Circus and Carnival outsider art.

 My current original work is available for purchase here

ca. 1840 American, miniature, watercolor, folk art portrait of a lad in fine clothes. Importanly, housed in it's original pine, faux grain-painted frame. Probably New Hampshire or Maine origin. A wonderful piece of early Americana. Amazing condition and original surface.

The image size is 5" x 4". The frame is 1" wide so the overall size is 7" x 6". Incredible condition. Original wooden back was removed only to place the painting on an acid proof, museum mat board. Not attached or taped or dry mounted just cut perfectly to fit the paper. It is rare to find a watercolor on paper with no stains or damage housed in it's original, period frame.

To purchase, click here

Rare ca.1880's Victorian, sterling silver and mother-of-pearl nursery rhyme baby rattle, whistle and teething toy.

Here is a cool, and rare, old, English-made nursery artifact. Bells, whistles and teething toy. These could be seen on Downton Abbey. Features "Hey Diddle Diddle the Cat and the Fiddle" on one side and Lady Liberty on the other. This is available for sale here

"Beekeeping is the poetry of agriculture". Slovenian decorated apiary panels from the 18th to the early 20th centuries.

Seeing some spring flowers peaking out from the cold Wisconsin soil reminded me of a type of folk art I learned about a long time ago. The painted panels of Slovenian beehives. Like many areas of folk art has done in the past 25 years, much academic work, museum exhibitions and the internet have made these pieces much more accessible. When you look at these you will see they all have small cut-outs at the center bottom. That is where the bees fly in.

Here are a couple photos from (Courtesy Jennifer Dorroh). This is what the hives look like when they are intact and being used to produce honey. What a great folk art installation they make.

 Here are a couple of my favorites from the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum 

The travel site View From the Pier takes us on a tour of a small beekeeping museum in the next section of this post.