COMPLIMENTARY COPY
Published Weekly By Joel Sater Publications www.antiquesandauctionnews.net
VOL. 44, NO. 20 FRIDAY MAY 17, 2013
Art d n i h Be s: Bar By David Iams
“Now, if I had the wings of an angel, Over these prison walls I would fly.”
S
o begins “The Prisoner’s Song,” made famous, though not written, by Vernon Dalhart, who sold more than a million copies of his recording of the lament in the mid-1920s. Well, today the jailbirds may not be on the wing, but interest in their artwork is. The annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners, widely regarded as the largest of its kind in the country and now in its 18th year, drew more than 4,000 visitors in 2012, the last year for which figures
One piece of jailhouse carving whose creator is known is this monkey bar made by Patrick J. Culinane in 1914 and 1915 while he was serving a sentence in a Charlestown, Mass., jail. He later presented it to Henry Ford. In 2009, the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., loaned it to the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore for a special exhibition titled “The Marriage of Art, Science and Philosophy.”
frequently deals in prisoner art, sold a simi- sold a rare jailhouse carving of a horse and lar but somewhat more detailed early 1900s carriage for $4,446 that was unique for a sigbar scene by an unknown carver in a nature on it: Ed Walters, E. P. C2341. At the mahogany display case for $5,925. That was time, Ron Pook surmised that the number well above the $2,000 to $4,000 presale may have been that of the inmate, who was price estimate (possibly because it came probably incarcerated in Berks County. from the estate of the well-known collector/dealer Robert J. Merritt. A group of eight anonymously carved hobo figures, also from the Merritt estate and expected to bring This $600 to carving of a horse $900, went and carriage sold for $4,446 at for $1,541.) Pook and Pook in February of 2009. It bore Bar scenes the signature Ed Walters, E. P. C2341, possibly a prison serare not the only topic ial number. for jailhouse carvers. Ships and vehicles are also popular. Michigan correction facilities. At a two-day sale last July in There also are numerous online galleries that sell, or at least exhibit, prisoner art, not Philadelphia, Freeman’s sold a French Freeman’s sold this model of a galleon made from to mention the Maine State Prison Store on prisoner-of-war-made model in bone of bone by a French prisoner of war for $1,900 at a Route 1 in Thomaston, which features hand- a galleon with three masts and 34 guns sale last July in Philadelphia. for $1,900, more than three times its crafted items made by inmates. Whatever their subject, jailhouse But among antique collectors and auccarvers tend to be anonymous. There are tion-goers, the major interest is two reasons. in prisoners’ woodwork, which One reason is that jailhouse carving began to appear in the early is widely regarded as a subcategory of 20th century and is often folk art. Once popular, the term “folk referred to as “jailhouse carving.” Inmates today use other A tavern interior by an unknown carver media, such as soap (although fetched $3,555 last January at a Pook and that is sometimes frowned Pook auction in Downingtown, PA. upon because of its potential for forging keys and creating art” with its overtones of teutonic illitfake handguns) and cigarette eracy, nowadays is yielding among acawrappers, potato chip bags and demics to the more respectable sounding other paperlike products. “traditional art”: customs, skills and beliefs But the use of wood scraps handed down from one generation to the and other arboreal products, such as peach next by example or word of mouth. In other pits, dominates. Usually they are assembled presale estimate words: anonymous by definition. into drinking establishments often populated of $400 to $600. In April of 2010 The folk art category lives on among its in Burlington County, N.J., the auction comwith simians - “monkey bars.” Last January, at a sale of furniture, fine pany Legacies Old and New, Inc. liquidated descendant subcategories: “Primitive,” like art and decorative accessories, Pook and the contents of a historic mansion, including Grandma Moses; “Tramp,” made by Pook, Inc. sold an 11-by-19-by-19-inch a 3.5-by-4-foot model of the S.S. St. Paul, vagabonds also using found materials; early 1900s scene by an unknown carver, of the steamship in which Marconi came over “Self-taught” artists, such as Bill Traylor a tavern interior in a glass case with about a from Italy. It sold for $1,000, according to a (1854 to 1947), whose gouache and pencil dozen (human) figures seated and standing, subsequent account in the Philadelphia depiction of a purple cat sold for $40,625 at Freeman’s April 17 sale of American furniInquirer. for $3,555. It was built, also in the early 1900s, by ture, folk and decorative arts (almost twice The previous October, the Downingtown, Pa., auction house, which an inmate serving a life term in the prison at its presale estimate of $15,000 to $25,000); Mount Holly, who made it out of scraps and, more recently “Outsider,” currently celincluding pine (probably from a rafter), ebrated at the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Bristol board from a book binding, and exhibition through June 9 of the Jill and upholstery tacks and later presented it to the Sheldon Bonovitz collection “Great and county sheriff. It was later put on display at Mighty Things.” The second reason is that anonymity is the jail, itself a historic site. And in January of 2009, Pook and Pook (Continued on page 2) are available. The 2013 exhibition last month offered 430 works, with prices ranging from $20 to $400 by artists from 29
Interest in jailhouse carving was stepped up in 2006 by an episode on the “Antiques Roadshow” at which Connecticut appraiser Marybeth Keane (left) explained the New This monkey bar belongs to the Down Jersey Folklife Center at Wheaton Arts and Cultural Hampshire Penitentiary origins of a monkey bar brought in by a guest. She said it was worth Center in Millville, N.J. Like some other jail house creations, its figures are carved from peach $3,500 to $4,500. (Photo by Jeff Dunn (c) WGBH.) pits.