Sewer Tile Sewer Pipe Pottery Antique American Folk Art Sculpture by Jim Linderman

Sewer Tile Sewer Pipe Pottery Folk Art Figure Small Head of a Man End of Day

Sewer Tile Sewer Pipe Pottery Folk Art Figure Small Head of a Man Collection Jim Linderman

Sewer Tile Sewer Pipe (of related interest) Antique Folk Art Brick incised with figural form

Sewer Tile clay and brick makers were two different things, but there is an active community collecting antique bricks. When bricks are incised with figures such as this little man (the boss?) both forms exhibit the "end of day" whimsical esthetic.

Antique Brick with Incised Man Collection Jim Linderman

Sewer Tile Sewer Pipe Folk Art Sculpture Baby on the Pot Signed MACK

Well, does this piece depict Mack, or was Mack the maker? Either way, signed sewer pipe folk art is the most desirable, and this boy on a pot has a prominent signature on the bowl.
Collection Jim Linderman

Sewer Tile Pottery Folk Art sculpture Kangaroo End of the Day Folk Art

Sewer Pipe Folk Art sculpture of a Kangaroo. An unusual form certainly, but the mostly anonymous fellow who worked the clay had imagination.

Sewer Tile Folk Art Pottery Kangaroo Collection Jim Linderman

A Folk Art Pottery Sewer Tile Study Piece Presentation Box or Whimsy Antique Sewer Pipe Clay

A sewer tile study piece and small mystery. Described as a "presentation box" and if so, a highly personal item. It is sweet to consider a hard-working sewer tile worker filling this with gifts for a betrothed, perhaps even containing a ring.

On the other hand, could this be a doorstop? The common lion forms have long been considered doorstops. This piece has the weight which would work…and a handle to lift it out of the way. The piece measures six inches long, 3 inches wide and 7 inches tall, with handle.

The piece is clearly hollow and appears to have been made as a box. The two portions do have a rather elegant and modern curve where they meet. It also has decorative "feet" which consist of 5 circular sculpted forms. The handle is obviously broken (with several repairs.) Might it be possible the piece broke through a fall? Did the same incident which broke the handle create the two halves in such a unusual curved form?

Close inspection shows glaze having seeped into the inside edges where the pieces meet. I believe this WAS made as a box for that reason. It is signed twice. Once inside the cover "WHIT" and inside the lower piece the same. Whit is a name, though not the most common. This also supports the box with handle theory. Still, one would also think a presentation box would be inscribed with incision and decorative work. A simple and common matter for an "end of day" sculptor.

Finally, this might just be an experiment! A whimsical attempt at a utilitarian object.

The piece could be restored to make the handle far less obviously broken, but I love it exactly as it is. When a piece is restored, all I see when I look at it from then on is the repair!

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Antique Sewer Time Sewer Pipe Pottery Presentation Box late 19th / Early 20th century. Collection Jim Linderman