Re: [Origami] About Leo Tolstoy and the Flapping Bird

[Laura R]

What a beautiful story, Dave! Thanks so much for sharing. 
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has what is probably the oldest set 
of origata known to date. 
The 128 origata are pasted in a sort of “scrapbook album” and there are 23 more 
loose objects. 
They are mostly tsutsumi (paper folded envelopes), ocho and mecho (the 
“butterflies”) and some other objects. 
The accompanied information says: “According to the inscriptions, this set of 
models served as the initiation into the art of origata for Kikuchi Fujiwara no 
Takehide by an Ogasawara master, and is dated the third month of 1697.”
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/78428?sortBy=Relevanceft=origamipg=1rpp=20pos=29

Laura Rozenberg

On Jul 7, 2017, at 10:35 AM, David Mitchell  
wrote:

> 
> 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
> 

Re: [Origami] About Leo Tolstoy and the Flapping Bird

[David Mitchell]

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