Pennsylvania polychrome painted folk art storage chest with perforated bottom drop drawer. Image courtesy of Specialists of the South.
The event will be an absolute auction, meaning everything sells regardless of the final price. Two diverse but complementary lifetime collections form the core of the inventory to be offered.
The first of the two headliner consignments consists of items from the collections and home-based business of Matthew “Matty” Jankowski, who has operated the Matthew L. Jankowski Archive out of his home at 505 East 7th St., Panama City, for about the past eight years. Jankowski is an accomplished artist and writer. Some of his artistic creations will be sold, along with items from his diverse collections.
The other consignor is a local woman whose husband recently passed away. The couple began collecting in 1972 during a trip to Bermuda, where they purchased a bottle. From that single modest purchase sprang an incredible and impressive collection that Logan Adams of The Specialists of the South said consists of “anything and everything – a treasure hunter’s dream.”
Jankowski’s inventory begins with a sizable collection of around 50 old movie posters, mostly from films made between 1967-1970, but a few from the 1940s (including White Christmas, with Bing Crosby). Some of the titles include Bandolero, Guns of the Magnificent Seven, The Boston Strangler, Charro (with Elvis Presley), Don’t Knock the Twist (a large-format, 7-foot-tall poster showing the film’s star, Chubby Checker), The Trip and Marooned.
He also has around a dozen vintage circus posters, one of which was valued at around $700 on the PBS program Antiques Roadshow. The posters include examples for Hunt’s Three-Ring Circus, Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey (“The Greatest Show on Earth”) and others. Also offered will be a 1972 print copy of the Norman Rockwell rendering, The Tattoo Artist. The auction features many other tattoo-related items, including books, cards and calendars.
Jankowski’s pottery collection features McCoy (including 7-inch green jardinières and tall beige pieces), and Frankoma. There will also be Vaseline glass, a large Sun-Kist embossed milk glass orange juice reamer/squeezer in perfect condition, and a hand-blown early American moonshine jug.
The Asian pottery grouping of about 10 pieces that are not antique but certainly unique. They were made by rural Chinese potters and generally not meant for export.
Fans of folk art will be drawn to the pair of hand-painted wood signs, one saying “Gents” (indicating the men’s room) and the other announcing, “Absolutely no smoking in the basement.” A pair of duck decoys from the 1940s or ’50s (by unknown maker or makers) will change hands, while sizable and rustic birdhouses (one of them 1 foot by 2 feet) will be sold.
Rounding out Jankowski’s portion of the auction is a small collection of tricycles and scooters; wood, metal and rubber toys from the 1920s-1950s, a pair of wood hand-made trunks used by electricians in the circus (like a large toolbox), and original artworks by Jankowski.
For those unfamiliar with Matthew Jankowski’s work, he is a self-described “visionary intuitive folk artist,” whose creations may contain found objects incorporated into artworks made from a variety of media.
The other major consignor will be offering a rainbow of diverse lots, starting with a wonderful Pennsylvania polychrome folk art storage chest with perforated bottom drop drawer. Native American items also will be sold, including a Seminole Indian drum (marked on the bottom, “Seminole Indian Tom Tom from Musla Isla – Banana – Miami, Fla., Presented to Major Edward Bowes, Jan. 26, 1936”), an Indian war club with beaded handle, some beautiful bird points and framed small Indian tools. Also offered will be a powder horn, a brass bugle, decoys, weather vanes, a wooden mask, decoys, a primitive discus, butter presses, dough bowls and a nice cast-iron eagle.
Fans of cartography will be intrigued by an 1863 Phelps & Watson military map of the border and Southern states (with a tag that reads, “G. Smith, Member 1st Confederate Congress of State of Alabama”), and other maps
Additional items include vintage hickory-handled golf clubs (plus one club with a metal shaft with a built-in flask), smoking memorabilia and old Christmas items.
Glass and pottery pieces include a circa 1750-1770 Colonial covered salt crock, large and small crocks (including decorated ones, plus water coolers and “cyder” jugs), Red Wing, Agate ware, old bottles (including labeled case gin), ink wells and master ink bottles, an enamel glass decanter, Cherokee pottery, a spongeware pitcher, handle-less cups and many seals from bottles.
Collectibles will feature a 1937 Mickey Mouse belt buckle (marked Tiffany Studio, New York), an antique car coin grouping, a Lionel train crane, baseball memorabilia, an Uncle Sam’s cash register bank, clay marbles, souvenir spoons (Campbell’s Soup kids, Gerber and Tony the Tiger, etc.), advertising items and tin signs.
African and other Native American objects include Indian grinding stones, fossils, African spears and a six-foot carved African woman. Also sold will be museum photos depicting the Oriental silk industry, Black Americana and various islands, and vintage carved walking canes (to include one with a gold knob, engraved on the top, “Presented to G. Smith by Board 1st Cong. Price Hill 1889”).
For additional information call 850-785-2577 or e-mail specialists@knology.net.Visit the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
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ADDITIONAL LOT OF NOTE
Pennsylvania polychrome painted folk art storage chest with perforated bottom drop drawer. Image courtesy of Specialists of the South.