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| Folk Carving Exhibition, Whittled Whimsies- Opens May 27 (#006) Opening with the Museum Volunteers Antiques Show this May, Whittled Whimsies: An American Pastime features over 100 folk carvings, from the charmingly simple to the finely intricate. Throughout the 19th century, men carried pocketknives to repair farm tools, for use while hunting or fishing, or to fashion simple household containers and utensils. After a long day's work or seasonal periods of inactivity, some turned their knives toward whittling to relax. While some only whittled piles of shavings, others were inspired to shape wood into toys and decorative tokens. The objects they made wooden chains, caged balls, jointed pliers and puzzles served no useful function but challenged the whittler's skill. Today collectors and scholars recognize the imaginative power of these unique objects and value them as folk art. Wooden puzzles, caged balls, and chains are common whittling designs that have their origins in a variety of sources. Swedish and Welsh love spoons, wooden chains from Europe and Africa, and Chinese carvings in ivory, such as puzzles, folding fans, and tao-ch`iu, a series of nested spheres, were brought to America through European settlers and other immigrants. Peddlers and itinerants, who often carved such objects in exchange for food and lodging, helped widen the spread of these whittled tokens. Sailors aboard whaling ships in the early to mid 19th century who whittled wood, whale teeth and bone into gifts for family members at home were another source for the spread of whittling motifs. One surviving example sporting typical wood whittling motifs is a bookcase from 1861 with caged balls carved by a sailor from Massachusetts (Mystic Seaport Museum). Since the late 19th century, hobos have also been major proponents of whittling. Their independent, wandering lifestyle-hopping freight trains for free travel and seeking only temporary work- provided time for this leisure activity. In between jobs or resting for the night in wayside camps called "hobo jungles", imigrant men swapped stories and songs, and whittled sticks. The whimsical trinkets they made, usually chains and caged balls, were used to barter for food, or given as gifts. Whittling motifs were exchanged and spread widely both among the hobo community and the non-hobo community as they traveled. During the American Depression of the 1930s, when widespread economic hardship and social change disrupted patterns of work and recreation, the homely pastime of whittling was among a variety of crafts promoted as a hobby by the government's recovery program to help foster business and community optimism. Through the Works Progress Associationís Art Project, woodworking and whittling classes for men and young boys were operated in settlement houses, YMCAs, high schools, museums, recreation halls, and granges. In addition, a wealth of "how-to" books and magazines such as Popular Mechanics, Popular Science Monthly, and Boy's Life emerged which published patterns and instructions for whittling projects. Organizations such as the Boy Scouts taught whittling skills and rewarded scouts with badges. Even knife manufacturers such as the Cattaraugus Cutlery manufacturing company sponsored whittling competitions targeted at the Boy Scouts. Their motive was two-edged; to get boys interested in whittling and thereby stimulate the sale of pocketknives. Suddenly, the challenge of creating whittling "stunts" was discovered by thousands of would-be whittlers. Those who never before had created objects by hand developed new skills and honed a personal approach to whittling, bringing endless variation to this simple art. The most common forms of ball-in-the-cage whimsies contain one ball while more complex forms include multiple balls and multiple cages. Whittled fans, consist of a series of thin fan-shaped blades sliced along the length of a wood block and require soaking in water to soften the wood and reduce the tendency to split and crack when the individual fan blades were cut through. The cut blades were then separated by gently pulling and twisting them apart to create an open fan shape. Chains were commonly cut from single blocks of wood 6 to 12 inches long, but some ambitious carvers whittled the entire length of an 8 to 12 foot plank. Whittlers learned to carve different links shapes- rectangular, circular, or oval- then practiced creating elongated, shortened, coiled, or spiraled link forms. Some made multiple, even interwoven chain strands while others made "endless" chains by following the entire perimeter of a wide board. Skillful artisans combined techniques to demonstrate the full range of their carving abilities, producing elaborate chains with spiraling links holding balls, cages, animals, letters, hearts, and include swivels, anchors and hooks. Whittled three-dimensional puzzles, some based on ancient Chinese models, are notched or shaped pieces of wood that interlock together to make a three-dimensional form. Puzzles were made as gifts to be disassembled and reassembled by following a specific sequential order. Geometric shapes such as a ball, cube, or pyramid were popular whereas expert whittlers took on complicated patterns for knots, stars, ships, tanks, and even a Shinto shrine. Some whittlers made "bottle whimsies", which reassembled whittled objects, piece by piece, inside a glass container. Using the same construction methods sailor's used for a "ship in a bottle," individual sections were threaded together, inserted within the bottle and manipulated into place with wires and pulled strings. Fans, ladders, tiny pliers, bells, crosses, yarn-winders, furniture, and small buildings are among some of the items whittlers carved for bottle whimsies. Especially dexterous whittlers recreated scenes and room interiors within glass. One example in the exhibition features a saloon scene entitled "Find the Missing Man." Inside are a bar, stools, shelves and architectural decoration, a bar tender and customers, and a figure to be discovered in the hidden privy. All items in the exhibition have been generously lent by Jamie and Sandy Ciardelli, whose fascinating collection of some 300 whittler's whimsies date from the mid 19th century through the 1930s. The exhibition continues through August 13. Virginia O'Hara Associate Curator Bronner, p. 13 Adolph Vandertie and Patrick Spielman, Hobo & Tramp Art Carving, an Authentic American Folk Tradition (New York: Sterling Publishing Company, 1995), p. 14-17. J. Bruce Voyles, "Cattaraugus Cutlery Co., The Story of the Forming of a Knife", American Blade (Nov.-Dec. 1981): 37. |
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