BUFORD, GA.- Slotin Folk Art Auction’s first stand-alone pottery sale in 2020 was a trial balloon to determine if collectors would respond, and they most assuredly did. Now, with its fourth edition taking place February 11-12, the auction is expanding in more ways than one. The single-day Pottery Extravaganza is bigger for 2023 and is sprouting a second-day sale dedicated to Native American art, quilts and Americana.
There are 461 pottery lots, covering a wide geography and timespan, on the first day; with Day 2 featuring 301 lots, including everything from Cherokee baskets and Native American ceramics to quilts and antique weathervanes.
Steve Slotin says staying open to new possibilities and keeping definitions fluid has well served the auction house he operates with wife Amy.
“Slotin Auction continues to broaden the horizon and umbrella of folk and self-taught, and this sale really showcases original art that is not mass produced but is personal and some of it utilitarian and some of it historic and historical,” Steve says.
It doesn’t hurt that the auction house is in the heart of the Southeast, where “we have a huge wealth of art to be discovered,” Steve adds. “So, if it’s Southern folk pottery or Cherokee baskets or African-American quilts, the Southeast is rich with art and artisans, and we won’t pigeonhole anybody. We will let the art stand for what it is, which is amazing American art.”
The pottery offerings again center on Southern folk pieces, with an especially strong showing of work from 1850s to 1950s trailblazers. Noteworthy names include Thomas Chandler, Columbus Jackson Becham (a.k.a. CJB), Daniel Seagle and his son James Franklin Seagle and Thomas Ritchie. There are many tempting early anonymous pieces, as well.
Southern folk potters from the mid-20th century forward include Lanier Meaders, Michael and Melvin Crocker, Billy Ray Hussey and Clint Alderman.
Pottery traditions from other areas of the country – including salt-glazed (and cobalt decorated) wares from New England and redware from Pennsylvania -- add to the mix.
Contemporary studio pottery is featured as well, including much-sought makers Mark Hewitt of North Carolina and University of Georgia emeritus pottery professor Ron Meyers.
The sale’s second day brings a heavy focus on Native American art. Especially notable are Cherokee baskets, including work by one of the best-known proponents, Rowena Bradley. Queen of the double-woven rivercane technique, Bradley dyed her creations with native roots and bark such as butternut, black walnut and bloodroot.
Most of the sale’s Native American lots are drawn from the collections of the long-shuttered Museum of the American Indian in Cherokee, North Carolina, and from Atlantan Jet Lacoss.
The quilts that conclude the two-day sale include contemporary works from the Hunter Collection, as well as traditional and African-American quilts drawn from other collections.
This year’s expanded February sale builds on the 2022 Pottery Extravaganza, which realized nearly $250,000 in sales. Even though a large number of the 371 lots were Southern-made, the buyers were based all over, from Florida to Montana and even from Canada and Germany. The auction house shipped the biggest sales to New York, North Carolina, California, Kentucky, Louisiana and Oregon.
Slotin Folk Art Auction conducted its first sale in 1994. Its major 2023 auctions include the Spring Self-Taught Art Masterpiece Sale, April 22-23; and Fall Self-Taught Art Masterpiece Sale, November 11-12.
