Shutterfly Wagner Kunstlerschutz Photo Site Started

Hello! In response to numerous requests, I've started an online sharing site for people to post pictures of Wagner and other vintage flocked animals. It looks like I have to send emails to people inviting them to sign up (for free)  and then they can post pictures, if I'm understanding the directions correctly. So I'll endeavor to do that in the next little while. I think if you comment here, I can obtain your email address when I click on your name. 

The photo site is http://wagnerhandworkanimals.shutterfly.com/.

And March Goes Out Like a (Wagner) Lamb

OK, technically it's now April, but this is the follow-up post to my one about Wagner lions and March roaring in like a lion!

Which truly has happened in my neck of the woods...the last weekend in March has been full of fluffy, woolly clouds in a brilliant blue sky and sheep-like flocks of blossoming cherry trees.

The Wagner company was certainly fond of sheep.

That's good news for people who like to set up Christmas village putz displays, Nativity scenes, and Easter scenes.

And though sheep are THE image for depicting mass, anonymous, unthinking obeisance, the Wagner crafters always  managed to imbue each sheep with its own little personality because of each piece being hand-painted and hand-crafted.

The standard sheep is the typical Wagner animal that's just shy of 3 inches tall or so. Most of the sheep have a vinyl collar held in place with a silver pin. The collar is typically green or red.

Newer ones often lacked the collar, but seemed to have somewhat chunkier bodies.

The typical sheep are colored either white or beige. Old sheep are often rather grubby, either from  handling or from dust or both.

Black sheep are rare. They don't show the dirt, but they have their own problems. Baa, baa, black sheep! Have you any lint?

Wagner also made sheep in other positions, such as the head-down variety...

and the lying-down variety (shown here in two sizes).

Wagner also made little lambs. These didn't have glasslike bead eyes but just painted-on ones. Personally, I don't like the look this gives them...just don't seem as personable to me.

Wagner didn't want the ewes to be lonely, so the crafters also made rams.

Here are two rams, one with bead eyes and one without. Don't know why,  how often, or when they  made the switch.

The ram also came in a super-sized form. Kind of cool but not my favorite piece...I guess the fabric wrapped around the body, instead of flocking, makes him kind of generic, plus he's got such ostentatiously plastic horns.

Probably all that plastic made him an easy one to copy; here's a vintage piece, a knockoff with its own kooky charm.

"Boo! Boo! Creepy sheep! Have you any ghoul?"