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Every once in a while an interesting email comes
to me and this one was just that. A dealer from Florida contacted me
because he said he had a pair of large ventriloquist figures and
thought I may be interested. He sent me pictures and when I opened
the first picture all I could say to myself was," That's Fred &
Ethel Mertz." Now that really is not who they are but I have decided
that is who they are now.
Inside the body of the male figure is carved 1963 by Edmud
Wostkowski, self portrait. Unfortunately the female is not marked.
There is other marking in the male figure and I took pictures fore
you to see.
These are carved totally from basswood and the bodies and the heads
are all layered and then carved. The heads are ball and socket and
have moving mouth only. The male figure has a bit more detail to the
carving but they both really are done very well. They still have all
the original paint and on these I am having a very hard time because
I love the originality ( which I always talk about ) but I would
love to re do them to mint. The crack on the female figures face
really bothers me.
The clothing is also original to these figures and is still in very
good condition.
The legs on the male figure have springs attached to them so that he
could walk. They both have jointed arms legs knees elbows wrists and
feet. The walking effect is the same as all walkers and works bu
swinging the figure back and forth to cause the legs to go. This
never really worked well. The best part of these figures is that
they were caved and balanced so they will stand on their own and not
fall over
I love there figures and put them in the folk art venue as well as
ventriloquism
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