House of Folk Art

Episode 65 | The Antique Baskets You Should Be Hunting For

Matt sits down with antique dealer and collector Laura Saville for a deep dive into old baskets, using examples from Matt’s collection and baskets Laura brought with her

Episode 64 | Face Jugs, Monsters and the Art of Stacy Lambert

Kyle and Matt dive into the life, work, and wild imagination of North Carolina folk potter Stacy Lambert, using old photographs, stories, interview footage, and pieces fr

Episode 63 | The Lost Art of Door-Knock Picking with Wade Ledbetter

Wade Ledbetter returns to the House of Folk Art to talk about the lost art of door-knock picking. Wade started picking around 1978 and spent more than 30 years driving b

Episode 62 | Mike Smith Was There: Rare Photos from Folk Art History

Mike Smith returns to the House of Folk Art with something remarkable: a collection of photographs he took while visiting folk artists across the South during the 1990s.

Episode 61 | Is This Folk Art? The Mystery of the Columbus Collage Man

Matt and Sully are back with a mystery collection from Columbus, Ohio. This episode starts with a simple question: is Collage Folk Art? In front of them is a group of 14

Episode 60 | Matt Shows Mike Smith the Rare Folk Art Leaving the Gallery

This episode starts with Mike returning to the table, where Matt has pulled together a group of rare folk art, pottery, baskets, quilts, and objects from the gallery befo

Episode 59 | What Does a Real Folk Art Collector Collect?

Matt and Sully are back at Ledbetter Auction Gallery in Gibsonville with a fresh stack from a 400-piece single-owner folk art collection that just came through the door.

Episode 58 | Matt and Kyle Get Back to Folk Art

Matt and Kyle are back at the Auction Gallery in Gibsonville after a run of antique shows. Liberty and Fishersville were fun, but this episode gets back to the roots of H

Episode 57 | Van Side at Fishersville Antique Expo

Fishersville was a great show this year. Friday was packed from the start, dealers were moving material early, and by Saturday morning Matt was already back at the van di

Episode 56 | Liberty Buys, Fishersville Plans, and One Last Look at Benny Carter

Matt returns to the auction gallery after Liberty with the buys still sitting behind him and another show already on the calendar. This time, the conversation picks up in

Episode 55 | Riding Out to Liberty with Matt Ledbetter

Matt Ledbetter sits down before heading out to Liberty, North Carolina to set up Wade's tent for the last Liberty Antique show. Held twice a year in Randolph County, the

Episode 54 | What Matt Bought at the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival

Matt Ledbetter and Kyle sit down with a table full of pieces from the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival and break down what they picked up over the weekend. Held once a ye

Episode 53 | 10 Picks Inside a 15,000 Sq Ft Folk Art Warehouse

In this episode of House of Folk Art, Matt Ledbetter and Kyle walk through the newly expanded Ledbetter warehouse and put it to use right away. With over 15,000 square fe

Episode 52 | Are Quilts Folk Art? Collecting Antique American Quilts with Laura Saville

In this episode of House of Folk Art, Matt Ledbetter sits down with longtime friend and antique dealer Laura Saville for a full conversation on antique American quilts, h

Episode 51 | Mary Proctor: Called to Paint

In January of 1994, Mary Proctor lost her grandmother, her uncle, and her aunt in a mobile home fire. The grandmother who raised her, the woman she called mama, was gone.

Episode 50 | Rare 1990s Folk Art Footage from Tom Wells

Before museums and collectors caught on, Tom Wells was documenting Southern folk artists on VHS in the early 1990s. In this episode, Matt Ledbetter sits down with the lo

Episode 49 | From Football to Folk Art

Matt Ledbetter talks with Julian-Sherrod Summers, also known as Red Sanford, about how their shared background in football quietly ran alongside a growing interest in old

Episode 48 | What Real Picking Looked Like Before the Internet

In this episode, Wade Ledbetter sits down with Matt to talk through what real picking looked like before the internet changed the landscape. Long before Marketplace listi

Episode 47 | Always Buying Always Selling: Life as a Full-Time Antique Dealer with Laura Saville

In this episode of House of Folk Art, Matt Ledbetter sits down with longtime friend and full-time antique dealer Laura Saville for a wide-ranging, honest conversation abo

Episode 46 | Unboxing Folk Art Pottery and Remembering Folk Artists

Mike Smith joins Matt in the gallery with several pieces of folk art pottery headed for the next auction, opening boxes and walking through each form as it comes out. Wha