Why We Love Animals Acting Like People: anthropomorphism in the world of Collectables
Examples of anthropomorphic design by 20th century artists (Dagfields Antique centre, 2025)
Next time you visit an antique centre, take note of how many items depict animals as people or vice versa. You may be surprised by the abundance of anthropomorphic designs in cartoons, porcelain figures, and children’s books, all with one thing in common: they portray animals with human traits.
‘Autumn’, Guiseppe Arcimboldo, 1573
In the mid-16th century artist Guiseppe Arcimboldo produced numerous oil portraits of human faces; it is only on closer inspection that you see each face is made up of pictures of fruit, vegetables, tree roots, fish blended to create the illusion of a person.
Less surreal but known to millions are the stories attributed to Aesop in which animals are endowed with human characteristics such as cunning, laziness, stupidity. Closer to our own time both Beatrix Potter and Rudyard Kipling have charmed us all at some point with their memorable depictions of rational, thinking animal characters. And let’s not forget the much darker portrayal of 20th century politics in George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’; the characters of Snowball, Napoleon, Squealer, Boxer and so many others in Orwell’s satirical ‘fairy story’ continue to have huge resonance in 2025!
‘The Monkey Sculptor’, Antoine Watteau, 1710
Monkey Orchestras have got to be one of the most extraordinary examples of anthropomorphism. By the 18th century ‘Singerie’ – the depiction of monkeys in human environments carrying out human activities – had become the height of fashion. Not surprisingly the royal and exclusive Meissen factory took up the baton and created exquisitely modelled monkeys playing different musical instruments. These rare figurines are still worth a fortune, commanding huge sums when they occasionally come up for auction; fortunately for the rest of us they have been copied by many lesser producers through the centuries!
The two orchestra members pictured here are late 20th century Capodimonte copied from original Meissen figurines.
