Antique Folk Art Pipe Rack of Questionable Taste!

[juanmedusa]

I have a friend that was a burgeoning pipe smoker (though her frequency has declined of late) and is a collector of all things odd.  She and her husband bought a home recently and they had us over. We go in and are checking out the place. This is actually the second time we went over but on the first they hadn't really unpacked. I of course see old pipes and racks on a shelf and go check those out. I didn't see her roster of pipes she was smoking but other stuff that she picked up and just had. Older uncleaned pipes and racks she wasn't putting her premier pipes on. There was one of those pipe racks that holds pipes on the left and right with a tobacco box in the middle and there was another straight pipe rack. I'm just checking it out and then I look up one shelf and I see it! I'm like "What!"  
"Oh, I didn't show you that before?"
"I have never seen that before."
So she was at an antique store and found a folk art pipe rack. It's a "negro child" motif and the creator thought the charm of it would be to make it as though the pipes were her legs. This is a really interesting piece. It immediately makes you begin to think.  It's shocking for me to think about a time when "negro child" was a design and sometimes advertising motif but I know from various pieces that was the case. Here it is in all its glory (shame).

 

[Dutch]

Well, there is also the amputee element going on there as well, during the time in which one or both of the pipes are being smoked or getting an alcohol treatment. I'm not for certain which is more offensive, I suppose it just depends on what type of slant the journalist if aiming for.

I think this falls into the category of what Louis CK refers to as "Mild Racism," simply because the color of the pipe rack caught your attention.

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[Richard Burley]

Careful. I posted something similar here a few years ago and got called a racist. I took names. For what it's worth, taste and folk art never did go together, did they? There is no way to tell if the creator of the piece was a conscious racist or just using a meme of the time without thinking. Not thinking is the chief occupation of mankind, to paraphrase Mencken.

 

[KevinM]

I'll tell ya right now, don't bring that "antique" into your house if you ever expect to survive the nomination process to that vacancy on the Supreme Court.

 

[Ozark Wizard]

As I recall, that piece was created when we as kids went to Sambo's Pancake House. If you recall the story of how butter was made 'back in the day', you might get the genre'. Maybe not PC today, but nevertheless a cultural statement in art. Might not be something to advertise though....

 

[Stick]

Interesting comments above.

Perhaps it also serves as a reminder of how outlooks have changed for the better. I'm sure many will feel slightly uncomfortable viewing the item whereas in the past it may not have even prompted such a discussion.