One man’s profound impact on Nova Scotia folk art
Chris Huntington’s private collection comes to auction
Chris Huntington, one of the most recognized names in Canadian folk art, is pictured above with several life-sized folk art carvings by Nova Scotia folk artists. Photo from A Life of Its Own: Chris Huntington and the Resurgence of Nova Scotia Folk Art 1975-1995 by Ken Martin.
Over the years, Chris Huntington has been called self-absorbed, brashly opinionated and bombastically charismatic.
But it turns out these provocative traits proved to be trademark assets for the artist, auctioneer, and American-born antique dealer largely credited with bringing unsung Nova Scotia folk artists out of the shadows and into the light.
In 1974, he and his then-wife Ellen sold their highly-successful business, Ezra Peters Antiquities, in remote Mount Vernon, Maine at a record-breaking auction that made the front page of the Wall Street Journal. In pursuit of “adventure,” they then picked up and moved to Eagle Head in Nova Scotia, a province that had captured their hearts during road trips.
It was also where Chris discovered Nova Scotia folk art and managed to elevate both public awareness and the art itself. In just one year he spent $40,000 on local folk art and was swept up in promoting the self-taught Nova Scotia artists he got to know – many of them woodsmen, seamen and farmers who were quietly spending their leisure time creating folk art. Enchanted by people like Collins Eisenhauer, Joe Norris, Albert Lohnes, Charlie Tanner and others, he often paid them double or triple what they asked.
“The art and artists would never be the same.”
“The sudden impact of his patronage was profound – both financially and psychologically – and it generated art,” wrote curator and historian Ken Martin in his 1997 story A Life of its Own: Chris Huntington and the Resurgence of Nova Scotia Folk Art 1975 – 1995, commissioned by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia for an exhibition catalogue. “The art and the artists would never be the same.”
A Life of its Own: Chris Huntington and the Resurgence of Nova Scotia Folk Art 1975 – 1995 by Ken Martin
Now, 50 years later, Chris Huntington’s private collection is coming to auction at Miller & Miller’s April 12, 2025 sale, East Coast Canadiana & Folk Art, along with inclusions from his ex-wife Ellen (Huntington) Willams and husband John Williams, plus other select additions. The sale features important postwar folk art and furniture primarily from Lunenburg County, N.S., including rare Merganser decoys and several paintings done by Huntington himself.
“Chris bought with an artist’s eye and he seldom, if ever, sold from his personal collection. It’s the end of an era and the beginning of another, says Ethan Miller, Miller & Miller’s CEO.
One of the highlights in the Huntington collection is lot 143, a rare Merganser drake decoy by Nova Scotia carver Captain Edwin Bachman (1872-1914), probably made between 1890 and 1910, estimated at $40,000 to $60,000CA.
Samuel Huntington is now in charge of his father’s affairs. Chris, 86, now lives with advanced dementia in a care home in Lunenburg. N.S. His second wife, Charlotte McGill, died in 2023.
Samuel only lived in Nova Scotia a few years before he and his mother Ellen returned to the United States. “We were living in a sea captain’s house in the middle of nowhere. I actually attended a one-room school house and walked to school alone at five years old,” he recalls. “It was a magical place.”
Both of Samuel’s parents had trained in the arts, which helped to inform the way they viewed folk art and antiques. At one time Chris received an inheritance from his Ohio grandfather, a prominent banker, which facilitated the move from Ohio to Maine where he pursued a different future than his family lineage might have expected. At one point, he became a junior curator at Maine’s Colby College Museum of Art. For years he and Ellen ran their Ezra Peters Antiquities business and became known for offering the best of New England antiques. Chris was never afraid to seize the moment or to seek adventure. Wherever he went, his name, his style and his reputation set him apart from the crowd.
“The ‘Huntington Law’: “When in doubt BUY!””
But the Nova Scotia adventure came with its own unique challenges. Chris’s enthusiasm for local artists began to outstrip the profits he made from their work and the older artists were dying off. His self-proclaimed ‘Huntington Law’ - “When in doubt BUY!” - may not have helped either.
Somewhat controversially, he was also coaching younger and emerging folk artists, buying them supplies and helping them improve technique, perhaps bolstering prices in the process. (That included Everett Lewis, the copycat painter-husband of the famed Nova Scotia folk artist Maud Lewis, who had died in 1970.)
Lot 212 - Maud Lewis Oxen in Winter - (Offered in the April 12th auction from a private collection)
Lot 210 - Everett Lewis Two Oxen and Girl in Winter - (Offered in the April 12th auction from a private collection)
Chris Huntington also mentored emerging folk artists, including, controversially, Everett Lewis, the copycat painter-husband of the renowned Nova Scotia folk artist Maud Lewis. The works pictured above — one by Maud Lewis (note the signature) and a copycat piece by Everett Lewis — are also featured in the April 12th auction, from private collections.
In spite of mounting challenges and falling profits, by the early 1980s Chris managed to build up an art and antique auction business in Nova Scotia, drawing buyers from far and wide and showcasing his flamboyant style. “My father was a performer and could create so much excitement,” says his son Samuel. “You’d just ride that momentum. It was like watching a symphony.”
But Chris also frequently took aim at native Nova Scotians for underappreciating their own cultural treasures and allowing so much local art to leave the province. In 1993/94 he donated 55 folk art works from his personal collection to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
Chris’s coveted collection, now on offer at the upcoming auction, includes a six-inch-tall painted carved wood sculpture by Collins Eisenhauer (Nova Scotia, 1898-1979) depicting a man in black clothes sitting on a brown stool carving a swan (lot 220 estimated at $6,000 to $8,000CA). Also being offered is lot 226, a large enamel on canvas painting signed by Joe Norris (Lower Prospect, Nova Scotia, 1924-1996), one of Canada’s most impressive folk artists. Titled Ships Offshore it carries an estimate of $6,000 to $8,000CA.
And then there’s the rare museum-quality crocheted side chair covered in jute and finished with colored yarn by Albert Lohnes (Nova Scotia, 1895-1977). It’s one of two Lohnes crocheted chairs in the sale, and one of only 16 known examples. It depicts a Nova Scotia scene of a farmer with his oxen team, knitted on a blue background with a large red and white diamond on the seat and smaller red and white diamonds knitted on the apron (lot 208, estimated at $4,000 to $6,000CA). Lohnes, who was a sailor, made the first crocheted chair for his ship’s captain, who kept sliding around in his chair. He made the rest in retirement.
In front of his West Berlin home, Albert Lohnes is pictured sitting behind a spectacular array of his knitting-covered furniture. Chris Huntington discovered Lohnes in the late 1970s. Photo from A Life of Its Own: Chris Huntington and the Resurgence of Nova Scotia Folk Art 1975-1995 by Ken Martin.
Chris held a deep appreciation for these artists and their work. Disgruntled, in 1989 he wrote, “for every known folk artist there are five or ten who either make it or have the potential to make wonderful things,” adding that dealers like himself were all that stood between “opposing values – the greed of modern society and the naiveté of people who had lived close to the land or sea, worked their asses off all their lives and ended up with very little except their humour and their talents”.
More highlights from the Chris Huntington Collection and the Collection of Ellen (Huntington) & John Willams. Click each item to view in the auction catalogue.
Meanwhile, he was still painting his own pictures, some which ended up in exhibitions in Nova Scotia and across Canada. But he decided that working day and night and living alone was not the life he wanted, so in 1994 he advertised for a wife and met Charlotte McGill who became his devoted partner in life and in business until she died.
“I think what I want people to remember about my father is that he had a fervent belief in this area around Lunenberg County, Nova Scotia,” says Samuel. “Everything in this auction that was his came out of that 45-mile radius. These were the things he saved and preserved and treasured.”
Chris Huntington and Charlotte McGill at home in Kingsburg, surrounded by folk art old and new. Photo from A Life of Its Own: Chris Huntington and the Resurgence of Nova Scotia Folk Art 1975-1995 by Ken Martin.
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 Information:
East Coast Canadiana & Folk Art
Featuring the Chris Huntington Collection
April 12, 2025 | 9am EST
Viewings to be held from 10:30am-5pm on April 10-11 at 59 Webster St. New Hamburg, Ontario.
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