Folk Art Critters Book of Postcards

Neither kitsch nor high art, most of the little handmade animals whose images appear in this book of postcards were made to be sold—they weren’t whittled or molded by a loving grandpa for distribution to delighted children within his family. Nevertheless, each piece reflects the talent and the sensibility of an individual creator. The likelihood that the creator and the eventual recipient might never meet doesn’t affect the benignity and beauty of the object or its value as folk art. The pieces assembled here come from Austria, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Japan, Chile, Sweden, India, Poland, and Philadelphia—to name a few of the sources. They reveal a truth that transcends our societies and cultures: everybody likes a little critter.