Discover Smith Mountain Lake
SUMMER 2015
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500 miles of glistening shoreline nestled in the Blue Ridge
Mountains. Year-round appeal. History & Wine anytime.
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Piedmont areas. Unlike their collectibles, their art is for sale. It ranges in price from $50
to $9,000.
Ross and Judy still have their first antique. They paid $45 for it before they were
married. It’s a handmade infant’s cradle, probably from Europe, painted in that deep
blue paint that ages so beautifully, with a picture of the baby Jesus at one end. It sits in
their foyer and is filled with vintage dolls and old satin and lace bedding. One appraiser
in recent years told them it would bring thousands in today’s market. One of the few
totally empty chairs in the house is a sweet, quaint rocker made in Quebec in the late
1700s. “It is sturdier than you might think,” Ross claims.
Along with the “50-cent tour” of the Arkells’ collections, I got a lesson in art history.
Tramp art, which was popular between the 1870s and 1940s, is made from small
pieces of wood... primarily discarded cigar boxes and shipping crates. The wood was
whittled into geometric shapes with a simple tool, such as a pocket knife. This art form
was particularly popular in the US, and was mostly the handiwork of factory workers,
farmers, and laborers in every conceivable occupation. There were tramps and hobos
who made this type of art, but not in the numbers that the name suggests. Tramp art
took form in every shape and size, including full sized furniture and objects of whimsy.
Prison art, as the name implies was made by prisoners out of the few materials available
to them, most notably matchsticks. Crosses and small houses made of matchsticks glued
together were two popular designs. Most prison art appears to have been varnished,
probably to preserve it, but it is doubtful that prisoners would have had access to stain
or varnish. It was more likely added by a later owner.
The Arkells have three French antique beaded funeral wreaths that are displayed as wall
hangings. All are in excellent condition. The art of making flowers from
beads is centuries old and may have begun in Germany as early as
the 1300s after steel needles and wire were developed. The craft
soon spread across Europe. The French were the first to use
bead flowers for funeral wreaths. These wreaths are called
Immortelles, and ranged in length from 3 to 4 feet. They
were typically left at the grave site and were destroyed
by the elements. A few, however, have survived and
even occasionally appear on E bay. They are fashioned
from thousands upon thousands of tiny glass beads,
strung onto wire, and braided or twisted together
over a wire frame.
Collectors believe that beaded funeral
wreaths first came on the scene during
Victorian times, because of the elaborate
mourning that took place when Queen Victoria
lost her beloved Prince Albert. In about the same
period, it was also popular to save a lock of a loved
ones hair in a jewelry piece. The mourning wreaths
were typically made in muted purples and blues.
In Venice, middle class and poor women made bead
flowers for churches, banquet tables, and parade floats.
At one time, Venice was a center for the production of
the beads. Around the Napoleonic era (1768-1821),
Italian and French peasants who tended vineyards in the
summer were recruited to work with beads in winter.
