Folk Art Whirligig, ca. 1920
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GUEST:
I bought it at an estate sale in Minneapolis, approximately 40 years ago. I brought it home, and we ran it for about... I'd say one summer, and then took it down.
APPRAISER:
You were afraid it was going to get damaged?
GUEST:
Yeah, it... it looked sort of fragile, so we, uh, we just put it away, and it sat for 40 years in the garage.
APPRAISER:
This started out with somebody making something for pure entertainment, just to put it out in the yard and let the wind hit it. And the reason things like this are somewhat rare is because they fall apart if you leave them out in the weather too long. It's a nice, articulated, very compact form. But the thing I like the most is this figure. His coat is nicely sculpted. You can see his face. He looks a little bit like Abraham Lincoln, but as far as I know, Abraham Lincoln never wore a, a derby hat.
GUEST:
(laughs)
APPRAISER:
Well, no conversation about a whirligig is complete without some action. From here, you need to show us how this works.
GUEST:
Well, if the wind's blowing, and it will get going, it'll...
APPRAISER:
I love that.
GUEST:
He'll start cranking.
APPRAISER:
What'd you pay for it?
GUEST:
Not very much. At the absolute most, it would have been five dollars.
APPRAISER:
It's got all the things that you look for in something like this, and some people might think, "Well, the figure is very well done. The rest of this is very simplistic." But I actually think the juxtaposition of those two things makes it more interesting.
GUEST:
The age you said was about 100 years old?
APPRAISER:
I would say 1900, 1925. Those nails that are in there, they probably wouldn't have existed before 1890 or 1900. Just in fabulous condition. And I wish that we could say for sure who made it. My guess is it was made wherever that estate was. Was that estate in Minneapolis?
GUEST:
Yes, it was.
APPRAISER:
It takes a village to build a consensus sometimes on where you think values would be on something like this. But the fact that it is so simple, and the fact that the figure is done so well, we feel like, in a retail setting, that this would be $2,000 to $3,0x00.
GUEST:
(chuckling): I find... I find that hard to believe, but... that's great. Earlier today in the parking lot, we really had him going with the breeze.
APPRAISER:
Well, he's still working.
GUEST:
Yup, works good, yup.
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