Description
1919 American Tramp Art Sewing Box with Pincushion Top Dated WW1 Era 8.25" x<br>6.5" x 5.25" tall. Very minimal wear as shown, not a distraction, no significant<br>issues. Made from cigar boxes as shown from the exposed section on the base.<br>From a San Antonio, Texas estate.<br>The first picture is actually the back of the box with the initials on the front<br>and the date on the back.<br><br>Tramp art<br>Tramp art is a style of woodworking which emerged in America the latter half of<br>the nineteenth century. Some of tramp art's defining characteristics include<br>chip or notch carving, the reclaimation of cheap or available wood such as that<br>from cigar boxes and shipping crates, the use of simple tools such as penknives,<br>and the layering of materials into geometric shapes through glue or nails. One<br>technique used in tramp art is Crown of Thorns joinery.<br><br>History<br>Although widespread use of wooden cigar boxes in the 1850s sparked involvement<br>in tramp art, it was most prevalent during the Great Depression. Tramp art was<br>made around the world but it prospered in the United States. Examples can be<br>found in every state. The most common forms were the box and the frame and<br>although there were no rules or patterns to lend commonality in the artists’<br>work there were objects made in every conceivable shape and size including full<br>sized furniture and objects of whimsy.<br><br>Tramp art was a democratic art form made wherever the raw materials used in its<br>construction were found. It appealed to men who might have made an important<br>body of work such as ‘Sunflower’ artist John Martin Zubersky (active c. 1912 –<br>1920) or the wonderfully expressive wall pockets by John Zadzora (active circa<br>1910) but also to men who might have made one piece in their lifetime. It was<br>easy to make and appealed to anyone who had a desire to take a pocketknife to<br>wood.<br><br>There were countless men, some women, and even children who historically<br>constructed tramp art.<br><br>Origins of the Term<br>A 1959 article by Frances Lichten in Pennsylvania Folklife used the term "tramp<br>work" to describe crafts constructed from waste materials such as discarded<br>cigar boxes and assembled with a penknife. Contemporary scholars and art dealers<br>such as Clifford A. Wallach have noted that while this art form may have been<br>practiced among America's itinerant population, it was by no means unique to<br>them and was practiced by factory workers, farmers, and laborers in other<br>occupations.<br><br>In 1975 Helaine Fendelman published the first book on tramp art, Tramp Art an<br>Itinerant's Folk Art. The book acted as a catalog to the first museum show on<br>the art form sponsored by the American Museum of Folk Art.<br>b30
