Tusks and Trunks, Wagner Style: Elephants

 In my last post, I mentioned that as it's election season it seemed to be a good time to write about Wagner donkeys and elephants. I wrote about the donkeys in that post, so as promised, here are the pachyderms.

The Wagner workshop didn't produce as endless a variety of elephants as they did donkeys, but the elephant took pride of place as one of the six animals featured in the basic wild-animal gift box (what I think of as the starter kit!). They must have produced elephants in huge numbers, because you can still find elephants frequently offered on eBay, Etsy, and the like.

The basic elephant in the standard size is this guy,
who comes in shades of gray from a very pale dove gray to a
very dark charcoal gray. This fellow is one of the darker ones. 
He has a plastic body covered with flocking, plastic tusks, and a fur-
tipped tail. I assume his ears are made of tabs of plastic--they 
don't feel like leather. He has painted-on toenails and a red felt tongue.

This elephant is lighter in color and sports all the same features
as the darker version above. Except, as you'll note, the tusks.
He DID have tusks originally. They are now inside his plastic
body. I can hear them rattling around in there. Poor fellow! 
This particular one is my own childhood toy and came in the
six-pack of animals mentioned above. I don't know why, when 
the glue deterioriated, his tusks fell into him instead of simply
off. Mystery abounds. Sadly, no tooth fairy rewards for him.

These petite pachyderms are early M.C. Original versions. 
They are slightly shorter and stubbier than the later Wagner
ones, with shorter trunks and smaller ears. Their eyes are
orange instead of black. They're also made of composition
instead of plastic and feel heavy for their size. (Unlike a 
real elephant, which is heavy at any size.)

Wagner also made jumbo-sized elephants. They're about 5 or 6
inches from trunk tip to tail and taller as well. Their faces have
more detail because the crafters simply had more room to work
with. They feel as if they are made of composition, not plastic. 
This example is solid gray all over, with some painted-on details
(trunk tip, mouth, toenails.). He's got the most recent Wagner 
label, so he's pretty young as these animals go.

There's no way of knowing when differences in a species are
due to a crafter's artistry, a change in design, or the need
to speed up the work, but this older elephant has more detail
than his younger sibling. His toenails are edged in black, and
muscles and ear details are sketched out, too. The trunk, 
interestingly, has much more of a bend to it.

Wagner also created mastodons (or mammoths, hard to tell!),
the extinct prehistoric cousins of elephants. Awfully cute.
Like the standard elephant, they appear to have a plastic body.

Alas, my inch-tall tiny Wagner elephant appears to have wandered off, so I'll have to add him later. Wagner also produced a donkey and an elephant, each standing on its hind legs and wearing a big grin--ads for these state that they were produced for conventions, but it's hard to know if they were, or if they were retrofitted for this purpose. At any rate, I don't have those, so can't provide photos, but I'm sure you can find them online somewhere.

However, other companies produced pint-sized pachyderms. Somewhere, I have an exact duplicate of the standard Wagner elephant, but covered in fur (apparently he's sneaked off with the mini elephant as he cannot be found either). In the meantime, how about a fur-covered Original Fur Toys elephant?

Then there's this little dude, who doesn't have a label, has tiny plastic tusks that look like grains of rice, and is toting a little log--he's very cute but resembles a puppy more than he does an elephant.

Finally, there's this absolutely manic, happy-go-lucky elephant with a pink label that simply says "Made in Western Germany," with floppy felt ears. He certainly makes the other ones appear pretty lowkey! 

Long-Ears, Wagner Style: Donkeys

It being election season, I thought it might be a nice time to write about Wagner donkeys and elephants. This one will be about the donkeys, with elephants to follow later in a separate post.

The German word for "donkey" is Esel and shares its roots with the word easel. Easel was borrowed from the Dutch ezel, "donkey," and traces back through time to older Germanic words such as asil and even older Latin asinus (and now you see why we live with all the asinine puns that we do when it comes to donkeys).

I remember being fascinated when I learned the connection between easel and donkeys (and recall sharing my glee with co-workers, who were also editors but completely uninterested in this observation, alas). I liked the link between the foursquare stance of a sturdy easel bearing its load and a plucky donkey likewise bracing itself under its burden.

At any rate, the artists tasked with creating donkeys at the Wagner Handwork craft shop appear to have had a bit of fun linking art with donkeys. I think the donkeys are among the most winsome animals in their menagerie. They also provide a chronicle of how collecting madness can enable one to buy yet another donkey because, look! This one is just a little different!

Let's start with the littlest guy (below) This fellow is about an inch tall. He's glued to a cardboard poinsettia, because he used to live in a whisper-thin glass ball and was a Christmas ornament. The glass ball shattered long ago, but I don't think Donkey cares. He's got the trademark Wagner smile and head tilt to the left, as well as vinyl and felt tack held in place with a silver pin.

Next up size-wise is the standard-size Wagner Kunstlerschutz donkey, shown below in his earliest form as an M.C. Original (he's older than the pint-sized donkey on the poinsettia). As is typical of the M.C.'s, he's skinny with very thin legs and wild orange eyes; instead of a cute smile, he's got red nostrils and a red grin. Kinda phoukah-like and very Roman-nosed. But he does sport handsome white tack and a red saddle.

Ah, now here's the classic Wagner we're all familiar with (below). Cute smile, check; black bead eyes, check; leftward head tilt, check. Still has super-thin M.C.-style legs and a fine build, but pretty darn cute. His label is now Kunstlerschutz instead of M.C. Original.

Sometime after that, the slender donkey was replaced by a fuzzier, stockier, and just as cute version (below). He's also lost the breastplate and has just a red felt saddle and vinyl girth.

Interestingly, donkeys also appeared that seem to be laughing, with the head tossed back and mouth open--and with even bigger ears (below). They often also had back stripes, just like real donkeys. This one lacks a saddle, but wears a bit made of silver pins and a vinyl bridle with reins.

And then, to further entice us crazed collectors, along comes old Long-Ears, but this time he's pulling a cart (below). The cuteness never stops. Because now you can put other Wagner animals in the cart....

And just to be on the safe side, better add that donkey who's a rocking "horse."

And just when you thought it was safe and you could start saving money instead of buying little flocked animals, ZAM. Along comes a larger version of the cute donkey (below, posed with standard donkey). She's twice as big and, well, not twice as cute, because they're all cute, but, you know, you've got to buy another donkey.

OK. That's IT. No more donkeys. But...but wait. Along comes another large donkey, this time wearing a blue saddle. OK, there's room in the stable for just one more. But that's IT...

...except, see, there's this large donkey who doesn't just have a saddle, he also has a bridle (below). Gotta add him to the gang. And then, really, truly, that's it. How many donkeys does a person need?

Well, when the donkey not only has a saddle and a bridle but STIRRUPS, too, clearly one more is needed.

That's that, then, right? It would be, except Wagner also made an even larger donkey, one who's braying joyfully. Clearly she must be ushered into the herd, no question about it.

And when you find her vintage ancestor for a song, with broken wooden legs and those wild M.C. orange eyes, and a label that only says "Germany," it would be pennywise and pound-foolish not to add that one, too. Amiright?

As far as I know, there are no other Wagner burros, donkeys, mules, jennies, jennets, jackasses, onagers, hinnies, or zeedonks clip-clopping around out there, but you never know.

Here are a few other representatives of Equus asinus that you might run into--not Wagners, but nice to add to a collection to represent the ancestors of the Wagner animals as well as possible contemporaries.

This little guy predates the M.C. Originals, I think. 
He's got matchstick-thin legs, leather ears, and his
silver tack-pins are tarnished.

This donkey doesn't have a label, either, but I'm
guessing he is one of the German "Original Fur
Toy" animals. He's made out of fur over a
composite body, with leather ears and
wooden legs. 

No label on this donkey, either; there are letters
on his girth that I can't quite make out. I don't 
know what his body is made out of--he could be 
all wood; certianly his legs are. His hide is gray 
felt that is carefully glued down to minimize
the seams. His ears are felt, and he has very
tiny beads for eyes. The saddle is leather, the 
saddle pad is felt, and I think his bridle and
reins are leather.

Another donkey without a label. Feels as if she's
made of plastic with flocking glued on, but she
retains old-world features such as a fur mane,
leather ears, and beads for eyes. 

Every now and then you'll run across this wild-eyed
creature billed as a Wagner. He's not, but he's kind
of weird and fun. My mom tucked this one into
my Christmas stocking when I was a kid. Plastic 
with glued-on flocking, plastic eyes, felt saddle.

This one isn't a flocked donkey at all, but she was
made by M.C. Originals, who made many kinds of
wind-up animals. The key sticks out from her
other side. She twirls her tail and bobs her head.

Wagner Animal Lookalikes

Sorry, it's been more than a year since my last post. When you spend your day on the computer for work, and you write using Word for your spare-time pursuits, it's kind of hard to get motivated to hop back online to write a blog, too...

OK, I'm done excuse-making. Now, I'm sure you've been tossing and turning at night wondering about Those Wagner Animal Lookalikes. Certainly on eBay, there are many sellers who think any flocked animal that exists was made by Wagner, but of course flocking is used for oodles of purposes on oodles of products. If you collect these little animals, you know at a glance which ones are Wagners and which aren't.

But there are some vintage flocked animals that bear more than a striking resemblance to the menagerie produced by the Wagner workshop. Some of these animals were made by a company called B. Shackman & Co.

I got to thinking about Shackman's on a visit to New York City a year and a half ago, when I spotted this sign on a building at 5th Avenue and East 16th Street:

Shackman's isn't there anymore--the site is currently occupied by an Anthropologie store--but was at this location from 1971 all the way until 1998. (I grew up in New York and worked there until 1989, so now I am kicking myself for never going to this shop back then.)

As you can see by the sign, Shackman's specialized in "Wholesale, Retail and Mail Order Sale of Toys, Dolls, Decorations, Bric-A-Brac and Novelties." The company got its start in 1898. (Poor Bertha Shackman, who started the company, died in 1925 at the age of 76 after being struck by a car in Manhattan.)

After Googling to take a look at Shackman products over the decades, it looks to me as if they produced lots of paper products (including paper dolls), metal toys (such as jumping frogs), games, dollhouse furnishings, and loads of other fun items.

At some point Shackman's began selling flocked animals made in Hong Kong. These animals strongly resemble the Wagner animals (which was designing animals in the late 1930s and started up as the Wagner workshop proper in 1948). Their "Wild Animals" set (labeled as "old-fashioned, miniature wild animals" that were "Hand-Flocked, Safe, Non-Toxic") were probably sold starting in the 1970s (if not a bit earlier), as the box includes a zip code for Shackman's of 10003, which correlates to the address of the sign pictured above.

The 6-animal set even includes the exact same animals as the Wagner set I received as a gift in the 1960s: a bear, an elephant, a giraffe, a zebra, a lion, and a camel. (The starter kit for this little-flocked-German-animal madness, if you will.) Plus, the box is bright green, like the Wagner box.

You'll immediately spot that they're not Wagner animals, though; they are hollow plastic, with thin flocking and furring; the slender-legged animals don't have the wood or rolled-paper legs of an actual Wagner; and they're pretty expressionless.  (I've seen some photos online, but due to copyright restrictions can't share. You can Google a bit yourself, though, and raise your eyebrows at the similarities.)

I do own one Shackman creature, which I found for only 50 cents at a Goodwill--namely, this little skunk:

He's actually quite unlike the Wagner skunk (below). They both have fur tails and two fur stripes applied to their backs, but the Shackman skunk is furry all over and has pipecleaner legs while the Wagner skunk has the typical composition body and rolled-paper legs. The Shackman skunk also boasts a white tip to his tail.

I am curious to know if perhaps Shackman had a deal with the Wagner company to make animals modeled on the German originals in Hong Kong.

I recall from my childhood that the Britains company of England made beautifully detailed plastic animals, which also appeared in less expensive, less detailed editions that were not labeled "Britains," so perhaps Wagner and Shackman had such a deal. The famous Steha horses of Germany were similarly molded using the same mold as the big Wagner horses, so it would seem likely that molds got swapped around.

At any rate, Shackman obviously knew that copyright was important, which makes me think they must've had a deal--check out the no-nonsense label on my Shackman skunk's tummy:

The skunk is now happy and well in my display cabinet, much happier than he was in a plastic bag at Goodwill. As for Shackman, the heirs of the Shackman family sold the company to employees in 1985, and the company relocated to Michigan. They appear to have still been in business as recently as 2018, but a visit to their website now leads to a defunct page.