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PODCAST

House of Folk Art

Join Matt Ledbetter, esteemed auctioneer and folk art connoisseur hailing from Gibsonville, North Carolina, as he unveils the rich tapestry of Southern Folk Art. With personal ties to numerous folk artists through his renowned quarterly auctions, Matt brings you on a journey through the intricate history, the profound motivations, and the intimate encounters that shape the world of folk art.

arts visual arts

All Episodes

47:23

Episode 66 | Mike Smith Met S.L. Jones: Rare Video,...

House of Folk Art ·

2026/09/28

Matt sits down with collector Mike Smith for a closer look at the work of S.L. Jones, using several carved heads and drawings from Matt’s collection alongside Mike’s firsthand memories of visiting Jones at his home in West Virginia.Mike met S.L. Jones late in his career and was able to spend time with him, photograph him, and document some of those visits on video. Matt and Mike compare early and late carvings, look at the similarities between Jones’ carved faces and drawings, break down

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93:32

Episode 65 | The Antique Baskets You Should Be...

House of Folk Art ·

2026/09/14

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 to answer a deceptively simple question: how do you know a good basket when you see one?The episode starts with the best basket Matt says he has ever seen. They revisit footage from the Ledbetter Auctions sale, talk about the bidder who still regrets letting it go, and use it as the standard for what a truly great

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88:58

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

House of Folk Art ·

2026/08/31

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 from Matt’s collection to trace how Stacy developed a style completely his own.Stacy Lambert BioStacy was born in Randolph County in 1965, one of six children, and grew up around Seagrove. His parents worked in textiles rather than pottery, and his first artistic interest was drawing. After high school, he joined the Army,

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69:43

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

House of Folk Art ·

2026/08/17

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 back roads, choosing houses that looked promising, and knocking on doors to ask if anyone had old things they were ready to sell. In this episode, Matt asks him to explain what real picking looked like before Facebook Marketplace, online auctions, and yard-sale listings changed the business.Wade walks through the pitch he used

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57:10

Episode 62 | Mike Smith Was There: Rare Photos from...

House of Folk Art ·

2026/08/03

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.Mike estimates that he has photographed thousands of works, artists, homes, studios, and folk art environments over the years. In this episode, Matt sits down with him to look through around 50 of those images, many showing artists at home and surrounded by work that has since disappeared, changed hands, or been lost

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29:43

Episode 61 | Is This Folk Art? The Mystery of the...

House of Folk Art ·

2026/07/20

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 147 handmade collages, all believed to be from the same unknown artist. The pieces came out of a Columbus estate, with no artist name, very little history, and just enough clues to make Matt think something important may be hiding in plain sight.Before digging into the work, Sully gives a quick setup on collage as an art form,

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66:03

Episode 60 | Matt Shows Mike Smith the Rare Folk Art...

House of Folk Art ·

2026/07/06

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 before they ship out to new collections. Some of these pieces may not come back around for decades, so Matt wanted to get them on camera while they were still in the room.The conversation begins with Mike’s 35 years in the folk art world and his early trips through the Southeast visiting artists. From there, Matt and Mike dig

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62:24

Episode 59 | What Does a Real Folk Art Collector...

House of Folk Art ·

2026/06/22

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.The collection had already been unboxed and was waiting to be photographed, but Matt had not fully gone through it yet. So instead of picking their own favorites from around the gallery, Matt and Sully grab a random stack of about 40 pieces and start digging in with fresh eyes.This episode is a look at what a real folk art

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68:28

Episode 58 | Matt and Kyle Get Back to Folk Art

House of Folk Art ·

2026/06/08

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 House of Folk Art: self-taught art, pottery, carvings, and the stories behind the pieces.Matt and Kyle pull work from around the gallery and talk through what makes each piece worth slowing down for. The episode starts with Sam Ezell, a North Carolina artist and picker whose work has become a major focus at the auction

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24:10

Episode 57 | Van Side at Fishersville Antique Expo

House of Folk Art ·

2026/05/25

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 digging through the pile of things that he’s taking back home.Matt pulls out a few of the buys from Fishersville and talks through them while the show is still happening around him: carved walking sticks, tramp art, Clyde Herman carvings, a dancing figure, a whirligig that nearly flies apart in the wind, and one folk art cane

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42:03

Episode 56 | Liberty Buys, Fishersville Plans, and...

House of Folk Art ·

2026/05/11

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 that brief window between antique shows, when the dust from one trip has barely settled and the next one is already starting to take shape.Liberty had the feeling of a final chapter, but not necessarily a dead end. After months of questions about what the last Liberty show would mean, Matt came away with a different

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48:42

Episode 55 | Riding Out to Liberty with Matt Ledbetter

House of Folk Art ·

2026/04/27

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 Liberty Antiques Festival has long been one of the best known antique shows in the region. Dealers from more than 25 states set up across a large farm setting, with everything from pottery, furniture, and quilts to decoys, folk art, glass, and country Americana. The show has built its reputation around original antiques and

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38:28

Episode 54 | What Matt Bought at the Catawba Valley...

House of Folk Art ·

2026/04/13

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 year in Hickory, North Carolina, the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival brings together over a hundred working potters alongside a small group of dealers specializing in historic Catawba Valley pottery. It is one of the few places where you can walk booth to booth, meet the artists directly, and see both contemporary work and

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64:08

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

House of Folk Art ·

2026/03/30

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 feet of material to dig through, they each pick out five pieces and bring them back to the table to break down what they are seeing, what stands out, and why certain objects hold more weight than others.The episode starts inside the warehouse, moving through shelves, stacks, and walls of material as they search for pieces

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94:09

Episode 52 | Are Quilts Folk Art? Collecting Antique...

House of Folk Art ·

2026/03/16

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, how to look at them, how to date them, and why more collectors are starting to take them seriously as both historical objects and pieces of art.Laura talks about falling headfirst into quilts over the last several months, studying fabrics, construction, and textile history, and learning how quilts connect to antique

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66:13

Episode 51 | Mary Proctor: Called to Paint

House of Folk Art ·

2026/03/02

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. The grief was overwhelming. For thirty days, Mary spent half of every day praying, sitting with her Bible, questioning God and asking why.On the final day, she says a light brighter than the sun appeared, and a voice spoke from within it. She was told to paint on an old door, and that the words would be given to her. In

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52:19

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

House of Folk Art ·

2026/02/16

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 longtime dealer to revisit those tapes and reflect on discovering artists like Z.B. Armstrong and J.T. McCord.Tom explains how he first met these artists, how relationships developed, how work was sold, and what it looked like to build a market without the internet, price databases, or collector forums. Some of the footage

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48:19

Episode 49 | From Football to Folk Art

House of Folk Art ·

2026/02/02

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 objects, self-taught artists, and the stories those pieces carry.From there, the conversation opens up into picking, collecting, valuing art, and the long road that led both of them into the folk art world.The conversation moves naturally between football culture, folk art discovery, picking, and the shared duality of

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50:18

Episode 48 | What Real Picking Looked Like Before the...

House of Folk Art ·

2026/01/19

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 listings and phone searches, picking meant driving back roads, knocking on doors, carrying cash, and trusting instinct.Wade tells the story of calling a jug before it ever came out of the house, walking into basements unannounced, and knowing what mattered before it was labeled, cataloged, or priced. The conversation moves

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77:13

Episode 47 | Always Buying Always Selling: Life as a...

House of Folk Art ·

2026/01/05

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 about what it really means to make a living in antiques.Laura has spends all her time buying, selling, filling booths, working shows, and constantly moving inventory. Inspired by early memories of her grandfather’s Milwaukee saloon to a career at Nordstrom that sharpened her eye for curation and merchandising, Laura explains

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