Restored Vintage Doll from INdia - COOL CAT

£20.00

Description

Sitting alongside the on the Ganges one fine summer day, I caught sight of a man with piles of colour laden upon his head. On closer inspection I discovered he carried a burden of delightful wooden toys. Faded, battered and with chipping paint, he was taking them to the burning ghats to sell for scrap. Despite their ill repair, I was enamoured of their whimsy and, between my broken Hindi and his broken English, convinced him to save them from the ghats and sell them to me.

I searched through the assortment of odd and ends to find this delightful wooden cat! He's made to perch upon your bookshelf or any other flat ledge, and in his folded hands is a small hole in which one can give him a little 'fishing rod' of incense. I like the slightly asymmetrical look he has on his face - he looks a bit mischievous and dazzled at the same time, like he was caught in the middle of a daydream. In the last photo you can see him in the midst of the restoration process!

After researching the traditional Benares style of toy making an apprenticing under a master toymaker, I felt confident in my ability to properly breathe new life into my beloved toys.

Firstly, I had to re-shape the outer doll which had a bulge from water-damage. Next, using powdered pigments mixed with gloss medium, I tried to reincarnate them as closely as possible to how they might have looked in their former lives. Two layers of paint and they were good as new while still preserving some of their shabby chic.

I believe this doll to date back a bit further than some of my other varieties and, while the wood is still in good condition, this cool cat is probably best as a curio rather than a toy for the rough-and-tumble of little hands.

Fully recovered and ready to make new friends, this happy cat would love to brighten up any room of your house!