named one of the ten most influential artists by U.S. Art and was awarded the Medal of Honor from the Daughters of the American Revolution for artwork that “exemplfies our heritage.” His paintings are in numerous public and private collections, including the Presidential art collection. Provenance: the collection of Stephen and Lisa Steiner Small, Nashville, Tennessee, ex-Hirshl & Adler Galleries, New York. Condition: Frame loose at top edge; shrinkage and some light abrasions to frame. Painting is in excellent condition. Condition: Frame loose at top edge; shrinkage and some light abrasions to frame. Painting is in excellent condition. [See more photos →]

Cigar Store Native American figure, carved and polychrome painted wooden likeness of an Indian princess or maiden with feathered headdress, her right arm holding a bundle of cigars while her extended left hand grasps a package of tobacco. Resting on a wooden platform with two steel rod supports. 67″ x 24″ x 14 1/2″ height. Early 20th century. Provenance: Gatlinburg, TN collection. Condition: Old losses and separations to Indian maiden figure, two steel rods support base at lower waist, blacklighting does not indicate paint restoration or repair. [See more photos →]

William Aiken Walker (American/South Carolina, 1838-1921) oil on board Southern genre scene, depicting a cabin with an African American family on the porch and road with chickens in the foreground. An orange tree is pictured to the right of the cabin, and clothes hang from a laundry line in the background. Later frame. Signed lower left “W. A. Walker”. Sight 5 7/8″ H x 11 3/4″ W, Framed 10 7/8″ H x 16 7/8″ W. Biography (courtesy Askart: The Artists’ Bluebook): the son of a prominent cotton agent, Charleston-born Walker exhibited his first painting at the South Carolina Institute Fair at the age of 12. He went to Dusseldorf to study art in 1860 but returned to American and served as a cartographer for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Walker is primarily known for his scenes of plantations, African -Americans, and dock scenes. Some were commissioned by wealthy patrons; others were turned out as souvenirs of the Old South for the tourist trade. Currier and Ives published several of his works as lithographs. From 1876-1905, Walker lived in New Orleans, where he and Everett B.D. Fabino Julio tried to establish an Art League. Their attempts, although initially unsuccessful, the project led to what would become the Southern Art Union. Provenance: acquired from the estate of Dr. George Compton of Tipton, Indiana in the early 1990s; by oral history, acquired by the Compton family directly from the artist in the early 20th century. Condition: Overall excellent condition. Condition: Overall excellent condition. [See more photos →]

Middle Tennessee needlework sampler, silk on linen, signed “H.D. Bryant’s Work”, with house, tree, and basket or urn motifs. Attributed to Maury County (Culleoka), circa 1835. Wide lily or tulip and geometric outer border and an inner chain of diamond border, enclosing upper and lower case cross-stitched alphabets (lacking lower case d) and numerals, over the signature line which is executed in four-sided stitch. Dividing bands are stitched in geometric and floral motifs in cross, back, chain, and queen stitches. The lower half of the sampler is devoted to large figural motifs of a two-story house, tree with two birds, and a basket of fruit or flowers. This highly decorative sampler, worked in tones of blue, dark and light green, white and beige/gold, is similar to other Middle Tennessee samplers classified by the Tennessee Sampler Survey as the “Cartouche, Wreath and Vase Group” (see the Mary Elizabeth Collins sampler sold by this auction house in Dec. 2008). Provenance: according to the Tennessee Sampler Survey, which has documented this sampler, it was made by Harriet Daniel Bryant. Harriet was born in North Carolina to Edward Bryant and his second wife Elizabeth (Betsy) Amis. Sometime between 1818 and 1823 the family moved to the Culleoka area of Maury Co. where the sampler was made. Harriet married Archelous White in Maury County in 1841 and they had nine children. It descended in her family to the present consignor. Older but not original giltwood frame. Sight: 17″H x 17-1/2″W. Framed: 19″ H x 19-1/2″W. Condition: Overall very good condition with some light fading and discoloration but no thread or ground loss. Sampler is currently framed with an acidic background but is not glued down. The blue thread in the outer border does not continue through the lower right corner but there is no indication of thread loss. Later frame but possibly original glass. [See more photos →]

Scarce West Tennessee needlework sampler, silk on linen, by Mary Jane Russell of Brownsville TN, Haywood County, 1837, with unusually comprehensive biographical information. Multicolored border comprised of eyelet stitch on one side and cross stitched zig zag pattern on top, and cross-stitched green and white chainlink pattern on right side, enclosing 2 rows of upper case alphabets (cross and eyelet stitches), and 1 of lowercase alphabets plus 2 rows of numbers. Note: this sampler has been documented by the Tennessee Sampler Survey. It is one of only about ten documented samplers from West Tennessee, and the only known Tennessee sampler which contains the stitcher’s birthplace (Orange County, North Carolina, Feb. 3, 1825 – indicative of the migratory pattern of early Tennessee settlers as they advanced to the Western wilderness). Sampler also includes Russell’s birthdate, Feb. 3, 1825, along with her home location of Brownsville and sampler date, “Nov the 2. 1837.” According to genealogical information from the Tennessee Sampler Survey, Mary Jane Russell came from NC to Haywood County, Tennessee in 1826 with her parents, James W. Russell and Nancy Brewer. There was a Brownsville Academy in the community by 1831 (which may have been co-ed), and Mary Jane may have made her sampler there. Records obtained by the Tennessee Sampler Survey show her father fell behind on his payments there in 1833 and 1834 and was sued by the Board of Common School Commissions. Mary Jane may also have been instructed by her aunt, Mrs. W.C. Russell, who was a teacher in the county. Sometime after 1840, Mary Jane, her parents, and several siblings moved to Texas. She married Stephen Decatur Rainey there in 1847 and they had three children. She died in Harrison County, Texas in 1898 and is buried in Marshall Cemetery. A packet of genealogical information will be provided to the winning bidder on request. Old, possibly original lemon gilt molded frame. Sight: 10 3/4″ H x 17 1/2″ W. Framed: 4 3/4″ H x 21 1/2″ W. CONDITION: 3/4″ area of repair above first letter C, 1/2″ area of repair upper center edge above letter F, a few other scattered small areas of ground loss/holes, discoloration/toning and fading throughout. Sampler has not been examined out of frame. [See more photos →]

Early 19th century schoolgirl landscape theorem on velvet, depicting a large building with bell tower set atop a hill. It and several smaller buildings overlook a river, with three men in a boat loaded with barrels sailing past. Old note taped verso reads “For Minerva Evans Hoge. Painted by Minerva French Boyd while a student at the Moravian College in Winston Salem N.C. about the year 1820 – her great-great aunt.” Later giltwood and composition molded frame with brown mat. 12″ x 16″ sight, 21″ x 24″ framed. Also included is a framed copy of an 1865 presidential pardon, granted by Andrew Johnson to another ancestor of Minerva Hoge, Joseph H. Hoge of Giles County, Virginia, for his participation in “the late rebellion against the government of the United States.” 19″ x 30″, framed. Note: upon leaving school in Salem, Minerva French married Col. Thomas Jefferson Boyd of Albemarle County, Virginia, the law partner of her brother-in-law Judge David McComas. The couple lived in Evansham, Va., and Thomas Boyd helped lay out the town which would eventually come to be called Wytheville; in fact he became known as “The Father of Wytheville” due to his civic involvement (source: the Thomas Jefferson Boyd papers, Special Collections, Louisiana State University). Thomas and Minerva had several children, including David French Boyd, who moved to Louisiana and founded Louisiana State University. (Their son Thomas Duckett Boyd also served as President of that University). The scene depicted in the theorem has not been identified. It may show a building familiar to Minerva French which no longer exists, or may have been drawn from a print of the period depicting a faraway location. Condition: Velvet is adhered to acidic paperboard stock, which has caused some overall discoloration. Scattered tiny stains and areas of wear/loss. Losses to molding on frame. [See more photos →]

Dine (Navajo) Germantown Eyedazzler blanket or rug with pictorial elements including a fork and knife together with a bow and arrow to one end and three knives to the other end, with arrow borders at each end and arrows to the center. Expertly and tightly woven in colors of red, green, yellow, black, orange and blue with visible spirit lines to each end. 50″ L (w/ fringe) x 33 1/2″ W. Late 19th/Early 20th century.

CONDITION: Overall very good condition. A few scattered areas of minor staining, minor losses to fringe and minor wear to binding. [See more photos →]

Helen La France (Kentucky, 1919-2020) large oil on canvas landscape painting depicting an African American congregation gathering for a Church Picnic, with automobiles parked in front of a church and horse and buggy approaching lower left; a table is being spread in the background, while little girls play a circle game in the right foreground. Signed "Helen La France" lower right. Housed in a hand made grain painted frame with carved rondels at corners and beaded rabbet edge. Sight – 24" H x 36" W. Framed – 32" H x 43" W. Biography: "Self-taught African American artist Helen LaFrance was born on a Kentucky farm and began painting in her 40s. She is known for her "memory paintings" – drawn from her recollections of life growing up in the rural South. Several museums and private collectors, including Oprah Winfrey, own examples of her work." (Source: "Helen LaFrance Folk Art Memories" by Kathy Moses). Helen Lafrance died November 22, 2020 in a Mayfield, Kentucky nursing home at the age of 101. Provenance: Private Mississippi collection, acquired by consignor's mother directly from the artist. CONDITION: Overall excellent condition. 1/4" inclusion in tree/leaf area; a few scattered flyspecks. [See more photos →]

Franklin Boggs (1914-2009) oil on canvas countryside landscape, likely Tennessee, depicting a gathering of farmers, women and children, engaged in various farming activities including baling hay, pouring grain into bags and talking. Barn to left of scene with horses, chickens and pigs and farm equipment present. Signed lower right and dated ’42. Housed in the original Knaffl & Brothers, Knoxville, TN stained wood frame. Sight – 29 1/4″ H x 39 1/4″ W. Framed – 33 1/2″ H x 43 1/2″ W. Biography: A painter, sculptor and muralist, Franklin Boggs received his art education at the Fort Wayne Art School and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He was awarded two European Traveling Fellowships and was in Europe at the outbreak of the war in 1939. Boggs began his art career by recording the activities of the Tennessee Valley Authority and painting murals for the U.S. Post Office. He became a war artist-correspondent for Abbott Laboratories early in 1944 and documented the work of the Army Medical Department in the South Pacific. After the war, Boggs was commissioned to paint in South America and became a full professor and artist-in-residence at Beloit College, where he continued his work as a muralist. His works have been exhibited in many leading U.S. museums including the Metropolitan, Corcoran, Legion of honor and Chicago Art Institute. His murals are in eight states and two are in Finland (Courtesy: PBS). CONDITION: Small area of craquelure, upper mid margin, otherwise overall very good condition. Frame with light general wear. [See more photos →]

Wilhelm Theodore Eilerts (Kentucky, late 19th Century) oil on canvas painting of two setters on point in a field with a mountainous background. Signed “W Th Eilerts 1882″ in lower right. Unframed. 20 1/8″ H x 26” W. Note: Wilhelm Eilerts was an artist working in central Kentucky in the late 19th century. Little is known about his background or training, but much of his known work consists of sporting and equine subjects rendered in a folky manner. Provenance: Private Nashville, Tennessee collection. Condition: Overall very good condition. Minimal paint loss around the edges, on new stretcher. [See more photos →]

Helen LaFrance (American/Kentucky, 1919-2020) oil on canvas painting depicting a bustling street at night, likely in her hometown of Mayfield, Kentucky, with numerous figures, cars, and brick buildings with hand-painted signs including "Downtown Cleaners" and "Peat''s Place." The door to one of the buildings stands opens with a crowd of people milling around tables inside. Stars and streetlights illuminate the scene. Signed "Helen La France" and dated "2004" lower right. Housed in a simple black floater frame. Canvas: 20" H x 29 7/8" W. Frame: 22" H x 32 1/16" W.

Artist biography: African American artist Helen LaFrance is best known for her "memory paintings," based on her 101 years of life in Graves County, Kentucky. Her parents, James Franklin Orr and Lillie May Ligon Orr, were tobacco farmers, and Helen spent most of her life no more than ten miles from her birthplace in Mayfield. Her mother taught her to draw and paint, helping her mix colors from wildflowers, berries, and laundry detergent, but she did not begin painting full-time until her 40s, when she started selling her work at local art shows and fairs. Her subjects mostly focused on scenes of ordinary rural life, such as church picnics and river baptisms, although she occasionally portrayed dramatic events in the life of her community, such as tornadoes and floods, and African scenes inspired by her family''s ancestral heritage. LaFrance''s work (which also comprised quilts, wood carvings, and dolls) began attracting nationwide interest in the 1990s, and with a burgeoning market of collectors that included famous names such as Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, and Bryant Gumbel, she continued painting well into advanced age. In 2011 she received Kentucky''s Folk Art Heritage Award. Her work recently became the subject of a retrospective at the Speed Museum in Louisville, and is also in the permanent collections of the St. Louis Art Museum and the Owensboro KY Museum of Fine Art.
PROVENANCE: Consignor acquired directly from the artist circa 2004.

CONDITION: Overall very good condition. [See more photos →]

American School miniature portrait, watercolor on ivory, unsigned. Subject is a child with brown hair in a dark dress with white ruffle collar, holding a book. Mounted in gold metal case, very good condition with dust/lint visible inside the case, plating on case shows some flaking, no visible cracks or losses to paint. 2-1/8″ H x 1-3/4″ W. American, early 19th century. Provenance: Pigeon Forge, TN Collection. [See more photos →]

Folk art painting on canvas, depicting a little girl with brown eyes and ringlets, wearing a triple strand coral necklace and lace dress with red sash, seated in a red painted chair with yellow trim, and holding fruit. 28″ x 19 1/2″ unframed. Provenance: Painting has descended in the Moran family of Woodland Farm in Williamson County, TN, which included the cabinetmaker Charles Moran. Charles Moran was born in Gates, North Carolina in 1794 and established a cabinetmaking shop in Franklin, Tennessee circa 1820. The subject is unknown, as is the painter. CONDITION: Original canvas, attached to original stretcher with square nails; a strip of faux leather has been applied with round nails around the perimeter of the stretcher edge, with 10″ strip missing along the top edge. Less than a dozen tiny pinprick sized holes to canvas affecting finger, neck, collar, sleeve and chair, with remaining holes in background. 2″ scratch across bridge of nose, and a 1/8″ flake to lip. 1″ scuff line at center left edge of canvas. General overall surface grime and darkening. Black light reveals no inpainting or alterations. [See more photos →]

Clementine Reuben Hunter (American/Louisiana, 1886/87-1988), "Wash Day," large oil on canvasboard painting depicting three figures doing laundry outdoors under a clothesline. Signed with monogram lower right. Inscribed en verso: "H-22 Ryan" and "LSU Dec. 1971" with possible date or number 1965. Molded wood frame. Sight: 24" H x 30" W. Frame: 27 1/2" H x 33 1/2" W.

Biography: A self-taught artist, Clementine Hunter created bright, whimsical folk paintings depicting life in and around the Melrose cotton plantation where she lived and worked, near Natchitoches, Louisiana. She did not start painting until her 50s. She used whatever surfaces she could find, and, working from memory, recorded everyday life, from work in the cotton fields to baptisms and funerals. She rendered her figures, usually black, in expressionless profile and disregarded formal perspective and scale. Though she first exhibited in 1949, Hunter did not garner public attention until the 1970s when both the Museum of American Folk Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibited her paintings. Even with such success, Hunter chose to stay in Louisiana, working at Melrose Plantation until 1970 when she moved to a small trailer a few miles away on an unmarked road. Source: The National Museum of Women in the Arts.
PROVENANCE: Private Southern collection. We wish to thank Thomas Whitehead for confirming the authenticity of this painting.

CONDITION: Scattered tiny spots of mold/mildew across sky and upper right quadrant. Several tiny flakes to tree. [See more photos →]

Clementine Reuben Hunter (Louisiana, 1886-1988) early oil on canvasboard folk art farm scene titled "Picking Flowers", variant of her common theme, Uncle Tom's Cabin, circa 1960s. Painting depicts a man with white beard, "Uncle Tom," and young "Eliza" in a bright yellow dress with red hair ribbons, tending to and picking flowers around the base of a birdhouse on pole foreground; large white goose and vegetable garden lower left; "Simon Legree" with whip and dogs upper left; cabin lower right background, blackbirds flying above right. Monogram signature lower right. Labels en verso for Knoke Gallery (Atlanta, GA); canvas is also stamped "F.L. (Doc) Spellmon, Artist, Black Art Studio Ltd. San Antonio TX" with hand inscription "(Collection) T.O. see file Wilford Healy from Louisiana." Housed in a carved dark wood frame with gilt painted wood liner. Sight – 17 1/2" H x 23 3/8" W. Framed – 23 1/2" H x 29 1/4" W. Note: we wish to thank Thomas Whitehead for confirming the authenticity of this painting. Provenance: Private Southern Collection, ex-Knoke Galleries, Atlanta. Biography: A self-taught artist, Clementine Hunter created bright, whimsical folk paintings depicting life in and around the Melrose cotton plantation where she lived and worked, near Natchitoches, Louisiana. She did not start painting until her 50s. She used whatever surfaces she could find, and, working from memory, recorded everyday life, from work in the cotton fields to baptisms and funerals. She rendered her figures, usually black, in expressionless profile and disregarded formal perspective and scale. Though she first exhibited in 1949, Hunter did not garner public attention until the 1970s when both the Museum of American Folk Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibited her paintings. Even with such success, Hunter chose to stay in Louisiana, working at Melrose Plantation until 1970 when she moved to a small trailer a few miles away on an unmarked road. (source: The National Museum of Women in the Arts). CONDITION: Painting in overall very good condition. Wood frame with minor general wear. [See more photos →]

Tennessee needlework Family Register sampler, worked 1830 by Elizabeth M. Henley at the Knoxville Female Academy. Elizabeth Henley, granddaughter of Revolutionary War hero Col. David Henley, married Barclay McGhee, grandson of Knoxville settler and politician Col. Charles McClung. Silk on linen sampler with wide floral border, partially unfinished, with zig zag design satin stitch edging in contrasting light and dark threads, enclosing three rows of cross-stitched alphabet, the date 1830 and a row of numbers, over a bud and heart-with-cross motif band, over two verses: “Teach me to feel another’s woe/To hide the fault I see/that Mercy to others show /that mercy show to me” and “When age shall steal on me and youth is no more/and the moralist Time shakes his glass at my door/What charm in lost beauty or wealth shall find/my treasure my wealth is a sweet peace of mind”. Below the side by side verses is Elizabeth M. Henley’s signature and a family register with names and birth dates of her father, Arthur H. Henley, born Nov. 15, 1782; mother Ann E. Henley born Sept. 29, 1798, and siblings and/or possibly cousins: Sally H. Henley, born Feb. 20, 1816; David Henley, born Oct. 5, 1816; Mary K. Henley born Nov. 16, 1820; Alexander S. Henley born Nov. 15, 1822; and Mildred W. Henley (no birth date stated). Housed under glass in an early 20th century stained molded wood frame. 17 1/2″ H x 21 3/4″ W sight; 19 1/2″ H x 23 3/4″ W framed. Note: This sampler has been documented by the Tennessee Sampler Survey ( a copy of this report will accompany the sampler). Elizabeth Henley was born 1819 in Monroe County, Tennesssee to Arthur and Ann Henley. Her grandfather on her father’s side, David Henley, was a Continental Army officer during the American Revolutionary War, who served as George Washington’s intelligence chief and prisoner of war commandant. He later served as the Agent for the United States War Department for the Southwest Territory (later Tennessee) in the 1790s. Elizabeth’s name appears in the Knoxville Female Academy catalog for 1831 along with that of her sister Mary, and may have been worked while she was attending this school in Knox County, or at the Bolivar Academy in Madisonville, Monroe Co. as it bears a resemblence to other samplers made there at that time, according to the Tennessee Sampler Survey. Sadly, Elizabeth did not live long enough to reach the old age to which she alluded in her verse. She married Barclay McGhee in 1843 and died the following year at the age of 25, twelve days after the birth of their daughter. Barclay McGhee was the son of John Charles McGhee and Elizabeth Betsy Jones McClung McGhee (daughter of Knoxville settler and surveyor Colonel Charles McClung (1761-1835); he also was known as the master of land his family owned on the prehistoric Native American site in Monroe County called Toqua. Three years after Elizabeth’s death, Barclay married her sister Mary (whose name appears on the sampler). In 1856, at the age of 32, Barclay was found dead in a Chattanooga hotel room with a slit throat! Period accounts leave it unclear as to whether his wounds were self inflicted or the result of a deadly feud with a neighbor. Provenance: The Living Estate of Elizabeth Johnston Davidson Frierson, Knoxville, TN. CONDITION: Sampler has not been fully removed from frame but appears glued to cardboard backing. Overall discoloration to ground and fading to thread. Two significant areas of staining, 2″ diameter center right and 4″ diameter center left, other scattered minor spots of darker discoloration throughout. No apparent holes or significant losses, although the names Alexander and Mildred appear to have possibly been reinforced with darker thread or added later. [See more photos →]

Franklin / Williamson County, TN silk-on-linen needlework sampler by Roxana McGee. Worked in cream, light and dark green, yellow, black, brown and red silk threads in a variety of stitches including cross, chain, eyelet and satin. Floral garland border on three sides surrounding seven text registers, including 5 alphabetic bands above the identifying register, “Roxana M’Gee’s sampler/Franklin, Tenn august, 1839,” and a verse: “May I govern my passions with absolute sway/ And grow wiser and better as life wears away”. Below is a central vase of fruit flanked on either side by wreaths, dated “1793” and “1799”. Later stained wood frame. Sight – 16″ H x 16 1/4″ W. Framed – 20 5/8″ H x 21″ W. Note: This sampler has been documented by the Tennessee Sampler Survey, which attributes it to the “Vase and Cartouche” group of Middle Tennessee samplers. Roxana’s grandfather was Rev. John McGee who owned a large land grant near Henpeck Lane, south of Carnton Plantation (Williamson County, TN). His home, Mendenhall, still stands. Roxana’s father was a physician who died young leaving her mother with six children in 1832. Roxana (B. circa 1825) married William Cole (B. circa 1813 in NC) in Williamson County in 1842. Shortly after marrying, they moved to Tippah County, Missouri and later to Pueblo, Colorado. Illustrated “19th Century Williamson County Samplers: Emerging Research” by Jennifer Core, Williamson County Historical Journal, No. 43, 2012 (pp. 26-27). Provenance: Private Tennessee collection; Christie’s New York auction of Important American Furniture, Folk Art and Decorative Arts (Mr. J. Hays, sale #7980), Oct. 21, 1994, Lot #4; the collection of Katherine Prentiss Murphy. Condition: Overall very good condition with some light overall background discoloration and thread fading, archival framing under UV-resistant glass. [See more photos →]

Clementine Reuben Hunter (American/Louisiana, 1886/87-1988), "Cotton with Donkey," oil on canvasboard cotton picking scene. Signed with monogram lower right. Inscribed "Tommy / Cotton with Donkey" en verso. Sight: 15" H x 30" W. Frame: 31 1/2" H x 16 1/2" W.
PROVENANCE: Private Southern collection. We wish to thank Thomas Whitehead for confirming the authenticity of this painting.

CONDITION: 2" line of flaking to center tree. Two 1/8" flakes to lower left hay bales. Other scattered, tiny spots of flaking/exfoliation. Scattered light grime and inclusions. [See more photos →]

Wilhelm Theodore Eilerts (Kentucky, late 19th Century) large oil on canvas of cows gathered under a tree with nearby stream. Signed lower right margin and dated “1886”. Housed in the original carved and molded gilt and gesso wood frame (with later added paint). Sight – 32″ H x 59″ W. Framed – 43 1/4″ H x 89 3/4″ W.Note: Wilhelm Eilerts was an artist working in central Kentucky in the late 19th century. Little is known about his background or training, but much of his known work consists of sporting and equine subjects rendered in a folky manner. Provenance: Found in the home of Jason Walker of Richmond, KY, built around 1865. Condition: Inpainted tear running a horizontal line in largest cloud, scattered losses to lower middle and right margin edge, tear to upper right sky (approx. 1 1/2″), frame with later gold paint. [See more photos →]

Clementine Reuben Hunter (American/Louisiana, 1886/87-1988) oil on board painting depicting a wash day scene, with two women washing clothing with a kettle and washboard. Signed with monogram middle right margin. "Handle" written in ink en verso. Housed in a light-toned wood frame. Sight: 9 5/8" H x 11 5/8" W. Framed: 11" H x 13" W. Biography: A self-taught artist, Clementine Hunter created bright, whimsical folk paintings depicting life in and around the Melrose cotton plantation where she lived and worked, near Natchitoches, Louisiana. She did not start painting until her 50s. She used whatever surfaces she could find, and, working from memory, recorded everyday life, from work in the cotton fields to baptisms and funerals. She rendered her figures, usually black, in expressionless profile and disregarded formal perspective and scale. Though she first exhibited in 1949, Hunter did not garner public attention until the 1970s when both the Museum of American Folk Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibited her paintings. Even with such success, Hunter chose to stay in Louisiana, working at Melrose Plantation until 1970 when she moved to a small trailer a few miles away on an unmarked road. Source: The National Museum of Women in the Arts.

PROVENANCE: Private collection; acquired directly from the artist in 1968. We wish to thank Thomas Whitehead for confirming the authenticity of this painting.

CONDITION: Overall good condition. Light surface grime. [See more photos →]

Helen LaFrance (Kentucky, b. 1919) oil on canvas landscape painting depicting a Church Picnic, with automobiles parked in front of a church and horse and buggy approaching lower left; a table is being spread in the right middle ground while little girls play a circle game in the right foreground. Signed lower right. Housed in a giltwood molded frame. Sight – 17 1/2″ H x 23 1/2″ W. Framed – 23″ H x 29″ W. Biography: “Self-taught African American artist Helen LaFrance was born on a Kentucky farm and began painting in her 40s. She is known for her “memory paintings” – drawn from her recollections of life growing up in the rural South. Several museums and private collectors, including Oprah Winfrey, own examples of her work. Now nearly 100 years old, she resides in a Kentucky nursing home”. (Source: “Helen LaFrance Folk Art Memories” by Kathy Moses). Alternate spelling: Helen La France. CONDITION: Excellent condition. [See more photos →]

Kentucky Needlework Sampler stitched by Eliza Pearson and dated 1832, silk on coarse weave linen in colors of red, navy blue, green, brown/tan and ivory. “Eliza Pearson Aged 9 1832” stitched into 5 rows of alphabets and numbers, each row separated by a band of cross stitch in colorful and decorative motifs, over a verse: “O God permit thy gracious name to stand as the first ephod (sic for “effort”) of a female hand/And while her hand doth on the canvass move engage her youthful heart to seek thy love”. Large red multiple story house at lower center, flanked by urns of flowers; plain cross stitched border. Housed in a period wide ogee molded stained wood frame with gilt rabbet edge having a framing label verso for The Art Shop, Louisville, KY. 15″ x 11 3/4″ sight, 23″ x 20″ framed. Accompanied by a packet of genealogical information for Eliza A. Pearson, b. 1823 in Nelson County, KY (in an area which later became part of Hardin County). She married William Franklin in 1852 and had at least three children. She died in 1912 in Nelson County. CONDITION: Most colors remain bright, with some fading to tans and greens, 1/4″ area of ground loss at center possibly affecting the W in “While”, some small losses to various navy blue lettering on verse, overall ground discoloration. Frame has original surface with 1/2″ spots of veneer loss at each lower corner. Not examined out of frame. [See more photos →]

Clementine Reuben Hunter (American/Louisiana, 1886/87-1988) oil on canvasboard painting depicting an outdoor funeral. Signed with monogram lower right. Housed in a painted black frame. Sight: 18" H x 24" W. Frame: 19" H x 25" W.

Biography: A self-taught artist, Clementine Hunter created bright, whimsical folk paintings depicting life in and around the Melrose cotton plantation where she lived and worked, near Natchitoches, Louisiana. She did not start painting until her 50s. She used whatever surfaces she could find, and, working from memory, recorded everyday life, from work in the cotton fields to baptisms and funerals. She rendered her figures, usually black, in expressionless profile and disregarded formal perspective and scale. Though she first exhibited in 1949, Hunter did not garner public attention until the 1970s when both the Museum of American Folk Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibited her paintings. Even with such success, Hunter chose to stay in Louisiana, working at Melrose Plantation until 1970 when she moved to a small trailer a few miles away on an unmarked road. Source: The National Museum of Women in the Arts.

PROVENANCE: Private Southern collection. We wish to thank Thomas Whitehead for confirming the authenticity of this painting.

CONDITION: Overall good condition. Several spots of scattered flaking to sky area, largest 1/8". [See more photos →]

Folk art secretary or plantation desk, possibly Southern, with dark brown wash surface, mixed woods, single piece construction. Gothic style trefoil carved cornice over two hinged paneled doors with applied trefoil and sun decoration and two white ceramic knobs; doors open to an interior with shelf over a bank of five pigeonholes. Hinged slant front writing surface opens to a storage compartment below with applied carving to front; legs are extensions of desk stiles with applied rectangular ornaments over ball-turned and faceted legs, ending in ball and spike feet. 70 1/4'' H x 32 1/2'' W x 25'' D. Circa 1860. Provenance: Private Kentucky collection. CONDITION: Overall good condition with some wear, especially to edges, slant front and door fronts, which has lost coloration; ceramic knobs replacements; minor cracking or repairs to applied carvings. [See more photos →]

Helen Lafrance (Kentucky, 1919-2020) oil on board farm landscape painting, depicting two children sitting on a fence, watching three boys climb a large haystack, while a farmer and two horses plow a field in the distance. Signed lower right. Board – 18"H x 30"W. Frame – 20"H x 33"W

Artist biography: African American artist Helen LaFrance is best known for her "memory paintings," based on her 101 years of life in Graves County, Kentucky. Her parents, James Franklin Orr and Lillie May Ligon Orr, were tobacco farmers, and Helen spent most of her life no more than ten miles from her birthplace in Mayfield. Her mother taught her to draw and paint, helping her mix colors from wildflowers, berries, and laundry detergent, but she did not begin painting full time until her 40s, when she started selling her work at local art shows and fairs. Her subjects mostly focused on scenes of ordinary rural life, such as church picnics and river baptisms, although she occasionally portrayed dramatic events in the life of her community, such as tornadoes and floods, and African scenes inspired by her family''s ancestral heritage. LaFrance''s work (which also comprised quilts, wood carvings, and dolls) began attracting nationwide interest in the 1990s, and with a burgeoning market of collectors that included famous names such as Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King and Bryant Gumbel, she continued painting well into advanced age. In 2011 she received Kentucky''s Folk Art Heritage Award. Her work recently became the subject of a retrospective at the Speed Museum in Louisville, and is also in the permanent collections of the St. Louis Art Museum and the Owensboro KY Museum of Fine Art.
PROVENANCE: Private Nashville collection, acquired directly from the artist.

CONDITION: Excellent condition. [See more photos →]

Texas horn armchair with cattle hide seat covering and glass ball casters. Unsigned, attributed to Charles Puppe of San Antonio, circa 1889. 37″ H x 31″ W x 21″ D. Note: information recently furnished to us by Alan Rogers of the National Texas Longhorn Museum suggests this chair was made by Charles Puppe, based on the arrangement and placement of the horns which is similar, but not identical to the No. 6 Chair by Wenzel Friedrich (1827-1902), also of San Antonio (to whom we initially attributed this chair). Friedrich and Puppe both used glass ball casters on the feet of their horn chairs, but the placement of the four longer horns making up the bottom back of the chair, with the middle two touching, suggests it was in fact made by Puppe; it is identical to a documented chair Puppe made in 1889 for rancher Dennis Martin O’Connor, who in turn gave it to President Benjamin Harrison. Charles Puppe had a shop at 229 Commerce Street in San Antonio. He first appears in city directories as a maker of horn chairs in 1885 and is listed as late as 1891. Provenance: A.R. Dickey Estate, Knoxville, TN. Condition: Overall very good condition with expected wear. Hide covering possibly not original. [See more photos →]

Minnie Evans (American/North Carolina, 1892-1987), "Three Hieratic Heads," circa 1943, crayon and pencil on paper, monogram signature lower right. Additionally signed "Minnie Evans" in black pen to back of paper backing (a photocopy of this signature is affixed to frame backing). Float mounted, matted and framed under plexiglass in a molded black painted frame. Davis & Langdale Co. Gallery label en verso. Sheet: 7" H x 5" W. Frame: 13 1/2" H x 11 1/2" W. Biographical note: "Born in 1892, Minnie Evans spent most of her life in or near Wilmington, North Carolina. In 1916, Evans began working for a wealthy industrialist, Pembroke Jones, as a domestic in the family home. Her husband was also employed by Jones, and the Evans family lived on the Jones family hunting estate. After Pembroke Jones died in 1919, his widow, Sadie, married Henry Walters and moved to Arlie Estate. Evans continued her employment with the new family. After Walters died, Sadie decided to turn Arlie Estate into gardens. The Arlie Gardens would become one of the most celebrated gardens in the South. After Sadie Jones died, the new owners of the Arlie Gardens hired Evans as gatekeeper for the property. She held the position for the rest of her life, collecting admissions from visitors. In 1935, on Good Friday, Minnie Evans made her first two drawings. After completing the ink-on-paper abstractions, Evans heard a voice that said, "Why don''t you draw or die?" She did not resume her drawings until 1940. Her next works were pencil and crayon. Later works also included oil paint, mixed media and collage. Her work depicted religious or nature scenes. Many of her works were inspired by the plants at the Arlie Gardens. Her compositions were mostly abstractions blending nature with the face of God. Her work is known for highly charged color and meticulous symmetry, and is often compared to Buddhist mandala paintings. ''We talk of heaven, we think everything is going to be white. But I believe we''re going to have the beautiful rainbow colors.''" (Source: Ogden Museum of Southern Art)

PROVENANCE: The estate of Richard J. Eskind, Nashville TN.

CONDITION: Mounted to paper backing, with toning and creasing. Corner losses and 3 small tears along lower edge. [See more photos →]

Gee’s Bend Alabama pieced quilt by Bettie Bendolph Seltzer (1939 – 2017), house-top pattern variation stitched in bright colors including yellow, red, purple, aqua and green. Signed en verso to one corner “Bettie B. Seltzer” and additionally stamped “Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective”. 86 1/4″ x 84 1/2″. Alabama, 20th century. CONDITION: Excellent condition. [See more photos →]

Helen LaFrance (Kentucky, 1919-2020), "Baking Pies," oil on canvas painting depicting two women in a large kitchen preparing and baking peach pies. A large cast iron stove looms in the center of the room, and a table is set for six in the left foreground. Signed lower right and dated 1998. Narrow giltwood frame. Stretcher: 18"H x 24"W. Frame: 20"H x 26"W. Note: this painting is illustrated in the book HELEN LA FRANCE: FOLK ART MEMORIES by Kathy Moses and Bruce Shelton, p. 72 fig 5.38.
PROVENANCE: Private Nashville collection, acquired directly from the artist circa 1999.

CONDITION: Excellent condition. [See more photos →]

James "Son Ford" Thomas (American/Mississippi, 1926-1993) skull sculpture with rock teeth, unfired gumbo clay and plaster of paris, 8 1/2" H x 4 1/2" W x 6" D. Includes VOICES OF MISSISSIPPI, by William Ferris, a slip-cased book and audio CD collection featuring "Son" Thomas on the cover. Ferris spent decades documenting African American culture as a basis for the formation of the Blues musical style, signed by Ferris on the title page. 10 1/2" W x 8 1/2" H. Also, a copy of LOCAL COLOR: A SENSE OF PLACE IN FOLK ART by Ferris, with an in-depth chapter on Thomas, as well as clipped newspaper articles from The Clarion Ledger, June 1993 and Dec. 2018, with features on Thomas.

Note: James Henry "Son" Thomas, internationally famed blues musician and folk sculptor, was born in Eden, MS, on October 14, 1926. Thomas made his first recordings for folklorist William "Bill" Ferris in 1968. He later traveled throughout the United States and Europe to perform at blues concerts and exhibit his artwork. His performances had been confined to juke joints and house parties until he met Ferris, who began recording and filming Thomas and other local bluesmen in 1968. Thomas was one of the most recognized local musical figures in Mississippi during the 1970s and '80s. He performed throughout the state at nightclubs, festivals, private parties, government social affairs, colleges, and juke joints. He also toured and recorded several blues albums in Europe, and his folk art was featured at galleries in New York, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. Thomas died in Greenville, MS, on June 26, 1993. (Source: Mississippi Blues Trail, Mississippi Blues Commission )

CONDITION: Very good condition, no damage to sculpture, or slipcased book. Paperback book has chips to front cover and pages. [See more photos →]

Two (2) small Helen La France (American/Kentucky, 1919-2020) oil on canvas paintings, both depicting houses next to quilts on clothes lines in a landscape setting beneath a cloudy blue sky, with groups of children playing "ring around the rosie" in the foreground. One signed "Helen La France" lower right. Both housed in white painted wooden frames with foliate running patterns and off white linen liners. Sights ranging in size from 4 3/4" H x 6 3/4" W to 6 3/4" H x 4 3/4" W.Biography: "Self-taught African American artist Helen LaFrance was born on a Kentucky farm and began painting in her 40s. She is known for her "memory paintings" – drawn from her recollections of life growing up in the rural South. Several museums and private collectors, including Oprah Winfrey, own examples of her work." (Source: "Helen LaFrance Folk Art Memories" by Kathy Moses). Helen Lafrance died November 22 in a Mayfield, Kentucky nursing home at the age of 101. Provenance: Private Mississippi collection, acquired by consignor's mother directly from the artist. CONDITION: Both items in overall good condition with few surface scuffs. One with minute errant white paint marks to house and sky quadrant. [See more photos →]

Oil on canvas folk art portrait of a dark haired girl, believed to be Annie Eliza Tomkins Harrison of Sumner County, Tennessee (b. 1831-d. 1878). The subject is depicted wearing a green high waisted dress with pouf sleeves and gold locket around her neck, and is posed slightly turned to her left, with her left arm resting on a table and a book. Housed in a simple cove molded gilt wood frame. Sight – 24 1/2" H x 20 1/2" W. Framed – 28 1/2" H x 24 1/2" W. Circa 1845. Provenance: descended in the Tomkins family of Sumner County, Tennessee family to present consignor. Eliza Tomkins, also spelled Tompkins in some references, was the daughter of Mary Henderson Madden Tomkins (1811-1846) and John Randolph Augustus Tomkins (1800-1879), a prominent landowner, militia captain, merchant and civic leader. Mr. Tomkins was also a trustee of the Sumner Female Academy. Eliza was the couple's only daughter and seems to have lived in Sumner County all her life. She married W.A. Harrison, a Presbyterian minister in Gallatin. The portrait descended to the consignor through one of Eliza's four brothers, Dr. William R. Tomkins (1837-1887). The artist is unknown and may have been an itinerant painter passing through the area. CONDITION: Original canvas with light to moderate craquelure and stretcher creases. See black light image: significant inpainting and overpainting to left side sleeve and arm as well as girl's face and neck. Patterned marking above book on sitter's right evident with black light. Professionally cleaned. [See more photos →]

Helen LaFrance (Kentucky, b. 1919) oil on panel painting depicting an African-American congregation outside of a church, sheltered behind several large trees, with figures gathering around a white cloth covered table laden with food in the background. Other figures, arriving from automobiles, in the foreground. Signed lower right. Housed in a gilt and black painted wooden frame with linen rabbet edge. Sight – 15 3/4″ H x 32″ W. Framed – 20 3/4″ H x 37 1/4″ W. American, late 20th century. Provenance: Private Nashville, TN collection. Biography: Self-taught African American artist Helen LaFrance was born on a Kentucky farm and began painting in her 40s. She is known for her “memory paintings”, drawn from her recollections of life growing up in the rural South. Several museums and private collectors, including Oprah Winfrey, own examples of her work. Now nearly 100 years old, she resides in a Kentucky nursing home. (source: “Helen LaFrance Folk Art Memories” by Kathy Moses). Alternate spelling: Helen La France. CONDITION: Overall good condition with areas of cracquelure, natural imperfections to wood panel. Stains to linen rabbet edge. [See more photos →]

Attributed to Ralph Eugene Cahoon (American, 1910-1982), gouache, pencil and possibly oil folk art painting on board, possibly a study, depicting whalers in two rowboats attempting to harpoon a whale with water being expelled from its blowhole; a whaling vessel sails near the shoreline in the background. Signed lower right "R. Cahoon". Pencil inscription en verso reading "To our Fran (sic?) Brad from Ralph C__ & Martha Ives" along with illegible numbers. Housed in a simple carved wood frame with wood liner. Sight – 22" H x 29 1/2" W. Framed – 26" H x 34" W. Circa late 1950s. Provenance: found in the Minnesota estate of American art collectors, who acquired it in the Northeast. Biography: Ralph Cahoon was born in Cape Cod and enjoyed a lifetime love of sailing and painting maritime scenes. He studied fine and graphic art at Boston's School of Practical Art. After marrying his wife Martha Farnham Cahoon (1905-1999), the couple made a name for themselves restoring, paint-decorating and selling antique furniture. They eventually transitioned to easel painting, first using plywood and later, masonite. Their individual styles were very similar, primarily pastel in tone, using greens, soft pinks, grays, and browns, with no attempt to use light or shade to create a third dimension. Mermaids became a hallmark of Ralph's style in the 1960s. Source: Michael David Zellman," 300 Years of American Art." CONDITION: Overall light grime to painting. Some toning and staining en verso. [See more photos →]