Carlton Garrett.
(1900-1992, Georgia)
Merry-Go-Round Mechanical Wonder Box.
1984.
Signed.
Carved and enamel painted wood with hand tooled wooden gear mechanism with cords attached to electric fan motor.
Very good vintage condition with expected wear, abrasions and losses. The two cord belts attaching the fan motor to the gear mechanism are stretched (loose) and need to be replaced.
45"h x 34" long x 21"w.
The diameter of the Merry-Go-Round is 33".
Provenance: Private Florida Collection.
The Mike Dale Collection.
Est.$2,000-$4,000.
Buyer is responsible for shipping.

 Carlton Garrett was born May 22, 1900, in Gwinnett County, Georgia, the son of a chain gang guard. Raised on a farm in Forsyth County, Georgia, he spent only two years in school. Garrett spent many hours during his childhood exploring a nearby grist mill, which fed his fascination with mechanics. Garrett began whittling at an early age and out of necessity made many of the toys (trucks, wagons, whistles, toy guns, fluttermills and water wheels) his family could not afford to buy him.

Garrett moved with his family to Flowery Branch, near Gainesville, Georgia in 1924. He married Bertie Catherine Clark there in 1927 and he remained in Flowery Branch for the rest of his life. Garrett worked for almost 40 years as a craftsman in two different furniture factories while simultaneously operating the local water works. He was ordained a minister at the Flowery Branch Baptist Church in 1931.

Garrett began carving dolls for his two daughters in 1940. Garrett made one of his first large works, HOSPITAL, following abdominal surgery in 1962, the year that he retired. Garrett called his complex work a "wonder box," because when the viewer looks at it "you wonder if it will work." Garrett is believed to have made fewer than a dozen wonder boxes in his lifetime including the MERRY-GO-ROUND MECHANICAL WONDER BOX offered here. Four of the wonder boxes, CHURCH REVIVAL, THE CAR PARADE, HOSPITAL, and MACHINERY, are part of the permanent collection of The High Museum of Art, Atlanta.Two other wonder boxes, CRUCIFIXION and SHADOW BROOK WATER WORKS, are part of the permanent collection of the American Folk Art Museum, New York.

Garrett used only a pocketknife, drill press, band saw, and a homemade electric hacksaw to make the hand-carved wooden gears, pulleys, cams, and shafts, which he held together with strong cord and powered with a motor, used to create the motion in many of his large works.
The various types of cottonwood, oak, plywood and other materials that he sanded, painted, and assembled in his workshop, which he called The Playhouse, were purchased at a local hardware store. Poor vision forced Garrett to stop carving for several years in the 1960s and 1970s, but cataract surgery in the late 1970s restored his sight and he eagerly got out his pocketknife and began to "piddle" again (Garrett's term for his carving).

Garrett received a great deal of notoriety for his carvings during his lifetime, largely due to the efforts of Atlanta folk art dealer Judith Alexander who promoted and sold his work (and donated larger pieces to museums like The High Museum of Art). His carvings were written about in both local and Atlanta newspapers.He received an award from Georgia Governor Joe Frank Harris. He was featured on Atlanta TV Channel 5's "PM Magazine"program, and his work reached a national audience when he appeared on NBC's "Today" Show. "The Folk Art Sculpture of Carlton Garrett"was a one-person exhibition of Garrett's work at The High Museum of Art, held in 1981. His mechanical ingenuity was described and illustrated in the May 1983 issue of Popular Mechanics in an article titled "Folk Art that Comes to Life."

Garrett's mechanical tableaus with carved and enamel painted wooden figures are both intricate and straightforward, sculptural and naïve. They are nostalgic and whimsical reminders of simpler places and far less complicated times.

The Merry-Go-Round portion of the wonder box can be operated manually (as is without repairs) by turning the top of the Merry-Go-Round in a counterclockwise direction. To operate the two mechanical characters manually, grab the red band near the top of the Merry-Go-Round shaft and turn it counterclockwise. As you do so, the seated man with the red hat and blue pants waves his arm up and down, and another seated man with the brown hat and pink pants moves his head from side to side. A video of the Merry-Go-Round in action is available at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npYbIV1P8CI&t=0s
The video was shot manually by turning the top and shaft by hand.