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Executive Editor Helen Rogan introduces you to her animal bands.
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Q: How did this begin?
A: I succumbed to seasonal nostalgia last fall and began searching for some tiny flocked and furry animals made in Germany in the ’50s. We used to have these woodland creatures around the house at Christmas: squirrels, foxes, gray mice eating real kernels of corn. So I went onto eBay and typed in various words—“miniature,” “animal,” “vintage,” “toy”—and found, in addition to a few of the flocked animals (the hedgehog is to die for!), a mysterious group of six animals half an inch high, perched on barrels and playing instruments. That did it.
Q: Where do you usually find them?
A: My life doesn’t lend itself to leisurely weekends checking out country antique shops, but that’s OK because eBay always comes through. If you type in the words “animal band,” here’s what comes up: toe rings, about a million leopard-print headbands, regular rings with animals on them (Swarovski-crystal owl, anyone?), LPs by The Animals and scary veterinary items for use on livestock. But then you turn up treasures. I have 18 bands now—from Russia, Germany, Italy, Thailand and Japan. Most are made of wood, china or lead and date from the ’50s or early ’60s. I also have a sweetly dopey rubber group from the United States. The doggy band (with its strange pigeon conductor) is from Japan. What makes it so endearing is that intense, eager-to-please-yet-befuddled look that dogs have so much of the time, whether they’re real or ceramic.
Q: What’s the appeal?
A: Two things: miniaturization and animals acting human. That appeal starts in childhood, when you’re looking at picture books with your mother, and in the corner of the page you see, say, a tiny badger reading a newspaper. But there’s something else—I think of it as dime-store magic. I used to take my pocket money to Woolworth’s to buy small, bright novelties; the very words “Made in Japan” were a thrill. I loved Japanese water flowers—innocuous scrumples of paper that you dropped into a glass of water and watched as they miraculously unfurled into bright flowers. Snow globes. A small cardboard box containing tin farm animals along with the farmer and his wife, carrying a basket of eggs under her arm. This was my landscape—private, magical, entirely to scale with my imaginings. Re-leasing the little musical animals from their many layers of lavishly taped bubble wrap reconnects me with that time in a deeply pleasurable way.
Cautionary note: Do not get your significant other involved in this pursuit. My husband and I once unknowingly bid against each other for a band of elephants. I won the band but lost face.
READ HELEN'S BLOG |
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