bavarikon4USouvenir aus Kunststoff, Kleinplastik: röhrender Hirsch auf Sockel
Description
Made of injection-moulded polystyrene, the roaring stag is vapour-plated with gold and mounted on a walnut base covered with clear lacquer. It comes from the archives of the Walter & Prediger company. The hand-engraved steel mould used for the casting was made around 1959. From 1960 to the 1970s, this roaring stag was one of the most frequently used motifs at Walter & Prediger.
Decorative room ornaments in the form of deer, roe deer and fawns were very popular. The animals represented a piece of untouched nature, especially for people in the city. The popularity of the Walt Disney film "Bambi", which premiered in Germany at the end of 1950, also contributed to this.
Otto Walter (1906-1991) and Alfred Prediger (1900-1979) came to Kaufbeuren in 1946, just like some 18,000 refugees and displaced persons from Gablonz an der Neiße (now Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic), where the Neugablonz district was established by 1952. They founded the company Walter & Prediger there in 1948 and adopted injection moulding for plastics processing early on. From the mid-1950s they concentrated on the production of Christmas angels, nativity scenes, music boxes and above all (pilgrimage) souvenirs. With the beginning of mass tourism, souvenirs such as pins, hat pins, small picture viewers and snow globes played an increasingly important role, and the company developed into the largest snow globe manufacturer in Germany.