Collectible Friday - Bakelite Animals

For Collectible Friday, we are going to do Bakelite Animals.

I have no idea what the intended purpose of these were but because I collect Bakelite, these joined the group.

Bakelite was discovered between 1907-1909 by a Belgian doctor, Dr. Leo Baekeland. It was the first plastic made from synthetic components. The discovery of this product allowed for the mass production of plastic items such as toys, jewelery, flatware, decorative items, telephones, game pieces. Basically, if you could think of it, it could be replicated in plastic.

In 1993 Bakelite was designated an ACS National Historical Chemical Landmark. In the past few years, items made of this substance have become highly collectible.

Because one of the components used to make Bakelite is formaldehyde, if you place the item under warm/hot water and rub, you can smell formaldehyde. This is one of the tests used to see if it is indeed Bakelite. You can also use scrubbing bubbles or a store-bought test kit. I find the hot water test works quite fine.

In my collection, I have flatware, napkin rings, pencil sharpeners, souvenirs from different events, these animals, jewelery, and various other items. A lot of these items came from France, since they just LOVED the art deco period and produced most of the items. Bakelite is very colorful and I still use mine to this day. I don't use the dishwasher, vintage items do better in a hand wash.

Elephants. I have found these to be the most popular. I have more than is shown, but I figured you would get the drift. I love these. The white ones are the only color I have found where the trunk drifts down, for the rest the trunks go slightly up. I have no idea why this is since elephants with the trunks up are considered lucky. Some are translucent, while the common ones are solid colors.
Dogs. These all look like very large Scottie dogs. Found in a variety of colors.
Horses. On these, you can find the regular horse or the art deco rearing model. The rearing model ones remind me of Ben Hur and I only have the two. I find these mostly broken. I don't know if it is because they are tippy or they were made thinner than the other horses.
Then we have the miscellaneous animals. I have giraffes, camels, monkeys (not shown) and some sort of weird big eared thing. I have two giraffes and two camels, which is all I have found. I own one weird big eared thing and that is one too many. I have no idea what it is. It tests positive for Bakelite so I let it remain, but it is a strange piece.
I don't collect these animals anymore. Though now that I say that, I will be somewhere and a new color will show up and I will be off again.

For the next few weeks we will be doing the rest of my collection of Bakelite.

These little animals are relatively inexpensive. I paid about $2.00-$3.00 a piece and now they run about $9.00 each. The rarer the animal and color, the higher the price.

So if you are out and about, keep your eyes peeled for Bakelite. Maybe you can start your own miniature zoo.