This large wooden sign reading “RJ Wilkinson” “Horse Shoeing” “Repairing Lameness and Faulty Action a Specialty,” circa 1880s, advertised the horse shoeing services of a Kentucky business. It was the sale’s top lot, selling for $2,667. From Midway, Ky., near Lexington, the sign measured 108 by 40 inches.

Review by W.A. Demers; Photos Courtesy Quinn’s Auction Gallery

FALLS CHURCH, VA. — Quinn Auction Gallery’s auction of the late diplomat Pete Cecere’s collection on January 26 was just the first installment of his vast holdings of antique and vintage pieces of folk and self-taught art. Advertising the horse shoeing services of a Kentucky business, a large wooden sign reading “RJ Wilkinson” “Horse Shoeing” “Repairing Lameness and Faulty Action a Specialty,” circa 1880s, was the sale’s top lot, selling for $2,667. From Midway, Ky., near Lexington, the sign measured 108 by 40 inches.

The Pete Cecere folk art collection included many other noteworthy items, such as a Steeplechase Coney Island B&B carousel horse, a Sicilian donkey cart and a Mexican folk art sheet metal rooster. And it offered unique works of art by Jimmie Lee Sudduth, Mose Tolliver, Monsengo Shula, Marcia Muth and several pop culture-inspired artworks by artist Chuckie Williams. The sale totaled $67,925 with 333 items sold, 71 items were passed and the number of bidders were approximately 450 across three platforms.

The late Peter “Pete” Cecere, a US Foreign Service officer, realized more than 50 years ago that folk art, beyond its cultural importance, held a kind of quirky beauty all its own. “After I die, there’s no more stories,” Cecere is reported to have said in a 2018 documentary about his collection. This sale put his prodigious collection on center stage.

Among Cecere’s beloved oversized Mexican animal sculptures was this rooster fashioned from discarded metal, welded into shape, then painted. It sold for $953.

In college in the 1960s, before he began his career as a foreign service and cultural affairs officer, Cecere was first introduced to folk and Outsider art when a State Department scholarship enabled him to spend his junior year abroad in Chile, where he was exposed to the unique and fanciful objects made by locals specifically to sell at tourist markets. His post-college path led him to join the US Foreign Service and, because he had a strong command of Spanish, he was posted successively to embassies in Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay, Mexico and Spain. As he traveled, he acquired pieces that were visually appealing to him and were imbued with distinct regional cultures.

By Cecere’s own estimations, his lifetime cache of folk and self-taught items numbered between 20,000 and 30,000 items. That was skinnied down somewhat in a 1990 auction, augmented by Cecere’s gifts to museums, but continue collecting he did.

In Mexican culture, body masks that conceal the appearance of the mask wearer are seen as a way to communicate with the supernatural to influence powerful forces in nature.

A mermaid body mask, most likely from Guerrero, Mexico, was in Cecere’s collection since 1977. Made of painted, carved wood, it was previously bought for $425 from a vendor at El Bazar Sabado in Mexico City. Estimated $600/900, it finished at $1,651.

A mermaid body mask, most likely from Guerrero, Mexico, was in Cecere’s collection since 1977. Made of painted, carved wood, it had been previously bought at $425 from a vendor at El Bazar Sabado in Mexico City. Estimated $600/900, it finished at $1,651. Likewise, the sale’s top ranks were augmented by a Mexican folk art alligator body mask with moving jaw, mid-Twentieth Century, of carved and hinged wood with painted body, which captured $1,778, and another alligator body mask that went out at $1,397.

American poet Gelett Burgess (1866-1951) observed, “I never saw a Purple Cow,” and it’s safe to say that Alabama Outsider artist Mose Tolliver (1919-2006) never saw a pink turtle, but he painted one on wood. The signed 18¼-by-13¾-inch painting sold for $1,080.

Among the collection’s furniture pieces, an antique wood and metal work bench with tool trough, two vises and under storage, circa 1900, 29½ by 84 inches, realized $1,207; a painted wood cabinet in the shape of a carton of crema de almendras (almond cream) with blue lettering took $1,016; and, measuring a hefty 82 by 60 by 13½ inches, an antique painted wood two-door armoire, Twentieth Century, was bid to $953.

An antique wood and metal work bench with tool trough, two vises and under storage, circa 1900, realized $1,207.

Cecere loved the oversized Mexican animals in his collection of sculptures. Each was fashioned from oil drums or other discarded metal, welded into a shape, then painted. One of several roosters in the “yard-art” menagerie, measuring 100 inches high by 68 inches long, joined the fray and sold for $953.

Finally, a metal sign for “Guernsey Cows,” 18 by 20 inches, showing two of the bovine beauties, rounded out the collection’s notable results, bringing $826.

Prices given include the buyer’s premium as stated by the auction house. For information, www.quinnsauction.com or 703-532-5632.