I had finally taken a buck and doe off my walls. They belonged to my grandfather from around the early 60's or 70's when excelsior was used to fill a mannikin. The eyes have bright blue pupils in them. Is that odd? I think it is for whitetail eyes. I kept the eyes and cleaned the old clay off them and put them up for a memory if you will. Then I used the antlers on a new deer hide. Check out www.waterworldtaxidermy.com on the mount preparation page. The eight pointer. My second deer mounted by me.
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I want to congratulate you on a Great Job. For someone who doesn't have a lot of experience you have done a great job. Since I really couldn't see the photo that good I would only say that your eye's need a little more attention to contour and proper painting. On your other deer heads they look pretty good.
Just keep trying and don't forget to look at your reference's. You'll be OK.
Oh, on those blue eyes that was one of the better eyes sold during that time period. I believe that VanKyke's sold them and they were called the Blue Glint. Yeah, that's been a few days ago. Ha.
John Griffith
www.griffithtaxidermy.com
But you're absolutely right about Van Dyke's "Blue Glint" eyes. Still, some eyes were being made around the world at that time. I have a few thatare solid hemispheres of glass and I have yet to figure out how they were hand painted inside all that glass. And you're right, in that day and age, those were "top of the line" eyes.
but you're both wrong. the blue glint eyes were made by the elwood supply co.
Elwood wasn't a taxidermist. He bought supplies from glass dealers himself. Ellwood like many others got ALL his glass eyes from Europe, mainly Germany. In 1941, however, the war ended most of that trade. The story about the last shipment from Germany languishing in the harbor because no one could afford the tariffs on them can be recited verbatim by John Janelli. Jonas refused the eyes as he was Hungarian descent, and then HE began manufacturing his own eyes.
I've been trying to forget those days and here you go reminding me of them.I don't have any more "Blue Glint" eyes but I still have some Barred Owl and Great Horned owl eyes along with a few raptor eyes that I stubbornly hold on to in case the government ever smartens up and lets us mount these again. Fat chance...lol. JL
He is the first to make them popular in the United States and probably sold more pairs than Van Dykes did. Elwood began using Blue Glint in his catalogs long before Bert Van Dyke began his catalog business, and Jonas had not yet begun theirs. There were a few North American manufactures of Glass eyes like Kannofsky in New York, but most imported them from Europe. I do know that Elwood used French Eyes some of the time.
Jonas predates Van Dykes by about 15 years, and I never knew ANYTHING that came out of France other than overpriced wine and stale perfume.
I purchased a small envelope on Ebay with Elwood listed on it and saying the eyes were manufactured in France, probably from the 1950's or 60's.
Actually Jonas predated Van Dykes in the supply business more than 15 years I believe. My first Jnas Catalogue is dated 1916, which would make it close to 30 years. Of course, Jack Miles had a supply business on Broadway in Denver before any Jonas even migrated from Hungary