Danish designer Hans Bolling's wooden figure known as 'the Pessimist'. The originals were first produced in 1958. This is almost certainly a copy, but it's a quality early one, from around the same period. See below for details. A.

By the early 1960s, these figures and a wide range of other figures based on the same design - turned wood bodies, real fur hair, rope arms, etc - were being lumped in together with such other ornamental mascot-type figures as Danish and Finnish trolls and British Gonks. 

Very good condition.

International postage quoted is for USA & Australia. For Europe it would be £15. Other territories also differ. Either ask for a revised invoice if you win or pay the full amount and I'll refund any significant overpayment when I mail the item. If I occasionally forget... remind me! I do combine postage where possible.

Details:

In the mid 1950s, Danish architect and designer Hans Bølling began using a wood-turning lathe to produce small ornamental figures. In 1958, he came up with two of his most memorable and influential designs: a pair of little wooden men fashioned in minimalist style from two wooden egg-shapes apiece, one for the body, one for the head. Both were accessorised with a thatch of fur for hair, painted eyes and a small loop of rope to suggest arms with clasped hands. One was standing upright, looking upwards, had a saw-cut smile and was called the Optimist. The other was hunched over with downcast eyes and a drill-hole pout: the Pessimist.

This is a Pessimist. 

Bolling's originals were sold via Torben Ørskov & Co in Copenhagen and have the company's name impressed into the underside of the feet. They were quickly copied by various other manufacturers. This one does not have the stamp, and it has a screw attaching the feet to the body, which the originals didn't. It's a copy, then, but a good quality, vintage late 1950s or early 1960s heavy, hardwood near-identical copy. The eyes are often the give-away detail: the black pupil of Bolling's original design is half inside the white, half outside, as with this one. Later copies tended to be made with cheaper cuts of wood and their eyes had the pupils entirely inside the whites. 

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I will combine postage where possible.