SOLD: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6. Available: #7
I've been scooping up these antique schoolgirl cut paper samplers whenever I come across them, as I think they're just fantastically beautifully things. All of these pieces come from one sampler--which had already come unbound by the time I got it-- done by an unknown individual, late 19th or very early 20th century. Each piece is double sided, and I have labeled each with a number then A + B, with the A + B showing each side of that numbered piece. Price is per piece; please indicate at checkout the number of the piece or pieces you would like.
Collector Jim Lindeman posted a few examples of woven paper works similar to the ones in this notebook on his blog, "Dull Tool Dim Bulb" and writes about them wonderfully:
Did Josef Albers go to Kindergarten? [these woven paper works] illustrate Albers "interaction of color" in remarkable prescient form. Once fairly common, but increasingly hard to find, these 19th century schoolgirl craft pieces are among the most underrated forms of early folk art. They often turn up as love tokens or valentines in the shape of hearts and under many different names (folded paper, woven paper, paper weaving, paper cuts and more)...but all are extraordinary miniature works of serious art despite being made for the most part by children. In fact, this technique, now seemingly forgotten except among enlightened educational organizations, was developed by Fredrich Froebel, not only the fellow who did invent kindergarten, but also became an unheralded artistic influence to many. If you are an adult and like art, you should collect the antique originals, they're precious.
Page size is approx 8" x 11". Overall good condition, with some tearing to the backing paper here and there and along the edges, which I have not bothered to trim but which could easily be trimmed or covered with a mat when framed. Numbers 1-7 here; I am listing additional examples from the same portfolio in a separate posting.