{"product_id":"folk-art-carved-wooden-deer-sawn-silhouette-body-with-four-knife-whittled-legs-socketed-through-unsigned-american-c-1930-1960","title":"Folk Art Carved Wooden Deer, Sawn Silhouette Body with Four Knife-Whittled Legs Socketed Through, Unsigned American, c. 1930–1960","description":"  \u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA small standing deer, carved by hand and put together in two stages.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003ebody is a flat silhouette\u003c\/strong\u003e, cut from a single board: head lifted, neck arched, back curving down to a short raised tail, with one ear standing proud and a notch cut behind it. Run a thumb along any cut edge and you feel the \u003cstrong\u003esaw striations\u003c\/strong\u003e — fine parallel lines left by the blade, still there because nobody sanded them out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe eye is a \u003cstrong\u003esingle small circle\u003c\/strong\u003e pressed or drilled into the face. That is the entire facial carving, and it is enough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003efour legs are separate pieces\u003c\/strong\u003e, whittled from stock with a knife rather than turned, each one faceted where the blade took its cuts and each one slightly different from the others. They are \u003cstrong\u003esocketed through slots in the body\u003c\/strong\u003e and stand splayed, front pair braced forward, back pair set wide.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe wood has a strong open grain running the length of the body, and the whole piece has darkened to a deep olive brown with the high points worn paler.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis is folk art in the proper sense of the term\u003c\/strong\u003e — not a style, but a category of maker. As the catalogue of MoMA's landmark 1932 folk art exhibition put it, folk art is \u003cem\u003e“the expression of the common people, made by them and intended for their use and enjoyment”\u003c\/em\u003e, not \u003cem\u003e“the expression of professional artists made for a small cultured class”\u003c\/em\u003e. Untrained hands, ordinary materials, and an unselfconscious result.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCarved wooden animals sit at the centre of that tradition. They were made for children, for mantels, for the pleasure of making them, by people who never called themselves artists — and the field only gained institutional standing in the twentieth century, through that 1932 exhibition, the WPA's documentation work during the Depression, and collectors like Abby Aldrich Rockefeller.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe construction is the interesting part, because it tells you how the maker thought.\u003c\/strong\u003e A trained carver takes a block and removes wood until the animal appears, legs and all — and then has four fragile short-grain legs that snap. This maker did something smarter: cut the body as a flat profile from a board, where the grain runs the long way and the piece is strong, then add legs separately in fresh stock with the grain running down them. It is the solution a practical person arrives at, and it is why the deer still has all four legs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEvery mark on it is a hand tool.\u003c\/strong\u003e The silhouette was cut with a saw and left unsanded. The legs were shaped with a knife, not a lathe — they are faceted rather than round, and no two match. There are no machine-turned dowels, no screws, no nails, and no visible glue line. The eye is a single impression.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe deer is \u003cstrong\u003eunsigned\u003c\/strong\u003e. There is no name, initial, date or mark anywhere on it, and no attempt is made here to give it a maker or a region.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDating a folk carving honestly means dating the tooling and the surface rather than the style, because the style has never stopped. Hand-sawn and knife-cut throughout, with no machined components, and carrying the depth of colour and the worn high points that take decades: \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1930–1960\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n  \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCarved wooden deer figure, freestanding\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAmerican folk carving tradition. Unsigned and offered unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eFlat silhouette body sawn from a single board with the saw marks left unsanded; four legs whittled separately by knife and socketed through slots in the body. No dowels, screws, nails or visible glue.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCarving\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eRaised head with one projecting ear and a cut notch behind it, arched neck, short raised tail; a single impressed circle for the eye\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSolid open-grained hardwood, darkened overall with paler wear to the high points\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eNone. No signature, initials, date or label anywhere on the piece.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1930–1960. Dated on the hand tooling and the depth of the surface; folk carving is a continuous practice and the style carries no date of its own.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eVery good and structurally sound. All four legs are present, tight in their sockets and original to the piece; it stands unsupported without rocking. The body is free of splits, cracks and worm, the ear and tail are intact, and there are no repairs, replacements or restoration. \u003cstrong\u003eExpect the saw marks to be visible and the legs to be irregular\u003c\/strong\u003e — that is the making, not damage — along with overall darkening, paler wear at the high points, light surface scuffing, and a few small pale specks of dried paint or plaster on the legs left from wherever it once stood. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRooms full of good furniture often have no personality in them at all, and one object like this fixes that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is small, it is brown, and it will sit anywhere — a bookshelf, a mantel, a windowsill, a desk, the top of a chest, among a stack of books. It does not compete with anything. But it is the thing guests pick up, because the proportions are slightly wrong in the way only handmade things are: legs a little too long, neck a little too proud, an eye that is one circle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePut it where the other objects are precise and it does the most work — on a shelf of matched books, beside polished silver, next to a framed print. The contrast between something machined and something whittled is one of the oldest tricks in decorating and it still works.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is also a good children's object, in the sense that it was very likely made as one. It is solid, it has no small parts, and a child will handle it the way children handled it eighty years ago.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA note on care, and with old carved wood there is really only one enemy. \u003cstrong\u003eKeep it dry and keep it away from heat.\u003c\/strong\u003e Wood that is baked next to a radiator, a heat vent or a sunny window will check and split along the grain, and on a flat sawn body that split runs the whole length. Steady room conditions are all it needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDust it with a soft dry brush — a paintbrush gets into the leg sockets better than a cloth. \u003cstrong\u003eDo not wash it, do not soak it, and do not strip or sand it.\u003c\/strong\u003e The dark surface and the worn high points are the age, and they cannot be put back once they are off.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf it ever looks dry, a very light wipe of paste wax or a neutral furniture wax, buffed off thin, is enough. Use no oil soap, no silicone polish and no stain. Lift it by the body rather than by a leg.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48041820848233,"sku":"VE-0708","price":130.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/DE478018-CC8E-433B-8C5E-05013DFD4D15.jpg?v=1789140307","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/folk-art-carved-wooden-deer-sawn-silhouette-body-with-four-knife-whittled-legs-socketed-through-unsigned-american-c-1930-1960","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}