Folk Art Wood Carvings, ca. 1940

Appraised on: July 30, 2005

Appraised in: Bismarck, North Dakota

Appraised by: Ken Farmer

Category: Folk Art

Episode Info: Bismarck, Hour 2 (#1011)

Originally Aired: April 17, 2006

IMAGE: 1 of 3  

Appraisal Video: (2:10)

GUEST: Well, my father was a doctor in Beach, North Dakota. And sometimes payment was made to him by pieces of art. People couldn't always afford, you know, to pay their bills with money.

APPRAISER: Sure.

GUEST: And so they would do things like this for him. And he loved the people. And he loved their art.

APPRAISER: So did your dad put these in his office?

GUEST: No. There's a building that's called The Rec Hall. This is a large estate. It was a movie theater, actually. It still has movie seats in there. And there were glass cases along the sides of the walls that he kept them in to show. This man is Newt Stanger that did this.

APPRAISER: What's your favorite in the group?

GUEST: I think these two.

APPRAISER: I asked the other appraisers... You know, we talk amongst each other before we go on usually.

GUEST: Sure.

APPRAISER: And it's funny. Almost every one of them picked out a different one.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: The thing that's so great about these is they're from this area, and you know who the guy was that made them.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And that's a provenance or a record that appeals to collectors. And then beyond that, it's how they appeal to each person that looks at them.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Some people would say these are kind of edgy. They're very subtle in some ways, and they're surreal in other ways. I mean... this hunter-- to me, he looks sad.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: You ever looked at that look on his face? A lot of people liked the boat with the raccoons. And they're all happy because they get to use the boat first of all to go fishing, and then they've got the big pink salmon and they're going t have a big feast when they get back to shore. Right after they wash the fish. (both laughing) And I like the lady the best of all. She's reading The Flight of Time. And then I guess that's her husband over there, showing off his recent acquisition in fishing. We've sold collections of unknown artists before and I've never been able to predict which pieces would do the best. It's just a very personal thing to the people that are bidding on them. But I feel real comfortable saying that a good pre-sale estimate for an auction on these would be $3,000 to $5,000 as a group.

GUEST: Mm-hmm. Thank you so much.