Incollect Magazine - Issue 2

Issue 1 40 www.incollect.com It would be difficult today to assemble the kind of collection that Allan and Penny have in their home in Connecticut. “This is a lifetime of sorting and winnowing,” he says, ushering me into his living room to review some of his favorite objects. He pointed to a metal gilded eagle on the wall. “That came from the United States embassy in Canton in southern China. It is a replica of the Great Seal of the United States, by an unknown maker circa 1870–1880.” He then showed me an American Indian archer weathervane which is well known, as it was in the collection of Stuart Gregory, one of the great early pioneer Folk Art collectors. Dating to circa 1870, it is made of copper with traces of gold leaf and originally sat above a blacksmith’s shop in Pomfret, Connecticut. “The wonderful thing about this democratic art of Folk Art is that it was for everybody. This was public art, Penny says. Allan quickly also adds, “Remember it very often had a utilitarian function,” and points to a signed, dated life-size tobacco store trade figure made by Herman Kruschke in Rochester, Minnesota in 1880 that depicts an Indian chief with all original paint and in remarkably good condition. “If you take yourself back to 1880, you can see a beautiful carved figure standing outside a trading store or some other commercial enterprise with the message of what is sold inside. It catered to a vast immigrant population who in most cases either did not speak English or might have been illiterate. It was a means of communication.” Another fascinating object is a banjo chair from New Hampshire circa 1920, made of a variety of woods. The chair has the shape and decoration of a life-size banjo complete with inlaid strings. It has a practical role as furniture but its visual decoration suggests it was something more special, a talking Penny’s collection of German and Czech Art Deco airbrush glaze ceramics. The 100-piece collection began with a blue and white pot that Penny admired, and Allan bought as a gift for her when the couple was dating. It remains a sentimental favorite.