Further Media
Sebastian Köpcke (*1967), Volker Weinhold (*1962) | Photographers
Ring-turned animals are an invention from the Erzgebirge. One already finds indications for this innovative technique of toy production in the 1770s, when some traditional toy manufacturers took these animals of the competition to court. Due to new, rational production technology, the figures created by wheel turners could be sold at prices far lower than those animals traditionally carved individually and in a time-consuming manner by hand.
How did this innovation come to pass? Surprisingly, the answer can be found in the at that time countless glass manufactories of the Erzgebirge. For the manufacture of glasses, for example, turned wood models were required, into which one blew the still hot glass. This model was produced in the environment of the glass manufactories by specialists for wood turning. These could at best place templates onto semi-finished models in the ongoing work process. One thus only first saw the results of the work when the model was sawn open, before it was equipped with a hinge and subsequently used as a mould for the red-hot mass of glass.
This is very similar to wheel turning, to which several resourceful specialists from the environment of glass production turned: the ring-shaped wheels, which are turned from a slice of a tree trunk, also only reveal the kind of animal hidden within them when they are split into around 60 segments.
This convolute consists of a total of 381 parts and was procured in 1992 from private ownership in the eastern Erzgebirge. One finds monkeys, sheep, dromedaries, giraffes, hares, fawns, stags and elephants – in a quantity extending far beyond common household needs. Who the creator of the figures was remains just as unclear as the question of how one could come to possess such a quantity of identical animals.
Producer unknown
MATERIAL & TECHNIQUE
wood, turned, carved, painted
DIMENSIONS
elephant H 2.1 cm, giraffe H 3.2 cm, dromedary H 2.8 cm, monkey H 2 cm
MUSEUM
Museum für Sächsische Volkskunst
PLACE, DATING
Seiffen region, 2nd half of the 20th century
INVENTORY NUMBER
G 7420