SCULPTURAL FANTASY

45
VERY FINE AND RARE
AMERICAN CARVED AND
POLYCHROME PAINT-
DECORATED WHIRLIGIG OF
A WHALEMAN, LATE 19TH
CENTURY
appears to retain its original paint.
Height 21 ½ in. by Depth 21 in. by Width 5 ¼ in.
PROVENANCE
Hyland Granby Antiques, Hyannis Port,
Massachusetts.
LITERATURE
Frank Maresca and Roger Ricco, American
Vernacular: New Discoveries in Folk, Self-
Taught, and Outsider Sculpture, (Boston:
Little, Brown, 2002). p. 295.
At the figure’s left side below his jacket is a
red and black painted cloth with macrame
ends. Whalemen sailors used this depicted
cloth to wipe whale oil grease from their
hands.
$ 15,000-30,000
45
46
VERY FINE AND RARE
AMERICAN CARVED AND
PAINTED WOOD INDIAN
CHIEF WHIRLIGIG, LATE 19TH
CENTURY
Painted wood and tin with applied mixed
metals.
Height 23 in. by Width 5 ¼ in. by Depth 5 ½ in.
PROVENANCE
Giampietro American Folk Art, New Haven,
Connecticut.
A very closely related example sold at
Sotheby’s, New York, Important American Folk
Art from the Collection of the Late Bernard M.
Barenholtz, January 27, 1990, sale 5969,
lot 1744.
$ 20,000-30,000
46
51