c1900 American Tramp Art box

Description: c1900 American Tramp Art box 13" x 7.5" x 5.5", some wear as shown, metal feet
bent but it sits level. Cool and functional.

Tramp art
Tramp art is a style of woodworking which emerged in America the latter half of
the nineteenth century. Some of tramp art's defining characteristics include
chip or notch carving, the reclaimation of cheap or available wood such as that
from cigar boxes and shipping crates, the use of simple tools such as penknives,
and the layering of materials into geometric shapes through glue or nails. One
technique used in tramp art is Crown of Thorns joinery.

History
Although widespread use of wooden cigar boxes in the 1850s sparked involvement
in tramp art, it was most prevalent during the Great Depression. Tramp art was
made around the world but it prospered in the United States. Examples can be
found in every state. The most common forms were the box and the frame and
although there were no rules or patterns to lend commonality in the artists’
work there were objects made in every conceivable shape and size including full
sized furniture and objects of whimsy.

Tramp art was a democratic art form made wherever the raw materials used in its
construction were found. It appealed to men who might have made an important
body of work such as ‘Sunflower’ artist John Martin Zubersky (active c. 1912 –
1920) or the wonderfully expressive wall pockets by John Zadzora (active circa
1910) but also to men who might have made one piece in their lifetime. It was
easy to make and appealed to anyone who had a desire to take a pocketknife to
wood.

There were countless men, some women, and even children who historically
constructed tramp art.

Origins of the Term
A 1959 article by Frances Lichten in Pennsylvania Folklife used the term "tramp
work" to describe crafts constructed from waste materials such as discarded
cigar boxes and assembled with a penknife. Contemporary scholars and art dealers
such as Clifford A. Wallach have noted that while this art form may have been
practiced among America's itinerant population, it was by no means unique to
them and was practiced by factory workers, farmers, and laborers in other
occupations.

In 1975 Helaine Fendelman published the first book on tramp art, Tramp Art an
Itinerant's Folk Art. The book acted as a catalog to the first museum show on
the art form sponsored by the American Museum of Folk Art.
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