American, 20th century, comprising; frog on toadstool, marked "Copeland" at base, tupelo, C.M. Copeland Jr., Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Georgia, 5-1/2 x 3-1/2 x 3-1/2 in.; cat, marked on base "HB", buckeye, Hope Brown, Brasstown, Clay County, N.C., 2-1/2 x 5 x 3 in.; rattlesnake dance mask, marked on chin "V. Crowe/5-92", basswood, Virgil Crowe, Birdtown, Swain County, N.C. 10-1/8 x 6-3/4 x 4-1/8 in.; bowl with dogwood design, marked on base "Riverwood Pewter/Dillsboro NC/1992", pewter, Dee Shook and Leo Franks, Dillsboro, Jackson County, N.C., 1-1/4 x 12 x 12 in.; carved wooden serving spoon with rattlesnake, G.A., 15-1/8 x 2-1/2 x 1-3/8 in.

Provenance: From the Folklife Collection of Southern Pottery Scholar, Author and Professor of English at Georgia State University, Dr. John Burrison, Atlanta, Georgia

Note: In the catalog description from Shaping Traditions: Folk Arts in a Changing South, John Burrison, University of Georgia Press, 2000, pg. 115, cat. no. 110, for the Virgil Crowe mask, Burrison writes, "The Cherokee Indians, for whom killing rattlesnakes is taboo, once danced in such masks to show defiance and threaten war against their enemies." 

Exhibited: Previously on Loan at the Atlanta History Center for viewing in the exhibition Shaping Traditions: Folk Arts in the Changing South from 1996 to 2024

Illustrated: Virgil Crowe mask pictured in Shaping Traditions: Folk Arts in a Changing South by John A. Burrison, Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2000, pg. 63, Hope Brown carved cat on pg. 75.