(Georgia, 1900-1992)Merry-Go-Round Mechanized "Wonder box", signed "Carlton E. Garrett", enamel on wood with hand tooled motor, 45 x 34 x 21 in.; Note: Carlton E Garrett worked for almost forty years as a craftsman at the Chattahoochee Furniture and Mooney Furniture factories, near Gainsville Georgia. For many years he simultaneously managed the local water works. Having also grown up near a water mill in Gwinett County, Georgia, Garrett was fascinated by mechanical processes and the way power was harnessed to do work. He used only the simplest of tools to create his figures and the gears that power his mechanical "wonder boxes," so named because you wonder how they work.He was ordained a minister at the Flowery Branch Baptist Church in 1931.see: artbrut.at for more biographical informationsee: Johnson, Jay, William C. Ketchum, and Robert Bishop. American Folk Art of the Twentieth Century. 1983. p.106Lampell, Ramona, Millard Lampell, David Larkin, Michael Freeman, and Paul Rocheleau. O, Appalachia: Artists of the Southern Mountains. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1989 p.102; Provenance: Private Florida Collection abrasions and losses throughout, functional electrical and gear mechanism needs repair