Folk art from the American Museum in Britain

'Folk art' is a misunderstood term in Britain, often indiscriminatingly used as a synonym for 'unsophisticated' or 'amateur'.

At The American Museum in Britain, housed in Claverton Manor on the outskirts of the Georgian city of Bath, its American context is conveyed: the artistic legacy of the artisan and amateur in pre-industrial America, with pieces often crafted for constructive use - such as bird decoys, weather vanes, and trade signs. Largely dating from the late eighteenth to early twentieth centuries, the American Museum's folk art collection includes over 200 American quilts and 40 canvas paintings from the early nineteenth century.

There are also diverse sculpted pieces: large trade figures; a ship's figurehead depicting a Mohawk warrior; gilded metal weathervanes in the guise of Native American bowmen; a late nineteenth-century carousel giraffe; and a carved eagle thought to be the work of Wilhelm Schimmel.

This beautifully illustrated and important book provides an introduction to the distinctly American aesthetic of folk art.