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Description: Becoming America: Highlights from the Jonathan and Karin Fielding Collection of Folk...
~JAMES GLISSON David, thanks for taking the time to share your story, profound knowledge, and infectious enthusiasm. How did the study and promotion of American folk and decorative art from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries come to be your calling?
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.33-53
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00280.003
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Forty Years in Folk Art: A Conversation with David Wheatcroft
JAMES GLISSON
JAMES GLISSON David, thanks for taking the time to share your story, profound knowledge, and infectious enthusiasm. How did the study and promotion of American folk and decorative art from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries come to be your calling?
DAVID WHEATCROFT I grew up in central Pennsylvania, where on-site dispersals of estates at live auction was a long-standing tradition. At first, I was a very young, unwitting observer of these events, but by the age of seven, I was considered savvy enough to execute bids for my impatient mother (she had better things to do at home). Much later, I went to art school at the University of Iowa, where I received an MFA in studio art with a focus on drawing, but I took courses in painting and printmaking, too. My interest in art, combined with a long fascination with auctions and the need to generate income, evolved into a business. Buying used contemporary or noncollectible items led to buying the antique and artful, which had much better margins. And artful antiques had even better margins.
JG What sorts of antiques did you start with?
DW The Bicentennial in 1976 saw an upswing in interest in American antiques, especially quilts. The pieced quilt was ubiquitous and highly inventive. Their geometric conceptions showed surprising affinities to the op art and minimalism movements of the 1970s, to artists like Bridget Riley, Richard Anuszkiewicz, and Donald Judd. I saw this strong interest in quilts and made buying and selling them my first attempt at antique dealing. With undue confidence and the hypnotic chant of the auctioneer planted in my chest, the thrill of the discovery of old, useful objects as art became an unavoidable siren song.
JG So, I take it you really liked the thrill of discovery?
DW Absolutely: the ongoing sorting and sifting of potential purchases, the daily curating of finds, the winnowing down to the most visually exciting pieces while being constrained by what I thought from observation of the market was most likely to sell. During an indenture of nearly a decade in pursuit of quilts, I slowly incorporated into my business other forms of expression, including watercolors, paintings, decorated furniture, and sculptures ranging in date from 1780 to 1950. After forty years, I have a fairly broad knowledge of a variety of objects considered American folk art. My hope is that, over time, I have not only learned a bit of history about the production of folk art but also refined my sense of judgment.
JG How long have you worked with Jonathan and Karin Fielding?
DW I have worked with Jon and Karin for about twenty years.
JG What has your role been in shaping the collection?
DW They are the drivers of their collection. They provide the impulse—the passion, as it were—to collect. And they are always the final arbiters. My experience serves as ballast to check the unconstrained love of the object.
JG You sound like an accountant or attorney tasked with delivering sober facts.
DW I try to offer context. I give opinions about the availability of similar objects and the sale record of related items. I’ve been in the business long enough to know the market, when something is likely to come up again for sale and when something is truly exceptional—for instance, the Asa Ames full-length carving of a young girl. Only two other such depictions of children standing are known. Similarly, the Jacob Maentel portrayal of a hatter is singular, one of a handful of occupational portraits, only two of which are so fully realized. The portrait of Albert G. Gilman by A. Ellis is part of a very small group, perhaps fifteen, that are attributed to this elusive artist. The Gilman portrait has a striking and probably unique red background. And it is in superior condition.
~
Description: Portrait of Susan Ames by Ames, Asa
ASA AMES (1824–1851)
Portrait of Susan Ames, ca. 1849
Western New York
Pine and paint
35 × 10 × 10 in.
L2015.41.183
~
Description: Portrait of Hatter John Mays of Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania by Maentel, Jacob
JACOB MAENTEL (1778–1863)
Portrait of Hatter John Mays of Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, ca. 1830
Watercolor, gouache, ink, and pencil on paper
Framed: 18 × 15 in.
2016.25.102
~
Description: Portrait of Albert G. Gilman by Ellis, A.
A. ELLIS (ACTIVE 1830s)
Portrait of Albert G. Gilman, 1831
Readfield-Waterville area, Maine
Oil on basswood panel
29 × 23 in.
L2015.41.173
JG It sounds like the thrill of a real find and sharing your knowledge of the market spurs your work.
DW Yes, but never forget that Jon and Karin drive the car; I am in the back seat at times, yelling advice, hopefully without too much waving of arms, best with the top up so that I can be heard.
JG Yelling from the back seat of a convertible?
DW Collecting is filled with the temptation to digress. The Fieldings, however, are patient, and they are willing to wait to find the pieces of great aesthetic or historical merit.
JG Some moments must stand out from these past twenty years.
DW One was the bidding for the Still Life with a Basket of Fruit, Flowers, and Cornucopia from the collection of Andy Williams, the singer. It was very competitive. Not completely unanticipated, but I will allow that our tank was hovering on empty by the end of the bidding. The piece from the Williams collection is attributed to Joseph Proctor, an African American whom the 1860 census identifies as an artist; it is by far the largest of a small group of works assigned to him. Moreover, the square format is very unusual. The articulation of the fruit is fulsome yet simple. Note, in particular, the round grapes with the single dot highlight—a simple solution to what is literally a complex reflection of light. And in this context, it does the trick.
~
Description: Still Life with a Basket of Fruit, Flowers, and Cornucopia by Proctor, Joseph
ATTRIBUTED TO JOSEPH PROCTOR (ACTIVE NEW YORK CITY AND STATE)
Still Life with a Basket of Fruit, Flowers, and Cornucopia
Mid-nineteenth century
Oil on canvas
46 × 48 in.
L2015.41.171
The overall composition and size make it especially striking. So I think the appeal at the auction was predictable, but I don’t think that the final price was foreseen by many people. It seemed that there was one collector who was especially spirited and competitive in the last third of the bidding. I think the Fieldings’ full-throttle approach was well justified. There really is not another American folk art still life that competes with the grandeur of this one.
JG My sense is that, in your field, one must be careful about refinished surfaces, mends, repairs, and uncertain dating—all of which is compounded by the dearth of documentation on these artists and artifacts before the early twentieth century, when the collecting of folk art took off.
DW I try to use whatever skills I have developed in sniffing out the spurious, the counterfeits, and the frauds. I have been taught most effectively by making mistakes, and I have paid for the experience with financial suffering. Fakery comes with the territory of art dealing. Note the more than a dozen fake Jackson Pollocks sold by the heretofore venerable Knoedler Gallery in New York for tens of millions a few years ago.
Especially in the period after the Bicentennial, all kinds of pieces were constructed to fool the collector. For painted pieces, it was commonplace for repairs to be cleverly executed and then further camouflaged with the application of a painted surface made to match the old one, or even a pattern and colors invented whole cloth. The sophistication of this work can make it challenging to recognize. One line of defense is learning the materials and techniques from each period. In the case of furniture, hand tools leave telltale marks. In the case of paintings, there were pigment discoveries (for example, the cadmium colors from the metal) that only became available in the late nineteenth century. They have a different intensity and specific color range that was unachievable using the earlier palette. In the case of quilts, fabric designs evolved. Researching fabric prints and patterns and knowing the dates of their manufacture firms up dates for quilts. Of course, in the field, experience counts for a great deal. And if there are still questions, scientific testing such as microscopy can sometimes provide definitive answers.
I have often thought it best to follow the Euell Gibbons rule. Euell was well known for his natural-eating books and lectures in the 1960s. He was once asked how to recognize the poisonous mushrooms. Euell hushed the crowd and frightened them with his reply, “I don’t know the poisonous mushrooms!” Into the breach of the audience’s gasp, Euell followed up quickly with, “I only know the ones that are good to eat.”
JG You make collecting folk art sound downright dangerous. But I see your point: worry about finding the best, and then the lesser—or toxic—items will drop away. Speaking of folk art, this term is often contested. How would you explain it to a reader just coming to the field?
DW By one definition, folk art is the product of artists who did not train at an academy or apprentice in an urban center. It is often misconstrued as a crudely executed, cartoonish version of refined or professional productions.
JG So, folk artists did not attend the Royal Academy in London (founded in 1768) or apprentice with a fashionable artist, like Joshua Reynolds, the English artist who taught the American painter Benjamin West. The furniture makers represented in the Fielding Collection did not train in Paris, as did Charles-Honoré Lannuier, who set up shop in New York, or Duncan Phyfe, who learned the trade in his native Scotland before moving to the United States.
DW Yes.
JG Except you don’t think that this lack of training makes folk art crude.
DW Right. As with any art, folk art exists on a continuum. The Fielding Collection is anchored by its focus on collecting the most successful pieces. For example, there are many hooked and sewn rugs that have survived the decades, even centuries. However, few have great merit as art objects. The original geometric patterned yarn-sewn hearth rug in the Fielding Collection by an anonymous artist has bold color and immediate impact.
~
Description: Geometric Hearth Rug by Hewins, Mary Peters
ATTRIBUTED TO MARY PETERS HEWINS (1794–1876)
Geometric Hearth Rug, ca. 1800
Norfolk County, Massachusetts
Yarn and shirred wool on linen
34 × 70 in.
Inscription (verso): “J. Hewins”
L2015.41.84
JG One part of the collection we haven’t touched on is the nineteenth- century material. Could you say more?
DW In the early nineteenth century, American makers began to produce objects in larger numbers for a growing middle class; these increasingly served only decorative or aesthetic purposes. New wealth brought anxieties about status and identity, and portraiture in particular was the way in which status, sometimes newly minted, manifested itself, primarily for rural professionals, successful farmers, and businesspeople. The larger and more complex the portrait, the higher the price. After all, relative wealth and respected vocation were, then as now, the root of status. Materials in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, especially canvas and paint, were often imported from England, and therefore costly.
Consider Ammi Phillips’s portraits of two members of the Van Keuren family (p. 13). The Van Keurens have the trappings of a comfortable life, with plenty of discretionary income: he holds a clay pipe for smoking tobacco and sits on a richly decorated painted chair, while she wears a frilled bonnet and has a decorated shawl draped over her arm.
~
Description: Portraits of a Man and Woman, Members of the Van Keuren Family by Phillips, Ammi
AMMI PHILLIPS (1788–1865)
Portraits of a Man and Woman, Members of the Van Keuren Family, ca. 1825–30
Oil on canvas
Each: 29¼ × 23¼ in.
2016.25.107, .106
Clearly, not everyone could commission a large-scale portrait. On the more affordable end of the scale were the small watercolors executed in profile, like those by Edwin Plummer. And the simplest and likely the least expensive were the small silhouettes of heads supported by disproportionate bodies, done in watercolor by a painter known as the “Puffy Sleeve Artist,” now identified as Ezra Wood, who lived in western Massachusetts and earned a living as a tavern keeper and woodworker.
~
Description: Four Portraits of Children by Plummer, Edwin
EDWIN PLUMMER
(CA. 1802–1880)
Four Portraits of Children
Mid-nineteenth century
Massachusetts
Watercolor and gouache on paper
Framed: 13 × 10½ in.
L2015.41.143
~
Description: Portraits of Samuel and Elvira Fish by Unknown
POSSIBLY EZRA WOOD (1798–1841), “PUFFY SLEEVE ARTIST”
Portraits of Samuel and Elvira Fish, ca. 1810
Watercolor and ink on paper
Each: 3½ × 2⅞ in.
Inscription (verso): “Samuel / Mrs. Elvira Fish / (Gov. Wentworth Family—N.H.)”
L2015.41.148
JG You’ve talked about folk art, material culture, and the objects acquired by the educated and upwardly mobile middle class. One of the United States’ great achievements is its middle class, and these objects help to tell that story. What other stories about the nineteenth century might be told using the Fielding Collection?
DW The collection shows the early transformation of a rural, agrarian nation into an urban, industrial one. New technologies, from the steam engine to the factory-based manufacture of both paper and cloth, influenced folk productions. The steamboat came to be depicted in paintings and water-colors. The Fieldings have a masterful James Bard portrait of a steamboat pulling a sailboat that documents a new technology supplanting an old one. This work not only has a clear visual relation to the larger style changes taking place but also is constructed with excellent proportions and embellished with a highly activated paint surface.
~
Description: The Steamboat "Peter Crary by Bard, James
JAMES BARD (1815–1897)
The Steamboat “Peter Crary”, 1858
Oil on canvas
Framed: 40 × 61 in.
L2015.41.175
JG One of the old yarns about modernization and industrialization is that time sped up. The telegraph and railroad expedited communication and transportation. There still must have been some delay between the city and the country. How might a rural artist find inspiration from a city cousin?
DW Yes, there was often a time lag between the dissemination of a new style in the decorative arts and its reinterpretation in the rural and small-town environment. Some of it was the result of the stickiness of the existing style in a culturally slower environment.
JG The quickness of city life as opposed to the leisurely pace of the country.
DW Yes, exactly. Let’s get specific, though. The tall case clock with its original surface decoration is an excellent example of a rural response to an urban-style evolution. The clock is from around 1820 but simulates design trends that became widespread in Federal furniture beginning in the late eighteenth century. It was typical of Federal furniture to use inlay with exotic contrasting woods like mahogany, ebony, or rosewood; high, tapered French feet; round panels; and lozenge-shaped brass handles. In the clock, the rural craftsman simulated expensive wood. Instead of using tiger maple (a striped maple), he made striated lines in the wet paint, umber over a pale yellow base coat. The panels in the door and base have smoke-decorated white paint, probably meant as a stand-in for light birch. The fumée effect was achieved by first painting the panel white. Then, while the paint was still wet, a candle was held below, allowing the smoke trail to leave a design on the ground color. The candle was often moved in a swirling motion, and the technique had an unmistakable soft, misty effect. While these faux surfaces clearly mimic birch and maple, other examples of painted furniture in the Fielding Collection often stray far from the literal. The patterns on the blanket chest can at best be called wood-like, while the swirls on the decorated box have an eccentric aesthetic that is all their own.
~
Description: Tall Case Clock by Whiting, Riley
Tall Case Clock, ca. 1820
RILEY WHITING (1785–1835), CLOCK MOVEMENT
Winchester, Connecticut
UNKNOWN, PAINTED CASE
Probably Maine 1820s
Pine, glass, wood, and paint
88 × 18½ × 11 in.
Inscription: “R. Whiting Winchester”
L2015.41.23
~
Description: Tall Case Clock, detail
Tall Case Clock, ca. 1820 (detail)
L2015.41.23
~
Description: Blanket Chest
Blanket Chest
Nineteenth century
Vermont
Wood, paint, and metal hinges
28⅜ × 38¾ × 19⅜ in.
Inscription (inside of lid): “The Property of Lena A. Bugbee and Clair Paul Wakefield, Vershire VT”
L2015.41.108
~
Description: Swirl-Decorated Box
Swirl-Decorated Box, ca. 1820–40
Wood, paint, and iron
8⅝ × 20⅛ × 10 in.
2016.25.28
JG The Vermont blanket chest has always read to me like a drawing by the abstract expressionist artist Adolph Gottlieb. Going back to your opening comments on quilts and their link to abstraction, what is the overlap?
DW It was the use of flat space, strong color, inventive graining and patterning—the soul of traditional folk art—that struck a chord with the modern artists. This strong current of intuitive abstraction became part of a broad stream of visual approaches used by avant-garde artists searching for new means of expression. In fact, the sculptor Elie Nadelman formed a huge collection of American folk art, and Alfred H. Barr exhibited folk material at the Museum of Modern Art in the 1930s and 1940s, when he served as director.
JG One term for this colorful furniture is Fancy. Could you say more about when and where this style was popular?
DW The post–Revolutionary War folk artists were influenced by broader cultural trends, including the social/aesthetic movement termed Fancy, which spread with fervor in the early nineteenth century. In the visual and decorative arts, the movement was characterized by increased color saturation and heightened embellishment. No doubt the optimistic outlook of the population of the young republic reinforced a mood that was open to the colorful and expressive—like the red-and-black Vermont blanket chest (above) or the tall case clock I just mentioned.
JG Part of the colorfulness of the Fielding Collection is found in the period surfaces or the surfaces from shortly after the piece’s creation. Could you talk about their importance?
DW There is a documentary and aesthetic side to the value of an original surface. To the practiced eye, it is difficult to simulate the changes that have taken place over a long period of time to a painted or clear finish. A repair done at a later date will inevitably have a different surface, perhaps a change in color, texture, or accumulation of particulate matter. Perhaps all three. Needless to say, a refinishing—that is, a later finish applied after removal of the old finish—decreases the chances to catch these repairs or restorations. Even more confounding can be a finish in paint or a clear finish that is applied to simulate an old finish. Sometimes only a microscope can resolve questions about the age of a surface. But making such determinations on the fly can be greatly assisted by a well-developed sensitivity to unadulterated finishes. The New Hampshire splayed-leg table with its glowing patina is a good example, or the leg and seat of the red Windsor armchair.
~
Description: Splayed-Leg Table
Splayed-Leg Table, ca. 1800
Southern New Hampshire
Birch and paint
28 × 22 × 16 in.
L2015.41.115
~
Description: Splayed-Leg Table, detail
Splayed-Leg Table (detail), ca. 1800
Southern New Hampshire
Birch and paint
28 × 22 × 16 in.
L2015.41.115
Furthermore, an undisturbed finish, even with added in-use layers, can provide a window to understanding the taste of each generation—such as the rare green Windsor chair desk attributed to the well-known craftsman Ebenezer Tracy Sr. The generally green Windsors of the eighteenth century were often repainted in more vibrant yellows, reds, light greens, blues, and even shades of pink in the early nineteenth century. And then they were painted black or brown to fit the mid-to-late-nineteenth-century Victorian aesthetic. So, a chair with an undisturbed surface from the 1880s might retain several iterations of changing tastes.
~
Description: High-Back Windsor Armchair with Writing Arm by Tracy, Ebenezer
ATTRIBUTED TO EBENEZER TRACY SR. (1744–1803)
High-Back Windsor Armchair with Writing Arm
Late eighteenth century
Lisbon, Connecticut
Wood and green paint
36⅞ × 36¼ × 31 in.
L2015.41.112
JG So the not-messed-with surface is like a direct line to the past?
DW Yes. A chair with its original paint undisturbed gives us clear documentation of the intended finish that was applied at the time of its making.
JG Tell me, what else can happen to furniture?
DW Simple wear. For instance, in the collection’s Schrank, there is softening around the handles from opening and closing the cabinet. Often, though, it can be hard to know exactly what created a paint effect. Color might have been accidentally applied while the baseboards in the room were being painted, an acidic spill could have dissolved some areas, exposure to sunlight might have faded others. Vigorous cleaning might have rubbed away delicate surfaces.
~
Description: Painted Schrank
Painted Schrank
Late eighteenth century
Berks County, Pennsylvania
Poplar and paint
81 × 60 × 21¾ in.
Inscription: “17 Philip Detük 75”
2018.10
~
Description: Painted Schrank, detail
Painted Schrank (detail)
Alternatively, the original finish is an aesthetic delight. Most of the original and intended sheen dulls over time. The texture and buildup of dust, wax, and oils, along with subtle wear from use, can produce a distinctively appealing envelope for the piece. The matte surface more fully absorbs the light. The light also passes through generations of buildup and can achieve the effect of a glaze in an oil painting—a translucent window on the effects of time. The variegation of the surface is natural and, in the best of circumstances, has its own logic resulting from decades or centuries of environmental causes that transform the surface’s visual effect.
~
Description: Windsor Low-Back Settee Lancaster County, Pennsylvania ca
Windsor Low-Back Settee, ca. 1760–80
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Wood with black and green paint
30 × 81 × 24 in.
L2015.41.100
One virtue is that the surface cannot be foreseen by the makers. It is only seen in its archeological fullness by the contemporary examiner. Perhaps the aesthetic side of preserved surfaces is just a romanticism of accumulations of grime and dirt. No matter—the tradition has been formed. For those who see it and are awed, exactly where the magic comes from, they care not. The discovery of an untouched surface aesthetically enhanced by time is a scarce find indeed.
JG This reminds me of contemporary debates around intentionality and artistic meaning. We see with our eyes what the artist did, but working backward to understand exactly what he or she wanted to communicate is harder, if not impossible. We can never see the original surface, only a version of it, like looking at stars through a telescope and knowing the light has traversed the universe over decades or centuries.
DW That’s an interesting idea. It is as if a beguiling line of history, at times beautiful, is drawn between the maker then and the discoverer now.
JG Why is the painted Schrank such an important acquisition?
DW There are very few large painted case pieces, and even fewer with a wide array of colors and paint application. The Fielding Schrank is embellished with a date, 1775, and a name, “Philip Detük,” above the doors. These give us important pieces of information about its ownership. Like many so-called dower chests (blanket chests), it may have been a wedding gift or part of a dowry. Its highly decorated surface served as a reminder of that bond through many years of usefulness.
~
Description: Painted Schrank, detail
Painted Schrank (detail)
Inscription: “17 Philip Detük 75”
The Schrank has two doors with raised panels, an applied cornice with dental molding, and generous ball feet. This particular decorator gave us much to see. He employed various paint-application techniques: sponged, dry-brushed, and solid areas of color and multiple contrasting colors. The feet and cornice, commonly replaced, are original, and the paint surface is in an unsurpassed state of condition. To my knowledge, it is the best example of a painted Schrank that has been up for sale in the last forty years. Even in museums, there is little to rival it.
The Pennsylvania Germans brought with them from Europe a tradition of the use of strong color. In their hands, imagery was flattened and lacked the plethora of flourishes found on the productions of their European forebears. Even in the more tradition-bound religious sects that avoided ostentation, they found a place in their lives for the novelty and beauty of strong color.
JG In the Fielding Collection, there is tension between decoration and simplicity, or ostentation and restraint. These are proxies for deeper debates about religious observance and secular materialism. Decoration, and the lack thereof, is the manifestation of a theological position or a retreat from the secular world.
DW The Fielding Collection’s Amish Diamond in the Square quilt is a good example. One of the most conservative, rule-bound religious sects in America is the Old Order Amish. They are easily recognized by their dress, even today. Interestingly, the Diamond in the Square became a widespread pattern in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in the late nineteenth century. It seemed to grow out of the plain bordered square (center square), which was likely preceded by an early quilt called the “center medallion.”
~
Description: Diamond in the Square Quilt
Diamond in the Square Quilt, ca. 1890–1900
Pennsylvania Amish
Wool, pieced
76½ × 76 in.
Inscription (verso): “R.S”
2016.25.60
~
Description: Six-Board Blanket Chest
Six-Board Blanket Chest, ca. 1770–85
Hampton, New Hampshire
American white pine with red paint and nineteenth-century clear varnish
25¼ × 36⅛ × 17⅛ in.
Inscription (verso): “S. O. Eaton”
L2015.41.102
Maybe one way to think about the balancing act between beauty and restraint is to take a detour into Amish clothing. The dresses, capes, and bonnets of Amish women were and still are plain; any printed fabric was forbidden, reflecting the biblical interdictions against graven images and vanity. However, underneath the long, plain dresses, women wore hand-knitted woolen socks with multiple colors and figurative motifs, most often fruit such as strawberries, and on rare occasions, human forms. These fancy socks were not worn on all occasions, but it is interesting to note that even when they were worn, they did not show. It is clear that within the reserve required by religious law, the Amish women who made the quilts and socks found a new vocabulary to express their sense of beauty. Particularly in their quilt production, they unintentionally foreshadowed an entire stream of modern art.
JG David, how did we go from socks to modern art?
DW Well, the Diamond in the Square pattern quilt is a very reductive design related visually to Josef Albers’s prolific series of color variations, often called Homage to the Square.
JG I see. The sensuousness of color and the ability of simple patterns to allow the viewer to respond to blocks of color relations—that is what ties these otherwise disparate things together. Let me ask you another question. Can you tell me how objects in the Fielding Collection fit into the larger context of household possessions?
DW Our lives are increasingly complex, with layers of technology interfacing with us in a multitude of ways. So much of our work is digital and unseen. Our living spaces are often relatively uncluttered. The middle-class houses of the colonial period and nineteenth century, however, were often not so large and probably chockablock with the tools that made the things they used. Consider the use of furniture for storage, rather than our built-in closets, and the many, sometimes ungainly, utilitarian objects, like iron tools in the collection. Lacking all the various electrical appliances and lighting that are now ubiquitous, they needed to have at hand all of the accoutrements necessary for lighting lamps and stoves for heat: candle-holders and oil lamps of all kinds, oil for the lamps, wicks and molds to make the candles, snuffers to extinguish the flames, large fireplaces, and all of the brass and iron pots, pokers, spatulas, and flesh forks. All this made for a busy visual environment—not to mention firewood.
~
Description: Adjustable Candle Lamp
Adjustable Candle Lamp, ca. 1810
Tin and sand
11½ × 8½ × 6 in.
2016.25.82
~
Description: Adjustable Candle Lamp and Snuffer
Adjustable Candle Lamp and Snuffer, ca. 1800
Tin and sand
23¾ × 6¼ in.
2016.25.83
Their lives were slower, and in that sense, simpler. They had no consumer culture such as ours, no fountain of ever-novel entertainments, or clever ways to record themselves. Their access to the past and an imagined future was much more limited. Records were on paper, in logs and books that consumed real space. Fewer choices, we can assume, made colonial and post-Revolutionary America a simpler place.
JG That makes sense. One imagines laundry, preserved foods, items being mended, and worn-out items recycled. The pace of life was based on the seasons, the weather, and the amount of daylight. This leads me to a final point: In your vivid responses, you talk about being a dealer, watching the market, knowing what you’re buying, carefully looking for signs of alteration. But you often shuttle from that to how these objects embody philosophical ideas and cultural outlooks. They become tinctures filled with the concentrated essence of another time. What do these objects tell us in broad strokes about the formation of a distinct American national identity no longer in the shadow of Europe?
DW European settlers brought cultural and craft traditions to North America that were naturally changed by the new environment. The objects they produced have more in common with the centuries that preceded settlement. In relation to northern Europe, the small-town and rural American decorative art products were less embellished and distinctly less burdened by pretentious materials. American immigrants created a relatively restrained art that reinforced their ideals of egalitarianism. They rejected aristocratic and complex systems of royalty. Americans were constrained by limited access to fine materials—mahogany and expensive brass fittings. They were often a long way from coastal urban centers, like Boston or Philadelphia, where the latest styles were imported from Europe.
JG Distance is a theme that has run through our conversation. And we, today, are light-years away from the culture that made these objects, a world only beginning to mechanize, a world where religion and family ties determined so much about a person’s life path. The objects assembled in the Fielding Collection help visitors to imagine a long extinct way of life, but, perhaps, one whose lessons will be more relevant as we learn to live with less to save the planet. Thank you so much for sharing your passion and profound knowledge of the period. The collection is a testament to the incredible collaborative endeavor—one based on mutual trust—between you and the Fieldings.
 
From 1980 to 2018, David Wheatcroft was the owner of David Wheatcroft Antiques in Westborough, Massachusetts. He has advised the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the American Folk Art Museum. His opinions on American folk art have been sought out by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Art & Auction. Now living in Pennsylvania, he continues to work with clients.
Forty Years in Folk Art: A Conversation with David Wheatcroft
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