Featured Carved Clown??

I have no idea what this guy is, a clown? A joker?
What was he used for?
He has one glass eye, jointed shoulders that only move forward and back, no out to the sides, and 3 nails, one in his rear, one in each leg.

Any idea what this was used for or about how old he may be?

 

WAGs....
Gnome? Whirlygig?

 

He looks like Pierrot, the sad clown.

 

Have been trying to figure out why a whirlygig figure would have crossed arms and no hands. If he is part of a whirlygig, he could have been connected to another figure, something like this:

http://www.folkartisans.com/pages/winditem.html#aoph

 

He does look rather sad doesnt he?

A whirligig is a good guess. If he is hes pretty large.
All the ones ive seen, the characters, are on the smaller side

 

SeaGoat, What are the measurements. In the picture with your hand, it does look maybe 2 ft. or so.

 

Im looking through my book called treasury of American Design & Antiques and I'm wondering if he's not some sort of shop or Tradesman advertising figural or countertop display type deal.
A couple examples would be a Barbour shop pole, cigar store Indian, grapes for a tavern, scissors for a tailor..
Theatre?
Circus?
Games?

 

Maybe he's the Tin Man from the wizard of oz ? I think hes cool.

 

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions...ephen-petra-levin-part-i-n09424/lot.1406.html

I found this guy..
Not sure what he is but he's in the same seated position, same hand style...

 

Folk art fence sitter?

 

Is that a thing?

 

Does the green paint go inside the crack? That would indicate that it was painted and then repainted with the brick color to make it look old.

 

It appear it does in the photo. I dont have the object on hand though..

Ive read carvers will sometimes wait to paint do to cracking and shrinkage and try to fill them in with paint, but it's an area I'm not well versed in

 

Is this from the amazing house again?
This may sound strange, but it could be a Toraja ancestor figure from Sulawesi, Indonesia. They are called Tau-tau, and come in many different shapes and sizes, from rather crudely made to very lifelike.

 

That is the same thing that I thought of too.

 

I don't know how I missed this reply, Im sorry!

This is from that house..
Im not sure, I want to lead towards no, but I can't rule it out.
Maybe I need to take a closer look at the wood and see if I can not decipher the species.
Probably not.

We had our first round of public viewings last night...
Aka, we had the stuff out and displayed during one of our regular auctions...

He seemed to be the crowd favorite.
Toy collectors, folk art collectors, general early American collectors, anything and everything buyers all seemed to gravitate towards him and make a comment about how much they liked him.

He's got a creepy cute thing going on.
He's the kind of thing Id buy, not tell my kids, then put him in the fireplace mantle in their bedroom while they were sleeping

Oddly enough, if this was some sort of advertising piece geared towards attracting a child's attention, back in the day he'd be looked at with admiration