Tie tack traded for Maud Lewis painting 50 years ago
‘The Lobsterman’ may be a one-off
The Lobsterman by Maud Lewis is offered as lot 201 in the October 14th Folk Art sale at Miller & Miller Auctions.
It was a blue sapphire that reeled in artist John Kinnear back in the early 1970s. Although his budget was small his love of fashion was strong. That gem inspired him to make a trade with his goldsmith friend John Ellington: one custom-made sapphire tie tack for one unusual Maud Lewis painting – a painting with great appeal, but not much monetary value at the time.
“John was always working hard but like most artists he was short of money,” recalls Ellington, whose business The Gem and Gold Shop in London, Ontario was just down the street from Kinnear’s studio. “He would come into my shop and we’d talk about art and other things. He was a great dresser and always looked good. When he saw the blue sapphire he wanted me to make it into a tie tack for him. When we discussed the price he asked if I’d take a painting on trade. John was an extremely good painter and when he said I could have any painting on his wall I agreed.”
Ontario artist and gallery owner John H. Kinnear
Tie tacks were very popular back then and according to Ellington “every man wanted one”. The tacks would pierce the tie, have backings (a clutch) that fit over the tack and a tiny chain and toggle that slid through the shirt’s button hole to keep everything in place (and out of your soup). In contrast, the inferior tie clip clamped over the tie and behind the shirt, but constantly needed readjusting.
When the time came to do the swap, Ellington made his way to the studio. He loved Kinnear’s work, but all his paintings were large and he didn’t want anything large. But there was also one small, colourful painting on the wall featuring a naive harbour scene and a pipe-smoking lobster fisherman by an artist named Maud Lewis. That’s the one he wanted.
“But John said that was his favourite painting so he didn’t want me to have it, but I reminded him ‘you said any painting’. So he relented and I got the Maud Lewis – but in the end he was happy with that.”
For roughly 52 years that painting has been hanging in Ellington’s home, but will now be sold in Miller & Miller’s Folk Art auction on Saturday Oct. 14, 2023 (Lot 201, estimate CA$30,000 to CA$40,000.)
In the mid-1960s, the late John Kinnear had befriended Maud Lewis (1901-1970), who has since become one of Canada’s most renowned folk artists and the value of her paintings continues to climb. In May 2022, Miller & Miller sold a Maud Lewis painting, Black Truck, for a record-breaking CA$350,000, 10 times its estimate – a painting that was also acquired through a barter deal with Kinnear. That time, he traded the painting to the owners of one of his favourite London restaurants for a few grilled cheese lunches.
Black Truck by Maud Lewis sold for a record-breaking $350,000 CAD at Miller & Miller Auctions in May 2022.
“Almost everyone who works in the arts struggles to make a living,” suggests Ellington. “Bartering is universal and John worked hard to make ends meet.”
During her lifetime, Maud Lewis lived in poverty with crippling physical disabilities, never selling any of her paintings for more than $10. Kinnear had read a Star Weekly article about her life and was deeply touched by the story. He began writing to Maud, sending her proper paints and primed boards to her home in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia. In exchange, she would write back and send him paintings to sell in Ontario for $24.
“John had a tremendous eye. He recognized immediately what Maud was capable of doing,” says Ellington. “He talked about her with great respect, almost like she was his own grandmother. He wasn’t doing this to make money off Maud. Here is this painter in London, Ontario struggling financially, yet he’s helping a lady from Nova Scotia who is also struggling. He was a generous man.”
While Maud Lewis tended to paint the same subjects over and over again, Ellington’s Maud Lewis painting is very unusual, perhaps even a “one-off” according to Alan Deacon of Nova Scotia, a renowned Maud Lewis expert who has been studying her for over 50 years. “It’s also rare to have such a large figure in a Maud Lewis painting,” he says, “so the rarity and the figure, in my view, make it a special painting and it should cause excitement among collectors.”
Ellington admits he has mixed feelings about selling The Lobsterman after all these years. “It’s such a lovely little painting. It almost smiles at you. It’s like spotting a friend in a group of people and you both smile at each other. I’ll be sad to see it go, but I’ll be delighted if more people can see and enjoy it.”
By Diane Sewell
Diane Sewell has been a writer for more than 25 years, producing feature stories for some of the country’s top newspapers and consumer magazines, as well as client newsletters and commissioned books.
SALE DETAILS:
Folk Art
October 14, 2023
9am EST
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