WINNOWED

W I N N O W E D
PHILADELPHIA ANTIQUES & ART SHOW • A P R I L 2 0 - 2 2

W I N N O W E D
It is not easy coming up with compelling and complex
material show after show. This catalog is thinner than
usual, but phat as ever—quality over quantity with no
filler! Of course, we will be bringing more than these
works of art to the fair, but herein are a group of wellwinnowed
works that deserve special attention. Enjoy!
Come see this collection and more at The Philadelphia Antiques
& Art Show, April 20-22, 2018 (*preview party April 19).
Location: The Navy Yard, 4747 South Broad Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19112.
additional show information: philadelphiaantiquesandartshow.com
W O R K S O F
A R T
& a m e r i c a n a
109 3rd Place #2, Brooklyn, NY 11231 | 718.625.1715 or 917.518.0809 | stevenspowers.com | member: ADA

Folk Art Acrobat Whirligig (detail)
New England
Wood and polychrome
Circa: 1880
*full details pages 8-9.

An Important Pair of African-American (Slave) Made Andirons
Madison County, Tennessee (found)
Circa: 1820 (or earlier)
Size: 14 3/8" (h) x 10 1/2" (deep)
Provenance: Robert Reeves, Private Southern collection, Peter Brams.
Exceedingly rare wrought iron, diminutive African-American (slave) made
andirons in the form of male and female figures. The figures stand in a coded
stance communicating power. The female figure is slightly smaller and has a
triangular notch clipped between her legs designating her gender.
A number of African men who were forcibly brought to America came with
generational expertise in blacksmithing, as iron working was a centuries-old
and honorable tradition in Africa.
The anthropologist, John Michael Vlach writes in, By The Work of Their
Hands; Studies in Afro-American Folklife, “The [slave] blacksmith was the
pivotal craftsman of his community; all other skills in some manner
depended on his efforts.” To this end, the slave blacksmith had a greater
privilege and standing among other slaves. Slave quarters were barren but
had basic necessities like a small hearth, iron kettles, and simple furniture
(which they often made themselves). Vlach further writes, “slaves
surreptitiously took partial control of their own lives by establishing a sense
of place...for those slaves with either a personal experience of Africa or the
memory of strong ancestral direction, the slave-made landscape provided the
means to recapture a measure of freedom symbolized by the mother
continent.” It was the small things in their living quarters that they could
make personal, like clothing, tools or music that provided a sense of life in
otherwise dark circumstances.

Early African-American, slave-made ironworks are remarkably scarce. A
documented wrought iron figure, formerly in the Adele Earnest collection,
was excavated in slave quarters in Alexandria, Virginia and is “one of the
rare objects which link American Negro Art to Africa” (Made of Iron, 1966,
p. 107). It has been put forth that the Earnest figure relates to Mande,
Bamana made figures. Mande made iron figures feature small heads and thin
wrought bodies, similar to those seen on these andiron figures. And a wood
figure, from the Lega culture and in the Brooklyn Museum displays the same
posture as these figures and has an incised notch between the legs.
These small andirons, placed within a modest hearth provided a platform for
warmth and cooking and in a subtle, but meaningful way served as proud
and poignant reminders of personal identity and cultural heritage.
Female Iginga, Lega culture, 19th–20thC,
Brooklyn Museum (74.66.1). Note posture
of arms and legs and notch in pelvis.
Photo of a slave cabin’s hearth.
Thornhill Plantation, Forkland, Greene County,
AL. Photo by Alex Bush, 1934.

Folk Art Acrobat Whirligig
New England (Massachusetts)
Circa: 1880
Size: 14" (oah) x 4 1/2" (w)
Provenance: Stephen Score; Olde
Hope Antiques; Private Southern
collection
First rate folk art whirligig in the
form of an acrobat with red face
paint, a red and white uniform and
blue paddles. The original paint
surface is in a remarkable state of
preservation and maintains a
complex craquelure and
patination—one of the very best I
have seen.

The Venus of Baltimore
Carved walnut by A. Leibniz
Baltimore, Maryland
Dated: 1909
Size: 15 3/4" (h) x 10" (w) x 10" (l)
Provenance: Harris Diamant; Hill Gallery;
Private Southern collection
Related: see American Vernacular, p. 164
for a walnut carved female figure found in
Baltimore.
A striking, bold and sensual folk art
carving by a very skilled artisan. A young
nude woman stands with her arms above
her head, leaning contrapposto against a
tree stump above an elaborate carved
floral base, which is cornered by dogs and
elephants(?). The animals have black glass
beads and rhinestone inset eyes. It should
be noted that each side of the base is
carved slightly different than the
other—each with a different floral
and base molding motif.

Ojibwa Mide'wiwin Figures
Cottonwood, pigment
Circa: 1840
Size: 6" (oah)
Provenance: W. E. Channing; Marvill Collection; Private
Related examples: Denver Art Museum, 1946.265, 1946.266 for a near
identical pair; Logan Museum of Anthropology, Albert Green Heath
Collection, Beloit, WI, pair of like figures; The American Museum of
Natural History, 50 / 5695 N, small female form medicine figure.
These rare Woodlands figures were used by the Mide'wiwin or "Grand
Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa Indians. As part of a
ceremony for attracting a marriage
partner, the figures would be tied face to
face and mixed with “love powder” in a
bag.
Excerpted from: THE MIDĒ´WIWIN OR
“GRAND MEDICINE SOCIETY” OF THE
OJIBWA, by W. J. Hoffman.
“This love powder is held in high esteem,
and its composition is held a profound
secret, to be transmitted only when a great
fee is paid. It consists of the following
ingredients: Vermilion; powdered
snakeroot and a piece of ginseng cut from
the bifurcation of the root, and
powdered.”
A Pair of near identical figures from the
collection at the Denver Art Museum,
1946.265

Ojibwa Pictographic Textile
Yarn on linen
Circa: 1900-1920
Size: 28" (w) x 28" (h)
Provenance: Rev. Ellen Grant Gustin (1836-1924) of Attleboro, MA
The Ojibwa and other Native tribes have a long history of using pictographic
imagery for storytelling—from medicine scrolls, spirit sticks and in many
instances ledger drawings of the Plains Indian tribes.
An old label, attached to the textile, reads, “This is an Indian prayer rug used
by the Ojibway and presented by one of the Indians as a friendly and
protective offering for kindness received. — E. G. G.”
Though this rare textile is misidentified as a prayer rug (the Ojibway were not
weavers) and it is not known if the full textile has any narrative, we may infer
that the figures on the upper left may represent Ms. Gustin and the father of
the Ojibwa child who may have created the textile for Guston (possibly for
religious instruction). The stylized headdresses are quite remarkable and I
love the image of the Indian child standing atop the horse.
The Rev. Ellen G. Guston was a
strongly spoken preacher, a
pioneer woman suffragists and
President of the Women’s Board
of Foreign Missions. In 1877,
Gustin was part of a “small but
radical Christian denomination,
[and] preached a series of revivals
in Westerly, Rhode Island [and]
caused such a commotion that her
preaching got national attention.”

Adolph Kronengold (1900-1986)
(ul) Hudson River Brick Factories;
(ur) Meatpacking District;
(ll) Brooklyn Bridge; (lr) Westside Passenger Piers
Oil on canvas board
Circa: early-mid 1920’s
Size: each 6" x 8" (sight)
11 1/2" x 13 1/2" (framed)
Kronengold was born in New Orleans and
studied at New York’s Art Student League and
the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In the
late 20’s and 30’s he was a leading cover
illustrator for the New Yorker.
These four small, en plein air, paintings exhibit
an assured handling of paint with broad strokes
and blocks of color that readily define the space
and light of scenes in and around New York City.

Ida Jones (1874-1959)
Mock Orange [Philadelphus]
Oil on canvas board
Circa: July, 1952
Size: 20" (w) x 16" (h)
Mockorange, (Philadelphus), is a shrub with a citrus scent and has white
blossoms that bloom in the late spring to early summer. A portion of
this painting can be seen in the upper left corner of the photo herein—
Jones in her living room/studio.
Ida Jones, the daughter of a former slave, had ten children and at the age
of seventy-two began painting. Self-taught, her work focuses on local
(Chester County, PA) landscapes, still-lifes and Biblical stories
The Chester County Historical Society held a retrospective exhibit in
1995 and Jones was recently included
in “We Speak: Black Artists
in Philadelphia, 1920s-1970s, ”
2015.
Literature: Starting Anew After
Seventy: The Story of Ida Ella
Jones, Primitive Artist, by Ida J.
Williams, 1980.
To Everything a Season: The Art
and Life of Ida Jones, by Beverly
Sheppard and Roberta Townsend,
1995.
Photo of Jones at the easel in her living room. A
portion of this painting is shown in the upper left
corner. Photo circa 1955.

M.L. Snyder
held their own on the galle
A Set of Three Folk Art Bakery Signs
De Kooning, Kline and othe
Maytown, Pennsylvania
the map and Thiebaud’s ear
Painted wood
widely held as seminal wor
Circa 1901
Sizes: (l) 15" x 15 1/4"; (c) 13 3/8" x 17 1/4"; Though we are not sure wh
(r) 19" x 15"
paintings came into Stone’s
The Newport Zoo had his name all over them
Provenance: Allan Stone Collection Newport, KY
Dated: April 6, 1925 Each is signed “M. L. Synde
In 1962, a then-unknown Wayne Size: Thiebaud 11 1/2" (w) x 5 1/4" further (d) x signed 3 1/2" and (h) dated on
walked into the Allan Stone Gallery and
May 6, 1901”
showed him his paintings of cakes A large and and unusual piece of Southern
pastries. At first, the paintings perplexed ceramics featuring a menagerie of
Stone and he thought they just might animals—an be the alligator, birds, a fish, and a
craziest things of earnest he had turtle. ever seen.
But to his amazement, he noticed that they

y walls—mixed amoung
rs. Stone put Thiebaud on
ly cake paintings are now
ks of early Pop Art.
en this set of cake
collection—they certainly
!
r” and the center one is
the back, “Maytown, PA /

Pebble People
Arizona
Circa: 1899-1900
Sizes range from: 3/4" - 2 1/4" (oah)
A fascinating group of seven carved
stones, each in the form of a man’s face
with a pronounced, well-groomed
mustache.
Though the carver’s identity is unknown,
three of the stones are dated; 1) July 15,
1899; 2) Oct. 1899; 3) July 15, 1900

Frederick Hastings (1919-2013)
A Group of Five Figures
Steel, air-dried clay, paint, cardboard, cotton, lead and masking tape
Circa: 1960-80
Size: range from 2 1/2" - 7 1/4" (oah)
The work of Frederick Hastings was discovered a few years ago and
much of the details of his life and work remains a mystery. The two
larger are made from steel armatures under air dried clay and the
smaller three are steel armatures under painted lead.
What is known is that he lived outside of Philadelphia, was an architect
and may have had family money. It is also known that he was into
trains and built elaborate sets.
The figures are very well made, with steel armatures or skeletons and
then carefully modeled with some sort of air-dried clay or modeling
putty. Most have applied paper bikinis and several have wigs of cotton
or wool. Most of the figures come with hand-made boxes, custom fit to
accommodate the size and posture of each.
At first glance the figures appear hermaphroditic or trans-gendered,
however, none have genitals—just muscular bodies with breasts. And
though great effort is put into modeling and composing the figures,
there appears to be no attempt to idealize or beautify the faces—which
are often quite severe and grotesque.
During the same period in which Forrest Bess was exploring sexuality
through hermaphroditism, Hastings was engaged in exploring the
boundaries of masculinity and femininity.

American Folk Art Ventriloquist’s Head
Wood, polychrome and wool hair
Circa: 1900
Size: 20 1/2" (oah)
Pictured and discussed in American
Vernacular, page 84.
A striking example with first rate paint
and features—look at those eyelashes!

(l) A Folk Art Cane for Elias H. Gilbert
Pottstown, Pennsylvania
Circa: 1890
Size: 37" (oah)
Gilbert was the owner of the Merchants’
Hotel in Pottstown, PA and was one of
the town’s most popular citizens. In 1904
a newspaper wrote about Gilbert’s trained
pig and noted that it could “count, walk
on two feet and do some clever stunts.”
Gilbert went on to become a PA State
Representative from 1907-1910.
The cane features Gambrinus atop a beer
keg with his right arm making a toast
with a stein. Behind him, a goat and a
dog appear at opposite ends of a barrel.

(c) Folk Art Cane of a Black Man
Circa: 1880
Size: 37 1/2" (oah)
Likely Southern and African American carved.
Very powerful piece.
(r) Folk Art Cane of a Monkey, Snake and Lizard
Circa: 1880-1900
Size: 36" (oah)
Very fine and skillfully carved with a monkey
atop a pole with inset mother-of-pearl eyes—
the snake with hundreds of individually carved
scales and inset blue glass eyes.

To Have and To Hold
Folk Art Painted Tintypes
Circa: 1860-1880
Size: +/- 7" x 10"
(slightly larger than
typical full plate)
A rare pair of African
American tintypes of a
husband and wife.
Both figures are quite
striking—sophisticated,
strong—and look at that
dress!

An Arranged Marriage
Folk Art Painted Tintypes
Circa: 1860-1880
Size: +/- 7 1/8" x 10 1/8"
(slightly larger than
typical full plate)
Though these were found
separately, the plate size
and unusual mountainous
lake backgrounds are
more/less the same and
the sitters make a nice
“marriage.”

Folk Art Painted Tintype
Circa: 1860-1880
Size: +/- 6 1/2" x 8 1/2" (full plate)
Charming portrait of a young
red-headed boy in a dress atop a
wonderful green floorcloth.

Folk Art Painted Snuff Box of a Black Man
Circa: 1820-1840
Size: 3 5/8" (d)
I have handled a good number of
lacquered papier-mache snuffboxes and
have seen thousands more—this is the
first example that I have had of a fully
painted miniature of a black man's face.
The face occupies the full round—it is
quite effective. The lacquer is of very good
quality and it probably English or
Continental of the Saundauer type.

S T E V E N S . P O W E R S
W O R K S O F
A R T
& a m e r i c a n a
109 3rd Place #2, Brooklyn, NY 11231 | 718.625.1715 or 917.518.0809 | stevenspowers.com | member: ADA