Antique Man in a Coffin Erotic Folk Art Carved Novelty Handmade Sculpture with Penis and Moving Tongue

Antique Man in a Coffin Erotic Folk Art Carved Novelty Handmade Sculpture with Penis and Moving Tongue.

Well, the title says a lot, but not all.  I'm going to add a value judgement.  Bad taste is evident from every era man has been here, and it's not going away.  If a whittler making a statement on mortality and the way we procreate is a problem for you, turn away.

Second, as strange as it may seem, I have collected these little contraptions for years.  I have had some with the coffin as large as a shoebox (sold at auction and lost) and as small as a matchbook.  I have had them painted and not, manufactured as tourist trap do-dads and whittled on the porch from when radio was the only mass-media other than the local newspaper.  I have had them working and broken, in pieces and not.  Rubber band operated and with other mechanisms.

But I have never had one with a tongue.  It is also unusual to see one with arms which extend, and nearly as far as the wanger.  Interestingly, as I write, my spell-checker fails to recognize the  word wanger, repeatedly replacing the word danger... while it has been in our vocabulary for decades.

Whether the artist who created this morbid miracle of post-death erection was thinking of "arms to hold you" and a tongue to kiss you is unknown.  Still, it is a pretty powerful little object combining life, death and what goes on in-between. 

Note also "Rest in Peace" painted on end of the coffin, wire carrying straps, actual linen lining and pencil highlights.  Not to mention red color applied in particular places. 

Little erotic effigies began in caves.  Where they will end is questionable, but they will always be here. 

Circa 1930 Handmade Erotic Novelty Man in Coffin Collection Jim Linderman

If you are interested in similar examples or hand-crafted dirty little (and big) objects created as an homage to sexual silliness, the book FOLK EROTICA by my gentleman friend and esthetic miracle man Milton Simpson HERE is a good place to start.

The Nuts and Bolts of Apothecary Cabinets Folk Art Primitive Decor

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So desirable for that comfy country decor, you'll see what are called  "apothecary cabinets"  in upscale shows, shelter magazine spreads and increasingly being reproduced in that horrible fake milk paint "antique while you wait" primitive style seen in shops full of potpourri.  If I walk into an antique shop met with waves of "fragrance" I usually figure it is there to mask a recent paint smell.   I feign enough interest to be polite, get in the car, cross the divider and pee at the fast food joint.  I hate that fake country crap.  The style comes in and out of vogue, especially when we are emerging from an economic downturn and folks want to feel honest, homey and authentic again.

Apothecary chests are usually nothing more than guys hardware holders anyway, like this one I found yesterday.   Dealers call them apothecary chests as the notion of potions being stored and retrieved by the country doctor is a good selling point, but truth is these things held dad's screws and washers as often as secret cures and chemicals.

Here is one I found yesterday.  It came of the "distressed" surface from work in the basement, not a furniture factory...and certainly not from old Doc Bones at the general store.


Nuts and Bolts Holder circa 1940?  33 drawers, 55 inches long.  Collection Jim Linderman 

See Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books and eBooks in print HERE

Mrs. Labelle and her Giant Papier Mache Heads Stephen Milanowski Photographer

COPYRIGHT STEPHEN MILANOWSKI


COPYRIGHT STEPHEN MILANOWSKI

While the site here may seem to be about photos, art and antiques, It is actually about stories. I'd like to consider myself a visual artist of sorts, one who uses things to tell stories.

There may be no better combination of "thing and story" than this one, and it comes to me courtesy master photographer Stephen Milanowski, who fortunately got in touch after I posted a big head. I found MY big head in the rafters of an antique store in Spring Lake, Michigan, where it cried out to me for several years before I took him down, talked THEM down (in price) and took him home. I posted the big baby HERE.

Imagine my surprise when I received a splendid present in the mail. A substantial and beautiful catalog from the Museum of Modern Art, their 2012 Appointment Calendar. Mr. Milanowski has a photo in the book, one which is in the MOMA permanent collection.

Nice as the book is, the card enclosed is what surprised me! Same scale, same surface, same curious holes in the head...My big baby had a FATHER and he had his portrait taken by an artist.

Mr. Milanowski (who has a splendid website HERE with some serious examples of his work over the years) later took the time to tell me the story. If you deal with the kind of material I love, the story is frequently as important as the object..and this is a good one.

I'll let Stephen tell it in his own words.

"How the Hell indeed. Some time ago, I believe on a FB posting of yours...I happened to notice, purely by chance, a snapshot of you in a den-like room, presumably in your home--and this snapshot showed you in that room with some of your collection...and I suddenly notice partly seen, in the corner of your room...Mrs. Labelle's Papier Mache Head. The Head I Photographed. And, my question was...How the Hell did Jim get his hands on Mrs. Labelle's Head?"

"The short version: before my wife and I & children moved to Madison, we lived in East Grand Rapids (my home town) for many years. On our street in EGR there lived a goofy old lady who, when I was introduced to her--I realized that she was the girls gym teacher and drama teacher at my High School--Catholic Central. I was introduced to her on her front porch...and I could tell that her house was worth being nosy about...I could see rampant pink everywhere in the interior--just by looking through the porch windows. When I then told her that I was an alum of the HS where she long taught (though then she was long retired)--she immediately invited me in--and I could tell this house was going to be a photographer's paradise. Mrs. Labelle gave me a tour...even into her basement...and it was there that she kept at least these 3 great and ancient papier mache Mardi Gras- style heads that she had long ago made for some drama class at Catholic Central. I flipped when I saw them and immediately asked if I could borrow them for photography; she said yes...and there you are."

"Every year in our neighborhood she would put the heads out on her porch for Halloween night. I should have asked her right then and there if she would sell them to me...but I could tell that she was quite attached to them."

"What I assume happened next is this--we later moved to Madison, she eventually died...and someone either got them in an estate sale...or they ended up in an antique store. And somewhere along the line...the head presented itself to you. Fill me in on the rest of the story."

"By the way--the promo card I sent you is also a Head by Mrs. Labelle."
SM


Stephen Milanowski also has work in the collections of the National Gallery of Art, The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, The High Museum of Art and the Polaroid Collection. His Facebook page is HERE

The Museum of Modern Art Store (which is the finest shop for gifts in Manhattan) is HERE

Mrs. Labelle's Big Head Collection Jim Linderman

How Old is that Folk Art in the Window? "Let's make an ANTIQUE"

Not long ago, I wrote a post pointing pointing out that plywood is now officially an antique. Need a hobby?

All the above ads come from one issue of Home Craftsman, the August 1952 issue.

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books Catalog HERE

Patriotic Pins of Trite Sexual Innuendo "Pin me Down, Sailor"

A coincidence all these somewhat risque and trite platitude pins are patriotic red white and blue? Nope...and I'll tell you why. During World War Two, not only was there a shortage of able bodied men at home, it was also virtually a woman's responsibility to nurture our soldiers...even to the extent of, well...encouragement.  This could be meeting troops on the train headed to training, or serving meals to the boys.  Rosie the Riveter in a skirt! Pins were a way of welcoming the boys to a USO club, a way of adding humor to a pretty dismal time in our history, a way of adding some encouragement to a kid who would soon be leaving (or returning) to battle. These pins indicate even sexual sleaze played a heroic role for the greatest generation, trite or not...and the heroes in this case were offering warm, humorous appreciation with implied comfort to other heroes on the way to a future unimaginable.
Collection of patriotic sexual innuendo pins, circa 1940 Collection Jim Linderman

Jim Linderman Posts on Collectors Weekly and More

Collector's Weekly is fast becoming the "go-to" site for the collectibles market. I love it, I contribute to it HERE (in the popular "show and tell" section) and I suggest you follow it as well.

They have a Facebook Page and the direct site is HERE.