Antique American Folk Art Automobile Collection. Made by Hand Vintage Wood Carving Toys c. 1930 Original Paint

Antique American Folk Art Automobile Collection. Made by Hand Vintage Wood Carving Toys c. 1930 Original Paint. Each approx. 6" long. These from a large group which also includes several trucks, etc. Collection Jim Linderman

Vintage Folk Art Tramp Art Miniature Dresser made of Matchsticks and Glitter

Vintage Folk Art Tramp Art Miniature Dresser made of Matchsticks and Glitter.  Circa 1960?
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 Collection Jim Linderman

The Good Ship New York Antique Folk Art Sculpture

Folk Art sculpture.  The Good Ship New York is circa 1890 and is three feet long.
Folk Art Ship Model with original paint.  Collection Jim Linderman

Cigar Box Fish Folk Art Tramp Art

Cigar Box Fish Folk Art Tramp Art

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Tramp Art Folk Art Relief Carved Religious Sculpture Dated 1904 collection Jim Linderman

A very good piece of Tramp Art, and one dated on the bottom 1904.  It is uncommon to find dated tramp art, though through old cigar box labels and notes, it is often possible to estimate.  This piece is for more complicated than most as it is covered with figural relief carvings AND has a little church scene carved on the inside!  "This is the church, this is the steeple, open the door, see all the people."  Nearly 20 inches tall.

Tramp Art Relief Carved Folk Art Sculpture 1904 Collection Jim Linderman
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Serving Time with Father Time Prison Art and Clock Hands which Don't Move

Plenty of nothing, but plenty of time.  Paraphrase of the Porgy and Bess song.  If anyone had plenty of nothing and plenty of time, it would be someone serving it.  Hence Prison Art.  Akin to the branch of institutionalized outsider art  (oxymoron) which existed before psychoactive drugs sapped some of the fevered creativity.  Folks in small living quarters with nothing on their hands BUT time…and sometimes an object of art results.

I don't know if this giant fake grandfather clock (Father Time) constructed of hundreds of wooden matchsticks was made by a prisoner, but it does have a time motif.  It even has a fake pendulum and weights which move, but the the hands do not.  He's stuck.  Time keeps dragging on.  A lifer.

One way to tell if your wooden object is tramp art versus prison art?  Did it require a KNIFE?  Most hoosegows frown, as general policy, of giving the inmates knives.

Tramp Art or Prison Art Grandfather Clock of Matchsticks.  No Date.  Collection Jim Linderman

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Folk Art Tramp Art Chewing Gum Wrapper Chain Collection Jim Linderman

Chewing Gun Chain.

The average price of a pack of gum is $1.58 according to the Wall Street Journal. Consequently, the gum market is flat. Not that you can use a gum wrapper to make a chain anymore. The manufacturers have eliminated your raw material!

The fellow below recommends using Starburst wrappers. Watch carefully and you will see he also recommends throwing away the gum. My chain here is ten feet long. Not bad, but record holder Gary Duschl, who seems like a nice guy, has one 74,216 feet long. For a professional competitor, Gary seems awful nice to share his technique.

This really doesn't fit the definition of Tramp Art, as not many fathers would like anyone calling their gum-chewing kid a tramp, but it is clearly related. A dying Folk Art? Yes.

Ten foot long Chewing Gum Wrapper circa 1960? Collection Jim Linderman 

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Miniature Handmade Whittled Wooden Pliers Folk Art Whimseys

Depression-era Miniature Handmade Whittled Wooden Pliers Folk Art.  Whimsical but good only for using up time.  

Miniature carved tools, circa 1930  Collection Jim Linderman

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Charles Cole Folk Art Miniature Architectural Houses of Cigar Boxes

Miniature cigar box tramp art houses by Charles Cole of Racine, Wisconsin.   Mr. Cole created an entire city, in magnificent detail, from cigar boxes he collected from Rehl's Book Store in Racine, and that was the city he recreated in meticulous, remarkable detail.   Actually, Mr. Cole created an idealized city, bringing in prominent buildings from Madison, Chicago and elsewhere, but he placed them in his perfect world. 

There were 75 buildings, of which four are shown here.  As far as I know, one is the only unfinished piece (unpainted, anyway) which shows some of the detail work before he painted them.  Precision cut with laser skill, though the laser was still fifty years in the future.  As you can see in one piece here, (with bolts and nuts shown for size) many of the houses were wired for light.  Which is probably why the unpainted house has SEVENTY-TWO windows!                                                                                        

Here is the kicker.  Cole made each house IN TRIPLICATE!  One for each of his children.  

Mr. Cole's work, or at least one set,  was apparently purchased as a lot and is now being dispersed on your favorite online auction site.  A shame, it could not be kept together, but then Charles may have been tickled to know how far his little creations have been spread. 

Some of the most remarkable buildings I know which were made of cigar boxes, and I aim to keep them together.


Four miniature houses, circa 1935, by Charles M. Cole  collection Jim Linderman

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Gigantic Tramp Art Folk Art ...um...THING collection Jim Linderman

No door or opening, just a "house like" Tramp art thing. 

Tramp Art "House" circa 1930  Collection Jim Linderman

Miniature Make-Do Folk Art Tack and Pin Box with Birds Drawn by Hand

A tiny "make-do" handmade folk art box for holding tacks and pins. Only three inches wide and two inches tall, the box is constructed from cardboard, the "handles" are small brads. I presume made by a child, possibly as a gift for the parents? Circa 1920 or so. Scarlet Tanager, Baltimore Oriole and Goldfinch.

Miniature Homemade Folk Art Box collection Jim Linderman
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Folk Art Masterpiece Pieces of RICE Folk Art Masterpiece

Folk Art Masterpiece. Four feet long and entirely made of hand-dyed rice kernels, each single piece placed by hand. I thought it was a pretty good (and pretty large) hooked rug until I got about fifteen feet away. 100% rice, whole-grain....and each tiny kernal vegetal dyed. Click to enlarge. I am inclined to run a "guess the number of kernels" contest but then I would have to count them myself.


When does a now extinct child's craft become a work of art? Well, for one thing, when it gets this big. No child made this. 4 feet x 3 feet and framed like the serious construction it is. This took longer than the hardest puzzle and I presume tweezers were involved.


Now tedious and repetitive folk art pieces like this used to be common, or at least smaller versions were. Certainly television took away much of the motivation, I suspect sleeping pills and sedatives have as well...obsessive art is far less seen than it used to be. This certainly would have won first prize at the State Fair around 1900 had it been entered, but there is no attribution other than the Midwest.


I have seen portraits of clown heads made of aquarium sand. I have seen entire buildings made out of corn-cobs. I have seen a Harley Davidson motorcycle constructed of dried beans. If there is a person bored and a wooden board, something will be made. But I could look 20 years full time and not find a piece as balanced, as big and as beautiful.



"Make-do" Applied Rice constructed "painting" circa 1900. Collection Jim Linderman

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The Good Ship New York Folk Art Boat Model Tramp Art Paint

Why is so little tramp art painted? I am not sure...the familiar notch-carved cigar box chip constructions would always look better with a little color. That dark, varnished brown hardly livens up a room any...and because of it I have always felt one piece in a room was enough.

Why didn't the makers ever add color?

My boat is almost three feet long, constructed with available pieces of wood and with every color of paint within reach.


Homemade Folk Art Boat circa 1875. Collection Jim Linderman

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