The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Wow, look at this thing.

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/atq/1525231702.html

FROM AD:

ANTIQUE "SILVERTONE" RECORD PLAYER PAINTED BY PETER HUNT - $1000 (Tustin, CA)
5 shelves for flat storage. Wonderful, decorative piece

Fabulous antique record player which has been painted by world renown folk arrtist PETER HUNT (check e-bay for in depth bio)

My parents (Hudson and Ione Walker) lived in Provincetown and had an extensive collection of Peter Hunt furniture. This is from their cottage in Provincetown.,

A short bio on Peter Hunt:

A folk artist and story teller with wide-ranging imagination, Peter Hunt, working from the 1930s through the 1960s, made his reputation with peasant decorations on furniture. "A friend of the wealthy, the artistic and the odd-ball, Peter Hunt and his Peasant Village was a well-known fixture on Cape Cod." Customers included Helena Rubenstein and Frederick Waugh.

A longstanding Cape Cod legend (that Hunt originated and promoted) held that he first arrived in Provincetown in the early 1920s when the yacht Hunt shared with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald was forced to take safe harbor in the face of a storm. Wearing a sweeping black cape and a black broad-rimmed hat, holding the leashes of his playful afghan hounds while a red-headed dwarf scurried behind, Hunt said he strolled the streets of the village and declared, “This is a wonderful place. I must stay here.”

No matter how dramatic (or ordinary) his arrival, Hunt did stay in Provincetown, bringing his parents, Ma and Pa Hunt, and establishing himself as a folk artist and furniture director at his collection of shops called Peasant Village. On what he christened Peter Hunt Lane, an alley that spilled onto Commercial Street, he employed talented young people to decorate the stools, tables, dressers, trays and other household goods in his trademark peasant style that became so popular in the 1930s and ‘40s. Among his apprentices are now well-known modern impressionists Nancy Whorf Kelly and Carol Whorf Wescott.

Hunt’s work was originally “discovered” by the well-to-do summer people on Cape Cod, who found his colorful peasant decorations the perfect accents for their cottages and retreats.

Thank god he didn't mess up a Victor!

Some paint remover would improve it.

That's actually rather cute and qualifies as a sort of folk art. I think it was George Grosz the "Furniture Doctor" who wrote that he worked for Peter Hunt- his task was to take pieces of 19th C. furniture and remove most of the applied ornaments so Hunt could then decorate them.

And as to messing up a Victor- I've seen a ton of the cheaper uprights and consoles which a nice paint job could do nothing but improve.

I'm all for folk art so long as the artist isn't some big-city phony affecting naive-artist ways. He even had his staff paint this stuff for him. This guy's stuff looks like a cross between rosemaling and fingerpaint.

And George G. spent the rest of his long career atoning for those sins!

JohnM wrote: He even had his staff paint this stuff for him.

Not that I'm attempting a direct comparison, but a successful artist having a studio full of assistants was quite normal from the middle ages through the 19th C. The master would sketch out the composition then lesser assistants would paint the background and figures. The master would keep an eye on the work but he'd generally come in at the end to paint the faces and add the fancy touches. This is one reason for all those "School of..." attributions in art texts.

Absolutely true, but not good form for a 'folk' artist!

Just for some additional context, here's a site about Hunt and his work- some of it is rather nice and very much resembles Pennsylvania German folk work.
http://www.peasantvillage.com/

I know I'm a little late with commenting on this (been away a couple of weeks), but, if I saw this for sale I would certainly pass it up. I guess one man's art is another man's vandalism.

I don't mind a decorated machine but it looks like the spring motor was replaced with an electric motor from the 40's or 50's with a felt covered 10" turntable.