Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Bonzo!

When Chris and I were recently in Arizona, we visited a few antique malls there.   One of the first things that I found at the antique mall was the Bonzo figurine shown above.  I didn't really know anything about Bonzo before I found this figure and I only knew that this was a Bonzo figure because his name is embossed on his back.  
As soon as I could, I looked up on the computer to find out who Bonzo was.  Turns out he was a character created by George Studdy in 1922.  He starred in one of the world's first cartoons and he was quite popular in the 1920's.  Needless to say it was love at first sight for me and it was the start of the search for more Bonzos. I ended up buying a few Bonzo's while I was in Arizona and I have since been keeping my eyes open at local antique stores for him.  Here are a few of the other Bonzo's I found on my trip:
This is a piece of carnival chalkware that looks like it was probably inspired by Bonzo.
Bonzo salt and pepper shakers
 We found Bonzo at every single antique store we went to in Arizona.  So far we haven't found any Bonzo's in Winnipeg, but we'll keep searching! I find it so strange that a character that once was so popular is almost unheard of nowadays.
-Ainsley
Grumble Toy

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