1842 “Folk Art” Cumberland Church Yard England. Museum Quality Creation by J. Elgar, London England for Mr. Wheeler of Uffington, England. Approx 11.5″ L x 8.5″ D x 7 H. Just Reduced 50%+ from Original List Price. Truly, one of a kind, an 1842 Miniature Folk Art Church yard!!! Impossible to find something like this outside of a museum or even within. You will never see anything like this again. We spent hundreds of hours researching this treasure (much for fun) & nothing compared. It’s 180+ years old! This is a deeply rich sculpture, not only in detail but in content. The artist obviously had a love for his pastor & fellow parishioners. The church was sculpted for Mr. Wheeler of Uffington, England by J. Elgar of London England in 1842. The photos do not do justice to the piece and we did not attempt to readjust the trees or anything to make it look better. We have to say, as extreme researchers, it was hard not to remove the top of church to see if the inside of the church was finished as well. We expect it might be, but who would dare damage it to find out? The artist signed his work by affixing a fanciful scripted dedication message on the bottom of the wood base as shown in pictures. It reads, The Model of Cumberland Church Made by J. Elgar, London & Presented to Mr. & Mrs Wheeler of Uffington as a Token of Love & Esteem 1842. The sculpture is in good, but worn condition as seen in pictures. We did not try to clean or alter the work in any way. There were a few tombstones missing and the surrounding fence has wear and front wall is absent. There was likely a small steeple on top at one time. That could be easily added without much effort. There are records of J. Elgar and a Wheeler from both areas (Wheeler who was a lay pastor). Cumberland, England is now incorporated to what’s called Cumbria (1974) which was a combination of several separate districts. We think the J is for James as it appears there is a small abbreviated m above on right, but not sure. We were stunned to see the detail & great condition of the pre-1850 artwork surviving outside of a museum. It was obtained from an estate sale in a rural Indiana farm community. From what we can gather in our research, this was likely brought to America by the Wheeler family descendants. Whoever brought it to America, kept it well protected for over a century. But the plastic cover is likely less than 30 years old, so either this was kept on display in a church, home or other or in a protective environment for 140 years or so. It is roughly 11.5″ L x 8.5″ W x 7″ H (to case top, 5.5″ to church top) inches and shows incredible detail. We took a number of photos to try & capture some of the details & to capture a feel of the piece. All the tombstones around the church seemed odd to me, until I found that almost all of England’s local parish churches from this era looked similar and frankly many early churches in America look much the same today. We do this often. Please follow our store if you love rare antiques, primitives and collectibles of many types. We scour the land for the rarest and neatest of items for our Buyers who love them. We offer everything from rusty industrial to fine art by renowned US and foreign artists. We have Americana, Antique advertising, Salesmen samples, Oil Paintings & sculptures by noted artists, Farm Primitives, Antique lighting fixtures and Aladdin lamps, militaria, Classic Comics, Sports Memorabilia and much, much more. It is our honor to offer these treasures to you. We offer premium quality items and provide lots of pictures (we count on our detailed photos to assist with describing the treasure) to assist you. Our packing is top notch (often taking 30 minutes to over an hour on delicate items). We exhaust ourselves to get your new treasure safely home. This item is in the category “Art\Art Sculptures”. The seller is “new_life_antiques” and is located in this country: US. This item can be shipped to United States, Canada.
- Size: Small (up to 12in.)
- Region of Origin: Europe
- Handmade: Yes
- Artist: Parish Member
- Country/Region of Manufacture: United Kingdom
- Style: Folk Art
- Item Height: 7\
- Item Width: 11.5\
- Material: Mixed Wood, Paper, Natural Elements
- Time Period Produced: 1800-1899
- Type: Church Yard
- Features: Encased, Personalized, Signed
- Subject: Church Yard Religious
- Listed By: Dealer or Reseller
- Color: Mixed
- Year of Production: 1842
- Original/Licensed Reproduction: Original
- Unit of Sale: Single-Piece Work