Antique Wooden Handpainted Rocking Clown Acrobatic Flip Toy, East Russian

Details

Description

This is a lovely antique handmade and handpainted toy. It features an acrobatic clown manually set upon two parallel wooden … Read more This is a lovely antique handmade and handpainted toy. It features an acrobatic clown manually set upon two parallel wooden acrobat bars. The clown is tipped by hand in order to rock or swing to a full 360 degrees vertically upon the upper bars. It is delightful to watch it spin. I appreciate the thickness of this antique acrobat, as compared to later string or lever models, which may have been constructed of a less lustrous, flat wood.

The piece is likely constricted of a thin, beech-type light wood. It would have been constructed in a wood-making factory. As with most early wooden toys, the origins of the Acrobat Toy and other animated toys are not fully known. There is some evidence that it may have been produced first in the Far East centuries ago. Many variations of this toy have survived from farm animals to human figures. By the early 19th Century, all across Europe and the United States, the most popular of these animated toys was the Acrobat.

Dimensions:
Height:
5 in. (bar height)
7 in. (bar plus acrobat height)

Width:
2 in. (top parallel bars width)
2.4 in. (bottom parallel bars width)

Length:
7 in. (bar length)
6 in. (acrobat length)
11 in. (bar length plus acrobat length, when acrobat is placed on the edge of the bar)

(For shipping purposes, each piece would be packed separately within one box, doubling the width and depth).

The bottom is stamped “Made in Germany (East).” See less