Maine Antique Digest, March 2017

96 / 213

28-B Maine Antique Digest, March 2017
- AUCTION -
28-B
Elijah Pierce (1892-1984) carved wood pieces consistently bring
strong prices at Slotin auctions. His 15" x 14" signed and dated
(1976) Fruit Compote brought $19,200.
This Martin Ramirez
(1895-1963) work, a
graphite and paint on
paper, Caballero, was a
sure shot for $16,200. The
unframed image (as sold)
is 29½" x 24".
Edwin Meaders (1921-2015) is
known for his pedestal roosters,
usually with blue or green glaze.
This experimental glaze example
combines those glazes with a
crackle finish. It sold for $2280.
Steiner photo.
Many Slotin sale catalog cover images have become that
sale’s top-dollar lot. This Ellis Ruley (1882-1959) Hippos
made it only to the eighth spot at $12,600. The 30" x 24"
oil on masonite painting was framed.
Joseph Yoakum (1889-1972) might be considered a landscape artist except
that he never visited the scenes he painted. This Paradice [sic] Range near
Damascus Syria South East Asia, 12" x 19", may be the only serene view of
Syria at this time. It sold for $15,600.
With an extensive museum exhibit
provenance, Sam Doyle’s Annunciation,
31" x 34", house paint on found
board, has Doyle’s initials on the back.
Originally part of Doyle’s outdoor
Christmas display, it brought $11,400.
International folk art has its own following,
especially Haitian paintings and cutout steel works
as well as religious santo and retablo forms from a
variety of countries. Haitian paintings have been
strong in the last few Slotin sales, but they were not
in this sale. Forty paintings and three cutout steel
Haitian works ranged from only $30 to $1680.
Scattered through the two-day sale were nearly 50
lots of wood carvings, most painted, a popular folk
art form, by over a dozen noted artists, including
S.L. Jones, Edgar Tolson, Josephus Farmer, Leroy
Almon, Carl McKenzie, Minnie and Garland Adkins,
and more. The only stone carving, an 18" long carved
limestone rabbit by Tim Lewis, sold for $720.
Sixteen lots of tramp art sold. The usual box forms
and picture frames were offered as were seldom-seen
items such as a miniature (26" tall) church with spires
and an enclosed music box that brought only $60.
An unusual form, a child’s mirrored wardrobe, 26"
tall, brought $180, while an eight-drawer cabinet, 19"
high, sold for $600.
Vintage handmade game boards seem to be
appearing everywhere, and this Slotin sale was no
exception. Apair of unidentified game boards brought
$180, and three different lots of games boards with
either chess/checkers or Parcheesi boards each made
$480. Some were double sided, and all had enamel
on wood.
Nine quilts, including four African American
examples, sold. A quilt with a big cross with postage-
stamp fields by Louella Pettway of Gees Bend,
Alabama, reached $1440, and a tree pattern crib quilt
made by a folk artist collaboration of Mattie Lou
O’Kelley and Burnice Healan drew only $300.
Sunday always has a few surprises. Among this
sale’s was a pair of Santa Fe dogs carved and painted
by Miguel Rodriguez (b. 1948) that brought $2160,
well over the high estimate of $500. Sunday also
allows some unusual, nontraditional forms to be
offered, and this was again the case. A group of more
than 14 handcrafted “wood mosaic” pieces of furniture
and another group of 60-plus mosaic art panels made
by Herbert Albin (d. 2006) started the day. Albin was
a concert violinist who had been concertmaster of the
Charleston, South Carolina, and Augusta, Georgia,
symphonies. His avocation was wood inlay, which he
called “mosaics.” The furniture brought only $840, or
$60 apiece, and the 60 panels made $5280. Herbert’s
wife, Stella, produced handwoven Persian wool
tapestries featuring birds, flowers, or people. Offered
as a single lot of more than 50 tapestries, they brought
$960.
Vehicles from as far away as Pennsylvania were
loaded up and left after the sale with purchases.
Collectors will have had a four-month break before
the next two-day Slotin Folk Art auction on April
29 and 30. For information about that sale and full
information on all past sales and the discontinued Folk
Among the top performers in this sale was the only William
Hawkins (1895-1990) work offered. Yellow Stegosaurus, an
oil on a half sheet of plywood, 4' square, sold for $30,000 to
an international collector.