# Henry Varnum Poor artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/henry-varnum-poor/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T20:51:11.409Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Death date: 1970-12-08
- Nationality: American
- Common media: Painting, Pottery and ceramics, Sculpture, Murals, Illustration, Architecture and design

## About Henry Varnum Poor

Henry Varnum Poor was an American multidisciplinary artist and designer whose practice encompassed painting, pottery, architecture, sculpture, murals, and illustration. Collectors may therefore encounter his name on objects from substantially different categories rather than within a single medium. Public authority records identify the same artist through Wikidata, VIAF, Getty ULAN, Library of Congress, and MoMA profiles, helping separate his work from similarly named people. The collected sources agree that he died in 1970, although they conflict over whether he was born in 1887 or 1888; the exact birth year is therefore left unresolved here. Poor's varied professional roles are central to understanding his identity. A ceramic object, painting, sculptural work, or mural-related study attributed to him should be assessed according to the conventions of its particular medium, with documentation and comparison to securely identified examples carrying more weight than a name match alone.

## Common works and media

Works associated with Poor may appear as paintings, pottery or other ceramics, sculpture, mural-related material, illustrations, and architectural or design material. The source pack does not identify recurring subjects, named series, edition practices, or a documented hierarchy among these categories. Classification should therefore follow the physical object and its evidence rather than assuming that every work bearing his name belongs to the same market segment.

## Market and appraisal context

Henry Varnum Poor's multidisciplinary practice makes category-specific comparison especially important. A painting should ordinarily be compared with relevant paintings, while pottery or ceramic objects require comparables that reflect the same type of material and format. Secure attribution also matters because authority sources use variant birth years and the artist shared his name with another historically notable person. Appraisal should begin with the object's medium, authorship evidence, dimensions, date, condition, provenance, and any marks or labels, then examine appropriately similar public sales. The collected pack confirms an auction-record context on Appraisily but supplies no accessible major-auction-house lot narratives, so it does not justify price forecasts, claims of market momentum, or conclusions about record values.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine public artist-identity research with auction records and, when available, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots. Identity conflicts and gaps in the collected evidence are retained rather than resolved by guesswork.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5729485
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/48182328/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500006032
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Varnum_Poor_(designer)
- Wikipedia: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Varnum_Poor_(peintre)
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/henry-varnum-poor/