C1930 football plaster folk art sculpture group 7 3/4" tall

[CarltonHendricks]

C1930 FOOTBALL PLASTER FOLK ART SCULPTURE GROUP
7 3/4" TALL X 7 1/2" WIDE X 7 1/4" DEEP
I picked up this plaster sculpture group of football players today at an outdoor antiques fair. The sculpture seems to intentionally lack details like facial features, and seems impressionistic. But yet it has enough form that it clearly represents football. It may have been intended as folk art, or perhaps it was some kind of maquette. But I think maquettes are usually clay. So this was probably folk art since it's plaster. I've had a hard time dating it but the back of the waist seems to have high hip pads, so I'm going with c1930...tough call...I can't find any markings at all on it.

"In preparation, an artist will often prepare a small clay or wax model of the future sculpture called Maquette which will lack detail but aid in deciding composition and the resulting construction of the armature."

The dealer I got them from was Alan Perry. Alan specializes in folk art, and this group fit in with his repertoire perfectly, just the kind of thing he'd have. Alan said he couldn't remember exactly where he picked it up but did remember it was in San Francisco, at either an estate sale or flea market. Based on the maroon or dark red jerseys, it might be the 49ers, although the 9er's started in 1946...so...it could be Stanford, or maybe USC...I'm going to take a guess that the artist intended the tallest player that has number 12 as a line backer, the middle player with number 7 as a ball carrier, and the one on his knees with number 3 as a guard or center. Why he or she chose to represent football this way is unclear. But one thing I can tell you is I've never run into anything quite like it, and any decent American sports folk art is quite rare.








My apologies for not posting this under the July P/U's thread, but all these photos would probably be to many for that venue