Straw Implements

Straw Implements
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.

These life-size straw implements were made by Dorothy Horsfall's mentor Fred Mizen. In commemoration of the one hundred year anniversary of the famous 1851 Great Exhibition at London's Crystal Palace, a Festival of Britain was produced in 1951 for which Mizen created a larger-than-life royal Coat of Arms consisting of an eight-foot-tall English Lion facing an equally impressive Unicorn of Scotland. A department store was so enamored with the figures that they borrowed them for their store windows after the festival. In a shameful act of disrespect, the huge pieces were then "misplaced", and left for mice to dismantle before Mr. Mizen could get them back.