New to our Christmas display this year but not new to our collection is this Bliss Adirondack Cottage circa 1905.  When we bought it from a small local antique shop almost three years ago, we weren’t sure how to display it, but we said even then that it would make a great Santa Claus workshop.  That vision was finally realized this year.

Here you see the front of the cottage with German bisque elves playing on the upper and lower porches while a nice old composition German Santa sits on his wooden sled.

Here you see the back of the cottage just filled with toys and decorated Christmas trees and another playful elf.

This doll house came with a paper from an auction when it was purchased by someone else in 2005.  It was described thus:  Bliss Adirondack Cottage – an unusual doll house with lithographed paper exterior, stained wood roof and base, 4-room interior with period wallpaper, 17.5 inches tall.”

We have loved Bliss doll houses from the moment we first saw them early in our collecting years, and we have been fortunate enough to acquire about four of them at affordable prices.  Bliss doll houses are characterized by their wood construction and beautiful chromolithographed paper coverings.  The peak of production was at the turn of the century, and the most elaborate houses are beautiful miniature renderings of highly Victorian-style houses in all their gingerbread glory.  This “cottage” is unusual and, we believe, rare because it is quite simple in style and decoration.  The very realistic-looking logs are, indeed, just printed paper.

Rufus Bliss went into business as a carpenter in Pawtucket, Rhode Island back in 1823.  He was highly skilled and inventive in his carpentry techniques, becoming best known for his lathe-turned wooden screws and clamps.  He took on a partner, A.N. Bullock, in 1845 and the name of the company became R. Bliss and Company.  In 1867, several years before the company first advertised the making of toys, Mr. Bliss withdrew from the business.  In 1873, Mr. Bullock died.  However, the company continued on with Mrs. Bullock retaining an interest, and a stock company involving Bullock family members among others was formed in 1874.  The company continued to make practical things like wooden screws, clamps, and tool handles, but they expanded further into croquet sets, tennis racquets, and paper-lithographed toys.  Today, their doll houses, wooden boats, and pull-toys are among the most prized and expensive of American antique toys.  A Massachusetts company bought out the toy-making end of the business in 1914 and kept the name, but it ceased production in 1935.

The post Season’s Greetings from Santa’s Workshop – Our Bliss Adirondack Cottage appeared first on The Collector Gene.

“Antique” is a word that is frequently abused, especially in the past twenty or thirty years. It is often paired with the word “collectibles” and its true meaning frequently overlooked. For something to be truly “antique”, it is supposed to be at least one hundred years old. I would venture to guess that in many antique shops today less than five percent of the merchandise comes anywhere close to that – and that’s being generous.

Finding a true antique, especially something that is rare, unique and – best of all – affordable is, therefore, always a thrill. A case in point is the subject of this article – our miniature slant top desk. Measuring just twelve inches wide by twelve inches tall and about six and one half inches deep, this little guy was entirely hand made by someone with a copious amount of patience and skill. The hours spent making it would have been considerable.

Carol and I found our little treasure in a Pennsylvania antique shop about two and a half years ago. The shop was housed in an old mill filled with very little else but genuine good quality antique furniture. I found the little desk upstairs lying on top of a table. It was in overall good condition but was missing a couple of feet and one of the brass drawer knobs. The dealer, who obviously knew a thing or two about furniture, estimated the little desk to be circa 1860 to 1880. No argument there; I thought about 1870. Carol quickly informed me that this was going to be my birthday present in a couple of months, so it soon disappeared from sight. A great present to be sure but not exactly a surprise.

Amy was able to make two new feet for it using wood from an old picture frame, and it was finished by the time my birthday rolled around. After searching for about a year and a half, I eventually found a replacement brass knob at a flea market. Now our little desk is complete once again.

So why exactly was it made? There is no way of knowing for sure. Most miniature pieces of nineteenth century furniture are assumed to be either salesman’s samples or apprentice pieces made by someone learning the furniture trade. It is certainly possible that it is one or both of those. If it is indeed from that 1860 to 1880 period, I suspect it was displayed in a cabinet maker’s shop in a large city such as New York or Philadelphia and used to show all the latest features available to the prospective customer. All the drawers and doors work and there is some indication of the maker on the bottom of the lower drawers – unfortunately not enough to determine exactly who it is.

Our little desk created quite a sensation when we showed it to some fellow antique collectors recently. It’s not the sort of thing you see very often or ever have the chance to purchase. We’re just glad we were in the right place at the right time.

Shortly after this piece was made, factory-produced furniture at affordable prices would become available to the average American, and local furniture makers would die out. I think this little piece represents the end of their era.

Whatever its origins, it embodies the skill and craftsmanship of a bygone time, and it’s awfully cute, too!

The post Miniature Slant Front Desk – Salesman Sample or Something Else? appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Among my favorites is this green 1954 Buick Skylark. I had a blue one when I was a kid.

In 2012, I wrote about the rediscovery of my Miller-Ironson lumber truck, a prized possession of my childhood that I found in my mother’s attic and now proudly resides in our home.

That journey back to my youth also led me reflect upon some of the other little vehicles of my youthful motorhead past.  Among them were Dinky Toys, Matchbox cars, and big fix-it type cars made by Ideal.  But the toy cars that I liked the best as a kid were the realistic little plastic gems usually done in 1/25 scale known today as “promo” cars.  “Promo” or “Promotional” cars got their name from  car dealers giving them away as an incentive to get traffic through the  doors to hopefully “promote” sales for the big cars they represented.

1958 Edsel with dealer handout

Back when I was a kid in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, we didn’t call them promo cars and we didn’t get them at dealerships.  We called them scale model cars and they were available in toy stores and hobby shops for $1.50 to $2.00 each.  The difference between the toy store versions and the dealer versions were that the toy store ones had friction motors to help them scoot across the floor and the dealer versions did not.  Manufactured by companies such as A.M.T. , JoHann, PMC and even Hubley, these miniature cars were made with the permission of the auto makers themselves who also rendered the assistance necessary to produce these model cars in exact detail.  Unfortunately, once in the hands of a child, these somewhat fragile objects that straddled being both a toy and a model often didn’t survive too long.  To make matters worse, the plastic bodies on these little cars had a tendency to warp over time, especially in the late 1950’s.  Non-warping bodies finally came out in 1962, but that doesn’t help anyone looking for a ’57 Chevy without a drooping back end or a ’57 Ford that isn’t just messed up all over the place.

1958 Lincoln Continental showing typical warping even though it shows little or no play wear.

A close up of the warping.

Nevertheless, nice, clean and hopefully minimally warped examples are very popular with collectors today. Rare examples can cost in the hundreds and, in a few cases, thousands of dollars.  Most examples in good condition today, however, can usually be found in the $50 to $100 range.  As always, original boxes add value and are a good indication that the car had little or no play to affect its condition.

1951 Chevys in different body styles by PMC. Chevy promos were produced in just about every body style from 1951 through 1954.

My favorite era for these cars is the 1950’s, which also happens to be my favorite era of big cars as well.  I am fortunate in that I still have a few of the ones I received as a kid, my favorite being my yellow and white Metropolitan made in 1960 by Hubley.  I received it in June of that year as a present from my father for getting promoted from third to fourth grade.

My favorite promo car is this Metropolitan which I received new in 1960.

I remember going to my favorite toy store, which was Glenn Toys, located on the boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey.  Among the Steiff animals, Tonka trucks, toy boats and all sorts of other great stuff, there was always a good assortment of scale model cars.  You would enter the store and hang an immediate left and keep going to the wall.   There they were, all lined up bright and new like a miniature show room.  In this little car showroom, however, all the cars from a Ford Falcon to a Cadillac Fleetwood cost the same – two bucks!

1960 Ford F-100 Pickup, another survivor from my childhood!

Plastic-bodied scale model cars were first produced in 1949 and are still being made today.  Among the earliest examples are a 1949 Ford and Plymouth both made by AMT.  A very rare 1949 Oldsmobile was produced by a company called Cruver.  Before plastic, some metal promos were made by such companies as Master Caster and Banthrico, and continued into the 1950’s overlapping production of the plastic bodied models as well.

1949 Ford and Plymouth manufactured by AMT. Each has a wind-up motor.

Metal bodied 1/20th scale Nash from 1949 or 1950 along with dealer award plaque.

Most of the manufacturers eventually started producing model kits, AMT being the first in 1958, using the same body and interior and chrome molds as with the promos.  These kits became very popular with boys of my generation and could be “customized” by adding all kinds of accessories such as fender skirts, spotlights and flame decals. Unfortunately, if a kid put them together, they usually suffered from globby paint, glue marks  and sloppy construction!

1952 and 1954 Pontiac dealer promos. No friction motors!

New models came out each model year and the previous year’s models were discontinued as with real cars.  It’s usually pretty easy, therefore, to date a promo car.  There are, however, some reissues in later years to add some confusion, but originals are usually easy to spot over their later counterparts.  The reissues often have plastic screws holding the body to the chassis and the bodies do not warp.

1965 Pontiac GTO dealer promo with original box.

The nice thing about these little cars is that they don’t depreciate and you seldom get a lemon.  You don’t even have to change the oil!

1954 Nash with original box (dealer promo)

1957 Plymouth Taxi by Jo-Hann. Whoever heard of a two door taxi?

The post Promo Cars – Little Cars Used to Sell Big Cars appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Yes, that toy is constructed of a tiny baby doll shoved inside a larger doll leg. This little beauty was made by legitimate toy company Uneeda toys. Uneeda made dolls from 1917- 1991. They also made Wishniks, which were knock off Troll dolls, but were still very popular and are sought after today.

I wish I could have been a fly on the wall in the pitch meeting where someone pitched the idea for the Toe-Kin, which sounds like a clever name until you think about the fact that this doll is in a foot, or even more a lower leg, not a toe. Uneeda toys tried to disguise the fact that this toy is clearly made out of a left over baby doll leg by putting a pretty yellow ribbon around the mushroom plug at the top of it, but they aren’t fooling anyone. For those of you who might not be as familiar with toy construction techniques, mushroom plugs are often placed where two movable joints connect on a toy. If you have ever pulled the head off of one of your Barbie dolls or action figures, you will most likely find a mushroom plug where the neck connects to the body. It looks kind of like a mushroom most of the time, hence the name. In the case of this doll leg, it probably would have been sewn onto a soft doll torso and the indentation from the mushroom plug would be where they stitched it into place. Now, if you thought that the cute little doll sitting inside of the foot, which is about the size of a Kiddle doll, was removable you would be WRONG. That little lady is permanently fixed to that doll foot for better or worse.

There are so many questions I have about this ridiculous toy. Is the concept of this thing supposed to represent a little girl with a hideous deformity where instead of having a normal lower torso she just has one giant leg? Is she piloting a giant leg as her own mode of completely awesome transportation? Is she just chillin’ inside a giant leg just because she can? The poor execution and lack of a back story make it impossible for us to truly know. Do Toe-kins come in both right and left feet? Are there more Toe-kins in the series? Probably, but I haven’t found any more to prove whether or not that is true yet.

I know it might seem like I am hating on Toe-kins, but I can honestly tell you that I was truly excited when my brother found this for me at a toy show. Yes, Uneeda toys deserves to be scolded for trying to market such a lame concept to children. And I pity the poor kid whose grandma or weird aunt gave them one of these things for their birthday. At the same time, this toy is hilariously bad, and any object that can make me laugh or put a smile on my face is worth owning in my book. That is why I am sharing the Toe-kin with you, internet community. I hope it makes you laugh and puts a smile on your face, too. If so, the Toe-kin is doing its job.

The post One of the Worst Toys I Have Ever Seen: Toe-kins appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Earlier this year, we posted pictures of this fantastic miniature house that Jim found at a local flea market.  Here it is all dressed up in its Christmas finery.  We considered it a fabulous find when Jim first brought it home, and as 2012 winds down, we’ve decided that it’s our favorite find of the year.

The post Happy Holidays from Collectorgene! appeared first on The Collector Gene.

One of the most popular Krampus collectibles is Krampus postcards.  Krampus became a very popular subject for holiday postcards in the mid-19^th century as postcards became a huge craze in Europe.  Even though Krampus’ job was mostly to punish and scare children, many postcards of Krampus exist that show him reacting more to the sins of adults.  The only card I have obtained (because Krampus postcards can get mighty expensive) is this one from about the 1960’s.  It is a great card with a sort of child Krampus sitting on a pretty girl’s lap.  Clearly, this Krampus is being seen as a more humorous figure than a scary one, and this card was made for adults to send to one another.  Another thing to note about Krampus is that, because he is an Austrian figure, almost everything you find with Krampus on it is in Austrian or German.  “Grub vom Krampus”  translates to “Greetings from Krampus”, and is found on almost every Krampus postcard you find.

This next Krampus piece I have is a paper cutout of the Christmas devil himself.  He is seen here with red skin, but the switches in his hand, the shackles, and the tongue let you know that this is Krampus, not an ordinary devil.  Paper cutouts were used for a variety of purposes in decorating, and there are several designs out there that are being reproduced today.  This piece is one of the more common Krampus pieces that I see, so it is a little bit more affordable for a new Krampus collector.  I found mine in a local shop, but they show up on eBay fairly regularly.

Little fuzzy animals made in Austria similar to this fellow were very popular in the 1960’s, so it isn’t too surprising that they produced a Krampus.  Again, this is a red Krampus, but you still know it is him because he has a little orange tongue sticking out, and switches in his right hand.  This might be the cutest Krampus ever made.  There is nothing imposing about this little guy at all.  He stands about 4 inches tall, which is fairly large for the little creatures made by the ARA company.  Clearly Krampus took on more of a comical role in the 20^th century, which is why some of these cuter and less ominous Krampus items can exist.

My mom found a few of these Krampus ornaments at a flea market.  The dealer she got them from said he bought them in the Czech Republic.  They are really cool, but pose a bit of a mystery.  This ornament is made in the Dresden style, but looks awfully clean and new for a vintage ornament.  I have always heard talk about people finding warehouses with vintage holiday stock and toys in them in Germany and Eastern Europe, but there are also a lot of reproduction holiday pieces that look a lot like the original pieces floating around on the market.  This can make you wonder if the “warehouse” stories are true, or if they are made to fool people into spending more money on reproductions.  Could this Krampus be a great, vintage piece?  Maybe.  Could he be a new piece done to look old?  Maybe.  The bottom line is, he is really cool looking, and I haven’t seen any others on the market to compare him to.   It is probably best to error on the side of caution and say that there is a good chance that he isn’t too old, but he looks great and we love putting him on the tree.  And if he is old warehouse stock, that is a bonus.   There is a whole discussion that could be created right now on vintage a reproduction Christmas decorations coming out of Europe right now, but right now I want to divert into a conversation about some of Santa’s other ominous sidekicks from Europe.

Before learning about Krampus I was in introduced to Knecht Ruprecht, a similar character from Germany, by one of my high school friend’s mom who happened to be a German teacher.  Knecht Ruprecht is a very similar character to Krampus in that he punishes bad children, but he has a beard and looks more like a creepy and mean Santa.  Another similar character is Belsnickle, who is also associated with Germany and the Pennsylvania Dutch.  I think this ornament most likely represents one of those two fellows. He is just another one of St. Nick’s friends doing all of the dirty work, while Santa rewards the good kids.  There are many other mean Christmas characters besides Krampus, but I think Krampus fascinates the public so much because he is so scary and disturbing.  I mean, I wouldn’t want a scary old man hitting me with switches, but I would take that over a devil licking my face and hitting me with switches.  This nice early Knecht Ruprecht/ Belsnickel ornament is a perfect segue into our favorite Krampus piece, a fairly early unassuming box with a fantastic surprise.

This little paper lithographed box holds a secret, and since you already know that we are talking about Krampus, I am sure you figured out that there is a Krampus in that box…

I am a little bit embarrassed to say that we did not know that this piece was most likely a Krampus when we bought it.  The dealer selling it made no mention of Krampus on his price tag, and we just took it for a really neat gag gift with a devil.  After several years of owning this piece, we learned about Krampus and started putting two and two together.  This devil head has black skin and a pronounced tongue, his box has Christmas colors on it, the sentiment of “Think of me” could mean that children should be thinking about Krampus to help remind them to behave at the holidays.  It really makes sense for this piece to represent Krampus.  The one thing that throws me off more than anything is that the box is in English.  Krampus didn’t infiltrate the pop culture of Americans much at all until probably within the last decade.  In Europe his reign of terror was seen only really in Austria, some of Germany, and a little bit of Eastern Europe, but not English speaking countries.  This piece isn’t marked, but is probably German, and the Germans imported a lot of decorations and toys to America.  I propose that this toy might have been produced as a Krampus piece in Europe, but that they sent it to America to represent more of a novelty.  It does work as such.  You don’t have to know who Krampus is to see the humor in handing a person a box with a sentimental message on it, and then laughing at their shock when a devil pops out.  Anyway, that is my thought on the matter.  It is a great Krampus piece, and by far the favorite in our collection.

I am all about festive cheer at the holidays, but I can’t help but be fascinated by Krampus.  Clearly I am, because I made a Krampus knee hugger this year…

…which is sold out on Etsy.com at the moment, but more will be available soon.  There is always something interesting about learning about strange traditions and characters, and that is why Krampus has become a part of our holiday decor.  He is just a scary little reminder to be extra nice at the holidays.

The post When Your Holidays Need a Little Less Cheer and a Little More Fear, Bring in the Krampus. appeared first on The Collector Gene.

A crossover collectible is one item that appeals to multiple groups of collectors. Let’s take a rather general example from my world of geekdom: Star Wars. There are people who collect nothing but Star Wars items. However, there are so many Star Wars items that have been produced since 1977 that if you collect just about anything, chances are that there’s a version of it featuring Darth Vader’s likeness…or one of the thousands of other major, minor, and off-screen characters that populate a galaxy far, far away. Do you collect nutcrackers? There’s a Darth Vader version. Do you collect vintage cake pans? They made a whole Star Wars series. How about Christmas ornaments? Hallmark has produced dozens since 1995. What about something oddly specific like vintage scotch tape dispensers? Sigma made a very strange one featuring C-3PO in the 1980s.

http://www.whatthefett.com/?p=203

Now, what happens when you have a crossover collectible is that you end up having two different groups of collectors fighting to add the same item to their collection. This usually means that a.) there are less to go around because more people than just one specific collector group wants to own them, which ends up leading to the fact that b.) they tend to be more valuable as a result.

With that discussion out of the way, I present to you a crossover collectible that I didn’t even know existed until earlier this year. This is something that not only action figure and 1980s toy collectors would love to own, but anyone who collects video game-related merchandise would love to own these as well.

For the last couple of years, I’ve been collecting a toy line called Spinjas. Ah, the 1980s, when ninjas were so commonplace in our pop culture landscape that you could even find them on a series of spinning tops. Spinjas were made by Tomy and distributed in the United States by Parker Brothers, the board game company responsible for Monopoly among several other classic games. The core concept was that you would take your little Spinja, stick it into a launcher, and your friend/enemy would do the same. You would ideally launch at the same time on some kind of flat surface, and whichever Spinja was left standing was declared the winner…like every other spinning top game ever made in the history of humanity.

What separated Spinjas though was an attempt at making them more like action figures. You had the Eliminators, the good guys with silver/steel tips, and they were pitted against the Dread Force, the bad guys with gold/brass tips. The Eliminators were populated with knights, a pilot, and sports playing robots, while some of the members of the Dread Force resembled reptiles or insects. There was no corresponding TV show or comic book, unless you count the two-page advertisement created to attempt to explain the world of Spinjas. Someone on Wikipedia has claimed that some of these Spinjas serve as spies, although without any sort of reference to anything, I’m not sure I believe it, as it could be some sort of weird Spinjas fan fiction I don’t know about (and given the obsessive nature of toy geeks – myself included – I wouldn’t rule out that possibility). However, I don’t own any packaged examples that may have detailed the intricate relationships between tiny spinning ninjas, so anything is possible.

What has always fascinated me is that these toys obviously have their roots in Japan, and yet no one seems to know what they were called in Japan or if more than the 24 that were released in the United States exist. In Europe, they were released as Tomy Battlers, and aside from packaging, the only difference is that the launchers indicated that they are Tomy Battlers instead of Spinjas. They are still the same toys otherwise.

However, I always wondered if more could have existed. After all, small toys like this were often created in large quantities. If you look at toy lines featuring small figures from around the same time (M.U.S.C.L.E., Battle Beasts, Monster in my Pocket), those series featured dozens or even hundreds of different figures to collect. I had heard rumblings of a series of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)-inspired Spinjas that were released in Australia within the last five years or so, although no pictures seem to exist anywhere. However, I recently stumbled upon a much older crossover property involving Spinjas that I was much more excited to find.

Nowhere on the package of the Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic Duel does it say the word “Spinjas,” yet there is no denying that this is a natural extension of the 1980s toy line. Released in the early 1990s in Europe, this set features just two figures: Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Robotnik. Just like Spinjas, Tomy is the company responsible here, which makes perfect sense. Tomy made a whole series of toys for Sonic the Hedgehog when the Sega mascot first achieved worldwide popularity. It was also commonplace in the 1980s and 1990s to reuse molds as much as possible to create entirely “new” toys as a way to keep getting merchandise on the shelves (a practice that still exists today in the toy world).

As you can see, this isn’t something that is meant to sort of resemble the Spinjas line. These are essentially Sonic the Hedgehog Spinjas, with the only differences being the sculpts of the “figures” on the tops, the colors, and the stickers on the two launchers. I know it’s not fair to call this set an official part of the Spinjas line, but I think it’s safe to say that if you’re trying to collect anything and everything related to Spinjas, you’d have to include this in your collection.

It’s bad enough that finding Spinjas at all proves very difficult for most collectors, but finding this set proved especially challenging. First of all, since the title Spinjas does not appear on the package at all, anyone looking for Spinjas on eBay or through Google isn’t necessarily going to find this set. Likewise, many video game collectors tend to focus solely on video game related merchandise, and if they do collect action figures, they tend to only focus on ones related to video games. Hence, hard core video game memorabilia nuts might not be in touch with action figure collectors who would love to have a set like this. Finally, this does not appear to be a toy that was released in the United States at all, despite Sonic the Hedgehog’s global popularity. This was a missed opportunity, because in the U.S., we really didn’t get much of any kind of Sonic merchandise in the character’s hey day in the early 1990s.

I hesitate to say that my Spinjas collection is truly “complete,” because if I wasn’t expecting to find something like this, what other items could possibly exist? However, I’d say with this recent addition to my collection, my Spinjas collection is more complete than I think anyone thought it could be.

The post Sonic the Hedgehog Spinjas appeared first on The Collector Gene.

The Weakling from The Little Horribles

For my first blog on Collectorgene.com, I wanted to share an observation that I made several years ago when I discovered the amazing pottery of Hagen Renaker.  I guess this story starts on a family trip to Vermont, where I found a small figurine of Lady from Disney’s “Lady and the Tramp” in an antique shop.

Disney’s Lady from “Lady and the Tramp” by Hagen Renaker

I was fascinated by this miniature figure.  It only stands a little over an inch, and the amazing quality in which it was crafted had me immediately researching its origin.  It didn’t take me long to find out that it was made by Hagen Renaker.  Hagen Renaker is best known for making animal miniatures.  These figurines were popular staples in gift shops, but as Japanese potteries started to create cheaper figurines in the 1950’s, Hagen Renaker decided to branch out.  One way they branched out was to get the Disney license and create Disney miniatures.  They also branched out into the Little Horribles, among other fascinating pottery lines.

I am sure in the future on this site I will be mentioning Hagen Renaker fairly often because I think that they made some of the most amazing pottery of the 1950’s and 1960’s.  I am not alone in that sentiment either; Hagen Renaker pottery is very collectible and sought after.  After finding my first Disney Hagen Renaker piece and identifying it, I went on the hunt to find out more about the line.  Lucky for me, and for you, there is an amazing website out there to tell you just about everything you need to know about Hagen Renaker.  The Hagen Renaker Online Museum, http://hagenrenakermuseum.com/, is an amazing resource for Hagen Renaker, and they can tell you more about Hagen Renaker than I will ever be able to.  It was through their site that I learned not only about Hagen Renaker’s Disney figures, but my favorite Hagen Renaker line, The Little Horribles.

These are some examples of Little Horribles from my collection.

The Little Horribles are an amazing line of grotesque figures made in 1958 and 1959.  Designed by Nell Bortells,  they are humorous and colorful and extremely rare.  The second I saw them I fell in love, and I have since accumulated a nice little collection.  Today I want to focus on one figure in particular, though, a figure that was immediately familiar to me because I had seen it once before in a painting.  That figure is known as The Weakling, and the painting is Salvador Dali’s Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War).

Salvador Dali’s painting, Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War), is a painting that was first made familiar to me in art history class, but I have since visited it on multiple occasions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) was painted in 1936.  Though painted before the start of the Spanish Civil War, Dali claimed that he was a prophet and dreamed about the Spanish Civil War before it began.   Most likely he renamed the piece after the war started, but it is understandable how the somewhat disturbing imagery in the painting could make one think about the effects of war;  it is an image that etches itself into your brain, and when you see it, you never forget it.  Needless to say, when I first saw a picture of Hagen Renaker’s “The Weakling”, I felt like I was seeing a familiar face.  Looking at the two pieces next to each other, there are clear differences, but the similarities are undeniable.

In Dali’s painting the right hand is clenching a breast, where similarly The weakling is grasping more of a shoulder.

Dali gave his figure two right hands, where The Weakling has a right and left.  Both the painting and figurine have similar hand placement though.

The weakling is lacking feet all together, where Dali’s painting has both present.  However, they both share the same composition of the left leg supporting itself on a lower torso… or butt.

Though the faces look very different they still share some compositional elements.  Both have pronounced up-turned noses, long dark hair, and a similar grin.

There are too many similarities to ignore between these two figures.

It is hard for me to believe that two people unaware of each other could both come up with this same bizarre and grotesque figure 22 years apart.  I am sure that Nell Bortells was familiar with Dali’s painting.  Obviously, when Bortells designed her figure, she made it a little more PG, and, dare I say, a little bit cuter.  She also made several changes to the design, which may have been done to avoid copyright infringement.  Why she chose to create a figure based on a Salvador Dali painting, I cannot say, but I doubt it was done maliciously or deceitfully.

Nell Bortells was clearly a gifted designer.  There is no denying it when you look at some of her other creations, and I think that she probably found a lot of influence in Modern art for her Little Horribles, Surrealism and Cubism especially.  I cannot know for sure why she would create a figure directly based on a Salvador Dali painting, but I think it was most likely an homage to Dali.   Bortells may have been a fan of Dali and thought his style would fit in beautifully with her Little Horribles.  I can’t be completely sure; I can only speculate.

No matter why “The Weakling” exists, as a fan of both The Little Horribles and Salvador Dali, I must say I am thrilled that it does.  It is a bit of an anomaly in the collectible figurine market.  Vintage figural representations of famous paintings don’t often exist in mass market forms like this.  It is kind of a special, albeit grotesque and totally weird, figure that I believe deserves some attention for what it represents.  If you are lucky enough to own a Little Horribles “The Weakling” like I am, I hope you will now look at it on your shelf or wherever you display it and see the two brilliant artists who created it for you, Nell Bortells and Salvador Dali.

The post The Little Horribles Meet Dali appeared first on The Collector Gene.