(18) Bird Figurines. Tippi Hedren quakes in fear at the sight of this lot! Includes penguins (babies, juveniles, adults, Emperors, and ones with hats), puffins, storks, and more. 

Condition: Commensurate with age. One puffin broken off. 

Size (Largest): 2 3/4 x  2 3/4 x 3 3/4 in. 

#3455 #1 . 

Birds have been depicted throughout the arts from the earliest times to the present, including in painting, sculpture, literature, music, theater, traditional dance and ballet, and in film. Some of the earliest cave paintings depict a variety of birds, and in Chinese art bird-and-flower painting forms one of the three major subjects (the others being figures and landscapes) from the time of the Five Dynasties in the 10th Century. Birds were celebrated by Roman poets and became a popular subject with sculptors of every genre and era (even surrealist and abstract representations or suggestions) due to the light and graceful implications of their form. John James Audubon’s enormous and impressive images of birds in his 1827-1838 Birds of America series are among the most admired depictions by art critics and collectors, with early editions fetching some of the highest auction prices paid for any printed books. Birds have held symbolic or psychological significance for many cultures and religions, suggesting regeneration, freedom, divinity, power, and friendship. Musicians have been influenced by birdsong for thousands of years, and inventors spent centuries examining birds in an attempt to unlock the secret of flight. The extermination of the Dodo of the Galapagos Islands as a direct result of human activity was one of the earliest events to spawn environmentalist causes, and since the early 20th Century the arts have been used to help preserve and engage people with many species who face extinction.

Commensurate with age. One puffin broken off.