W60xL160xH100mm, China
Every child seem to have a horsy toy at some stage, whether they are big or small, rocking or ride able. This is the Chinese version made with clay and like most of the clay toy it is also a whistle making a horse like sound. I like this particularly over the other clay toys as it looks half sleepy and totally silly.
H500xW150mm, China
This puppet is called a Chaozhou wire puppet, the body of the puppet is supported by a main wire attached to the back of waistline of the puppet while the 2 arms are controlled by 2 wires attached to the waists, hence wire puppet, all the 3 wires are controlled by the puppeteer at the back stage.
There are over 2000 repertoires for the chaozhou wire puppet, these are roughly divided into 3 main themes; adaptation from the southern Chinese opera, local legends and historical stories. This puppet has the warrior helmet featured in the blog a couple of days ago, a female warrior figure.
W40xL80xH80mm, China
This little clay peacock toy has come to join in the birdy collection.
W100xD50xH130mm, China
This is no Easter bunny but the famous Lord Rabbit. It is a toy for the Mid Autumn (full moon) festival in the Beijing area. The Lord Rabbit figurine first appeared in the late Ming dynasty, it was mainly used for worshipping by the younger generations. It is believed that Chang E, the moon goddess, has a pet rabbit who is whiter than white jade as he was named as the Jade Rabbit. The Jade Rabbit was specialised in preparing the medicine (you might have seen images of him stirring the medicinal pot on the moon). Jade Rabbit worshipping has then been taken into moon worship and since rabbit has been kept as a household pet, out of respect for the Jade Rabbit god he was worshipped as the Lord Rabbit. By Qing dynasty Lord Rabbit has turned into a toy for the Mid Autumn festival. The folk story goes; once Beijing was infected by plague, almost all the household got sick, the moon goddess was sadden by the news and sent the Jade Rabbit to help cure the capital. At each household he healed he would turned down any gifts but instead borrow a new set of clothing. With the new clothing he would assume a different image for the next household, sometimes a female, sometimes a general etc. He would also take on different animals for transportation; a deer, a tiger, a horse etc., hence there are many different versions of his figurines.
W80xD60xH130mm, China
This is a toy from the famous Nie estate village, it is believed in the Ming dynasty a man named Nie arrived from He Bei on the run from a business failure. On his desperation he arrived with his wife to a village in Shan Dong, even exhausted and penniless his mind was still reminiscent on the days of high life. He grabbed a handful of clay and formed it in a clay tin, he then filled it with a bit fireworks and left the top open with a small hole. Upon ignition, there comes an amazing fireworks display, it instantly became a hit and he name it Guo Zi Hua (fireworks in a pot). It soon turned into a speciality of the village, the clay figure became more decorative and take on figurines of humans and different animals, so after the display of the fireworks, one get to keep a clay toy as well. As time goes by the fireworks were taken out and the focus started on the clay figurine toy itself.
This is a pair of clay lions which about from being a toy also can function as bookends.
W100xH120mm, China
Apology for not blogging for the last few days. The blog is back on again!
Knife-Horse-Man is the name for artifice whose subject is based on war based stories or opera. K-H-M can be found in paintings, illustration of ceramics down to folk toys like these. Some of the clay K-H-M figures can be as tall as 600mm, it is believed that they are able to protect the household.
W40xL80xH80mm, China
Clay toys are a popular folk toy, they are affordable and has a certain naive and child like expression. Wonder how these clay toy are made? The clay from 2m under ground are usually used (they are easily available, higher in plasticity and with less impurity). The dug up clay is sun dried then crushed down with a mallet. The fine clay sieved out into a dish and soaked with water for a several days. The semi wet clay is lay on a stone slab; after a sprinkle of water, it is pounced with a mallet, this process is repeated several time until the clay is not sticking to the slab, then form a cube with the clay. Slabs are cut out with a wire and then into coil. The coils are pressed onto a 2 pieces mould (the mould are dusted with dried clay powder for ease of case removal), the 2 parts of the mould are then joined together and joined together with additional coil from the inside, then the bottom is sealed off. The mould is released and the clay toy is left to dried before colouring. The base colour of the Chinese clay toy are normally white, with a few line to pick up the details.
DIA60xH80mm, China
Today is the 5th day of the Chinese New Year and the day for welcoming the Money God, the Money God has his four assistants will visit and bless randomly a handful of people. On the day of the 5th, you might notice that shops and households trying to draw their attention with fire crackers or food in front of their statue (or nowadays the free posters that come with the weekly magazine).
It is a toy for the drinking game since the Tang dynasty, after wobbling, the person he is looking at will have to drink up! This money god roly poly toy is made of paper with clay as a weight.
DIA50mm, China
Yes yes I know tigers dont squeak, they roar … This toy is in keeping with the Chinese fascination of tiger as a protector guardian of children and child’s tiger squeak… This tiger is made out of 2 pieces of clay, a bit like an oreo cookie, however it is a thin leather or toughen paper that is sandwich in between. A squeak is fixed in the bottom layer, by moving the 2 parts a squeak will be sound. It is known as the leather tiger. It happens in China all the air blower tools, from bellow to a camera len blower are all called the leather tiger, can this only be a coincident? or would it be some tribute to this toy. Sadly, this toy is not longer popular for today’s children and are quite hard to find.
W60xH120mm, China
These opera dolls have been a popular toy in Beijing since the Qing dynasty. The head and the base of the doll is made of clay, the structure with the stem of millet covered with a beautifully painted paper. However, the most important construction of the dolls are the 2mm tall bristle at the bottom of the base. They will be played on a bronze tea tray. By tapping lightly on the tray, the figurines would move in a rhythmic fashion just as they would in the beijing opera. Apart from being a toy, they are also used for performance, “bronze tea tray opera”; the required characters for the opera would be put on the tray, matched with real life opera singing.
Mountain Folkcraft 