Yesterday Nick from
Mid-Century Midwest posted a photo of one of his latest finds...a fantastic wooden monkey...and asked if his readers thought it might be a Zoo Line piece. In my comment, I admitted that I love wooden animal figures but know very little about them.
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Nick's monkey, which inspired me to search for information
midcenturymidwest.blogspot.com |
For those of you who read this blog regularly, you know that
not knowing drives me crazy! I'm just a tad addicted to research, so off I went to Google to learn more. I was immediately drawn to an August 15, 2012 blog post by Robin at
Red Line Vintage about her addiction to Zoo Line animals. From her post, I learned that the highly collectible carved wood animals with rubber band-strung movable joints were made in the late 1950s and sold as souvenirs at zoos across the country.
Imagine my surprise as I read further and found that she had linked back to my post about
Kay Bojesen, who she said was rumored to be the mastermind behind the Zoo Line animals. Then I found another one of her
posts...in which she not only shared some Zoo Line catalogs which disprove the Bojesen rumors but also talked about being featured by Beatriz of
Mid Mod Mom (another blog I follow) as part of her ongoing series about the things that vintage sellers keep for themselves. What a wonderful interconnected world we've become!
The upshot of all this is that one of Robin's photos showed two monkeys that look for all the world like Nick's, so if I had to guess, I'd say he scored a Zoo Line piece. What do you think?
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Just a few of Robin and husband Blake's Zoo Line animals
redlinevintage.com |
I hope you have time to check out the
Red Line Vintage site. They have so many beautiful items for sale, and they're so cleverly categorized under their "Shop by Collection" tab that I guarantee it will be worth a visit.
If you aren't a follower of
Mid-Century Midwest or
Mid Mod Mom, I urge you to check them out too. They're consistently well-written, informative and beautiful blogs about great vintage finds.
