I’ve no idea where it’s been since it came in for review nearly twenty years ago, nor do I know how it ended up in the room off the Estate Kitchen that houses the centuries-old collection of cookbooks, restaurant menus and other culinary-related material but I just noticed it there, a very adorable white mouse puppet holding a wedge of cheese in its paws. Somebody had placed it in a white teacup on the middle of the large table so I really couldn’t overlook it.
It has a label on it that says it was designed and sold by Folkmanis. We’ve reviewed their piglets, dragons, baby sea otters, hedgehogs, alpacas and Bassett hounds to name but a few. I’m guessing that this came in our mailroom and got, errrr, borrowed by someone who forgot to log it in first.
It is, as I said, an adorable wee mouse standing just about four inches tall with dark black eyes, a cute pink nose, white whiskers and nicely designed ears that seem to be keeping their shape well. Ears and whiskers are tricky things to actually do as more often that not they end up with the ears looking fake and the whiskers getting crinkled in the shipping. This wee beastie certainly doesn’t look like it came from China, but rather looks like a toy maker down the street made it. That it’s in such good shape after twenty years is quite amazing.
Its tail is about as long as it is tall. It prolly could have used a wire in it, as it’s difficult to post it being just soft cloth. Likewise the feet are more akin to stockings than feet as nothing, not even a bit of coloured fabric, was used on them.
It is a puppet so there’s a rod that allows the puppeteer to rotate the head. Frankly it’s less of a puppet and more of a household guardian, which is why I left it sitting in its teacup. I’ve no doubt that it’d be useful in a puppetry-centred play but Folkmanis has made puppets much better for that purpose. I’d use another one of them as a desktop companion.
(Folkmanis, 1997)
