Victorian Bird Feather Bird
I am at a loss as to how to refer to this bit of paper ephemera, so I am going to just call it a bird feather bird.
This is a tiny 2 1/2 by 4-inch illustration of a bird that likely dates to the late 1800s. There are a few drawn lines, but for the most part, this bird is made from bird feathers. It’s a beautiful example of Victorian frippery, just the kind of thing that I truly enjoy.
This was probably made as a parlor curiosity or scrapbook insert, not a scientific specimen or fine art work. But that is the thing with ephemera, you just never can tell what might be worth something. Some of the rarest birds are the most mundane-looking, ask any bird watcher. Something about this little guy resonated with me, so I bought it even though it’s too small to use in my work.
Now that I own this bird feather bird, I decided to display it in a place where I will be able to enjoy it every day. So I got some scotch tape and stuck it to my external hard drive.
There is something fitting about that pairing. A fragile scrap of 19th-century paper perched on a device that holds thousands of digital images. One made to be handled, faded, and passed from hand to hand. The other made to store and preserve without ever being touched at all.
The feathers are real. The bird is not. The hard drive contains thousands of images of things that are not here either.
Maybe that is what I love most about ephemera. It refuses to disappear completely. It lingers. It sheds. It lands somewhere unexpected and makes a nest there. Even on a hard drive.
