Some information that was new to me ... and so may also be new to some of you ...
As those of you who are interested in paperfolding history will know there are several independent records of Leo Tolstoy folding 'paper cockerels'. One example is given by Misha Litvinov and Sergei Mamin in their article in British Origami Magazine 186. In this incident, recorded by F D Polyenov in his book 'At the Foothills of the Rainbow', Moscow, 1987, the writer, then ten years old, happened to be travelling with his mother in the same railway carriage as Leo Tolstoy. He records that 'He (Tolstoy) took a piece of paper and began doing something to it. What came out was a bird which flapped its wings when you pulled at its tail.'. But were these paper cockerels the same traditional flapping birds we know and love? I have always assumed so ... but my assumptions are often wrong. Litvinov and Mamin also mention that several paper birds are carefully preserved under glass in the museum devoted to the work of the painter Vasily Polyenov (father of the ten year old boy mentioned above) near Tula in Russia. It occurred to me that this was worth pursuing and I contacted the museum to ask if the birds still exist. They do. I have not seen the birds themselves but I have now seen a photograph of them kindly supplied by the museum. There are four of them and they are indeed Flapping Birds of the traditional kind, three quite well folded and one that is less well folded and looks indeed as though it could quite possibly be the work of a 10 year old boy who might never have folded paper before. The larger of the three well-folded birds has handwriting on which says, 'November 18, 1896. Made by L.N.Tolstoy in a train car going to Moscow. Gift for Mother.' I find it amazing that a flapping bird folded for a 10 year old boy on a train in 1896 by Leo Tolstoy has survived in this way. I wonder what other old paperfolds have survived in Europe? I know about the Ross and Reiter in Nuremberg and Dresden but are there others I haven't heard about? Dave
