American Folk Art Birdhouse, Clapboard Cottage Form, Late 19th C. View Watchlist >
Seller Accepts Credit Cards
Payment and pickup instructions will be available on your invoice (under "My Account") at the conclusion of this auction.
Lot # G728
System ID # 30631747
Start Date
End Date
2 Watching
American Folk Art Birdhouse, Clapboard Cottage Form, Late 19th C.
Collectors of American vernacular folk art and painted furniture habitually chase the same thing: original surface, original intent, untouched. This birdhouse has all three. A self-taught maker — almost certainly working in the rural Northeast or Midwest based on the form vocabulary — built a convincing two-story clapboard cottage at roughly one-to-twelve scale, clad the walls in narrow riven wood strips, fitted three arched windows with molded green casings and projecting sill shelves, hung a working glass-paned door on its original knob and hardware, and roofed the whole thing in granular composition material meant to read as thatch. The squared wooden chimney is hand-turned. The trim throughout is original teal-green, still vivid under the crackle.
What the photographs make plain and the hand confirms: this piece never left the original paint. Green paint crazed to the substrate in the grid pattern that only comes from decades of outdoor freeze-thaw cycling. The siding faded to a warm silver-gray. Corners split and checked and lifted the way old wood does when it's been honestly used. None of it has been touched up, consolidated, or "stabilized." The open back exposes the interior nesting chamber and the maker's construction logic — sawn planks, hand-cut trim members, a structure held together by the same logic that built the outbuildings it was modeled on. It is garden ornament that crossed over into folk sculpture without the maker intending it, which is exactly how the best pieces in this category get made.
CONDITION
Good with age-appropriate wear consistent with long outdoor display — all original, nothing restored. Paint is chipped and crackled throughout with finish loss and sun-fading to the siding; the composition roof shows edge flaking and surface erosion. Corner and base boards are split, separated, and lifting at several points, with checking to the siding cladding. Structurally intact and self-supporting; the glass door opens and closes on its original knob.
DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS
- Overall: 18.5" H × 12" W × 13.5" D
- Weight: 10.5 lb
- Materials: Wood, glass, composition shingled roof
- Unmarked
- Campbell's Soup Can (4" H) Shown for Scale — Not Included
