Clairet African Elephant History & walkaround

I recently obtained two Clairet African elephants produced in the 1950's in France.  The models have a stylized feel to the design and are made of a hard plastic, they measure roughly 12 cm (L) x 6.2cm (H).  These two are made in medium grey plastic with a spray of darker paint, there was also an all ivory coloured version along with a dark grey plastic version. There is a lot of wrinkle detail, the ears and tusks are separate and glued on. The tusks are ivory coloured plastic while the body is grey plastic  The anatomy is quite good with proper proportions and a fast walking pose.  

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HISTORY:

Based on the limited information I was able to obtain from different websites.....mainly Toy Animal Wiki, (I'm guessing Christophe supplied that information) and other sites I discovered that the founder and sculptor, François Clairet, started designing the zoo series in the late 1940s.  These zoo models were apparently inspired by the Zoo de Vincennes in Paris, this is most apparent when you see the Clairet models of the rock structures and spiked moat barriers both of which were present in the real zoo.  In fact the giant rock mountain was and still is an iconic center piece for the zoo.
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I borrowed the Clairet image(top left) from Christophe's post.  
The spike moat barriers surrounding the elephant enclosure can be seen in these old photos, Clairet also produced these for the Zoo series.

Toy Animal wiki refers to this model as a forest elephant but after closer inspection I believe this is in fact an African bush elephant cow.  The ears are large and have the shape more typical of the bush species, the tusks are horizontally set as well.  The model looks to be of a young sub adult African cow.  

The model has five toenails on the front and back feet, this may be an error of the sculptor:
African bush elephant: 4 nails front, 3 nails back
African Forest elephant: 5 nails front, 4 nails back
Indian elephant: 5 nails front, 4 nails back

Going back to Mr. Clairet being inspired by the Zoo de Vincennes would also support the theory of this being a bush elephant cow.  I have a book that records the population of captive elephants in Europe, under the Zoo de Vincennes for the time period of the 1940s there was one teenage African bush cow, but also a very young African forest cow (there were also four Indian cows).   If this model was referenced from live animals at Vincennes in the 1940s then this elephant model likely was inspired by the African bush cow named Micheline born 1931 and arriving in Paris in 1934.  Micheline had small tusks but I assume they were made larger to be more impressive for the final toy.
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Micheline, African elephant at Zoo de Vincennes.
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Clairet model compared to Micheline at Zoo de Vincennes around the 1940s.
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A much older Micheline in the early 1960s along with the African forest bull calf named Coco.

I would be interested if others have any more information to add!

Walkaround:

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Marked FRANCE, F.CLAIRET.

Gorgeous!    

Thanks for showing!

Thank you for such a great and thorough look at this fine model

Gorgeous!! I love the Clairet Elephant. Thank you for sharing!

Phantastic, a typical example for a old vintage and wonderful figurine. Thanks too for the informations!!!

Thankyou very much for this great topic   

Such beautyful models, and even more beautyful now we know the history   

I really love that figure, it's on my search list from about one year or more.   This pose must be absolutely unique among toy elephants!
It's great walk around you did and wonderful that you found so much info about it     
Thank you for sharing!!!!

Thanks for the comments Jonas, Tim and scot(t).

widukind wrote:

Phantastic, a typical example for a old vintage and wonderful figurine. Thanks too for the informations!!!

Thanks Andreas, this is a great example of a vintage figure and my first Clairet.

SUSANNE wrote:

Thankyou very much for this great topic   

Such beautyful models, and even more beautyful now we know the history   

Thanks Susanne, I'm glad you liked the history behind this model.  I find the making of animal figures to be very interesting myself, especially when we can see the real life inspirations for them.

Ana wrote:

I really love that figure, it's on my search list from about one year or more.   This pose must be absolutely unique among toy elephants!
It's great walk  around you did and wonderful that you found so much info about it     
Thank you for sharing!!!!

Thanks Anna, you're right I like that the pose is not the typical trumpeting that is often seen but a more unique one.

That is such a wonderful model, I love the feel of these vintage figurines. Great find Andrew and thanks for the history behind them!

I thought I had already commented here but actually I am glad I've read it back. :)
Topics like this one are a pleasure of reading and watching and also increases our interest in figures presented. There is always a lot of things to tell behind a toy and it is fantastic all research you performed.
Many thanks for your contribution, it would be for sure an excelent Toy Animal Wiki article.

Thank you Harriet and Roger.  It is hard to find such information on the older brands and specific models but when I do I like to share the information so that others can know as well!

Roger: the Toy Animal Wiki is free to use this information if they like.

elephas_maximus wrote:

Thank you Harriet and Roger.  It is hard to find such information on the older brands and specific models but when I do I like to share the information so that others can know as well!

Roger: the Toy Animal Wiki is free to use this information if they like.

Thanks, we'll do it as soon as we find a good formula to pages of individual figures.

Great , thanks for the Informations   

Big congratulation for your successful hunt Andrew    Not only one but two... Hats off   

And thank you very much for this fabulous topic, well documented, full of good pics... I would like to read dozens like this   

I always thought this model was a Forest elephant because of the number of nails but your demonstration convinced me, I will change the Toy animal wiki entry. Thank you very much  

Thanks Christophe, glad to be able to help with the animal wiki entry.

Truly stunning research here Andrew. Always enjoy this type of post. History is most interesting and I now know why the pose is the way it is. The sculptor either visited the zoo or saw the images.

Chris Sweetman wrote:

Truly stunning research here Andrew. Always enjoy this type of post. History is most interesting and I now know why the pose is the way it is. The sculptor either visited the zoo or saw the images.

François Clairet lived in Paris, so it was easy for him to go to the Zoo de Vincennes.

Kikimalou wrote:

Chris Sweetman wrote:

Truly stunning research here Andrew. Always enjoy this type of post. History is most interesting and I now know why the pose is the way it is. The sculptor either visited the zoo or saw the images.

François Clairet lived in Paris, so it was easy for him to go to the Zoo de Vincennes.

Thank you Christophe for this information.

My pleasure   

Andrew,

The elephants in the Zoo de Vincennes weren't the only elephants in Paris. When I saw your Clairet elephants, I thought of the famous Akeley elephant herd in the American Museum of Natural History, one of which, the bull, has the trunk extended very much like the Clairet model. In the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris there are two mounted African Elephants, an adult and a calf, in the Grande Galerie d'Evolution. I uploaded two photos from the internet and you can see that the Clairet model combines elements of both, suggesting that they may also have been used as inspiration and references. Although the MNHN has been completely renovated and the present position of the elephants in the "parade" of African animals is new, they would have been on exhibit in the old galleries in the1940s (btw, the famous Siam is there too...you can just make him out beyond the "parade").

Rick

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Yes, it is possible that the Clairet model was also inspired by these mounts in addition to the live zoo animals.  
I saw that Siam was there when I was researching reference for his sculpture.  
Its too bad he was mounted in such a neutral/boring pose.

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When F. Clairet made the zoo series, the Museum gallery was very very different. (Pics below)

François Clairet was really inspired by the Vincennes zoo, reproduicing the background and the great rock wich is still the Vincennes zoo symbol.

Those are beautiful photos, Christophe. Where did you get them? Do you know when they were taken?

The African animals in the "parade" in the new Galerie seem to be in more dynamic and life-like poses than the animals in these old photos. The rhinos, elephants, and hippo in particular look like they were stuffed ("old school" taxidermy) rather than mounted. I think it was in the 1890s that Carl Akeley introduced a new method of taxidermy, where the skin was mounted over a life-like (and life-sized) sculpture. Detailed measurements were taken of the animal that was to be mounted to ensure the skin fit perfectly over the sculpture underneath. The African animals in the new Galerie appear to have been mounted (or perhaps re-mounted) that way.

Thank you Rick, I found the pics on the web They are old, maybe the two first were made at the first years of the gallery.

The old "Zoologie" galerie was opened from 1889 to 1966. When the new "Galerie de l'évolution" opened again in 1994, more than 1000 animals were restored . Now the gallerie present 7000 animals.
It was then the first museum who Based the general (display) of its collections on a Cladistic way.

The renovation is spectacular. The MNHN is one of the greatest natural history museums in the world, with many unique treasures...like the only mounted specimens of the extinct Schomburgk's Deer and the extinct King Island Emu.

It doesn't look like the African Elephant in the old photos is the same as the one leading the "parade" in the new Galerie today. The tusks are much shorter.

From a distance, the animals in the new Galerie look like a parade of animal toys. Some of the animals in the old galerie too, like the tapirs, cattle and giraffes, look like they are toy models. You can almost imagine picking them up!