Friday, April 6, 2007


Here's a nice piece I picked up a few weeks ago. Circa 1900 handmade ceramic form for a mask. There's a nice haunting beauty to it that I just love. Found in Ohio.
This was formerly in Harris Diamant's collection and you can still view it on his website: http://www.harrisdiamant.com/index.htm, which also features his incredible sculptures as he is also an artist.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi -
I love the mask form - I clicked on the link and the objects in the gallery are beautiful. Do you know about the pricing range of the items? I hate it when there's no pricing on the site because I don't like to bother people to inquire and then have to say, "um thanks, but that's a wee bit out of my range (as in thousands out of my range)." If you get a chance please let me know - as you collect articulated figures, I like carvings of hands and arms and the glove form he has on the site is amazing. I also like carved heads and there are some nice ones there as well.
Thanks-
Paula (tobermory09@yahoo.com)

Joey said...

Yes, Harris Diamant has a terrific eye, one of the best. I don't know the price range of his items, although I do own 2 pieces that were formerly in his collection (also got the Seashell frame with the penciled woman). Got them through other dealers. I really wish there were more transparency in pricing as well. Most of the time when I do inquire, the prices are SO far out of my price range! It seems to me that there are at least 3 tiers in pricing when buying folk art:

Tier One: High-end auctions from named collections where the top pieces go for crazy amounts (perhaps rightly so, considering the scarcity and beauty of the items. If we compare to say, the contemporary art market, of which I have an interest as well, the prices of premium folk art pieces can't even compare.)

Tier Two: Reputable and established folk art dealers that command premium pricing.

Tier Three: eBay, where you can get some quality pieces if you look hard enough, at pricing that's probably half of what you'd pay from a dealer.

Anonymous said...

I agree with your tier ranking - I live in Chicago where the primo Outsider galler is Carl Hammer - I love looking at his stuff, but even back a few years ago when he was still publishing prices on his website they were way, way out of my range. I can't ene imaging what he's getting for a nice sideshow banner these days.

Joey said...

Yeah, some of the prices are crazy, but I guess if they can sell it, more power to them.

I love Chicago. Only been there twice, both times for business, but I was able to see some sights. I did not, however, check out Intuit or Carl Hammer even though they were on my itinerary! Man, what a bummer. Too busy trying to find the perfect Chicago dog...