Quote and Credit

Quote and Credit

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Ernest Warther Redux, Wondrous Folk Art Wood Carver from Ohio



When we last met Ernest Warther, he was in black and white (Dull Tool Dim Bulb February 15, 2009) Well, he's back and the hinted at eccentricities may now be confirmed and then some. Here is his carving of, I kid you not, 511 pairs of miniature pliers turned into a shrub...and stuck in a handmade vitrine with a picture of the artist from 1913. It required 31,000 cuts, (so he counted each stroke) no mathematics, rulers or lines were drawn...and it was all carved from one piece of wood. The other card shows his remarkable Wall of Trains and the Steel Mill he worked in for 21 years.

Pair of postcards published by E. Warther & Son, Dover, Ohio. No Date. Collection Jim Linderman

3 comments:

  1. OMG, that is incredible! Do we know whether the object still exists? In a museum?

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  2. Jeepers, who knows. I've never even googled him. Maybe it's sitting out in the garage?

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  3. Hi,

    Luckily, that object is on display at the Warther Museum (warthers.com) in Dover, Ohio. I've visited it two or three times and it's pretty cool. The collection is dominated by his trains which get a little dull for the non-enthusiast, though there are some other curiosities.

    They make most of their cash from selling knives. My family bought a set of kitchen knives a few years and we still use them.

    I remember them saying in the tour that Mooney once closed that thing all up and then reopened it to demonstrate that it was possible

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