A great many novelty items in the YZ style were produced during, and well after, the period of YZ production. To the best of my knowledge, only one other manufacturer, Noveltic, trademarked its items. The others (as well as some YZ products) are either unmarked or stamped 'Real Ebony', 'Real Ebony British Made', 'Real Ebony Made In England' or, simply, 'British Made'. These unattributed novelties are usually, though not always, of lower quality than YZ - but their humour often more than compensates for any lack of quality.
(More about trademarks)
Noveltic
I have come across the Noveltic mark on birds only of one basic design. Though, occasionally, the oak bar match holder is replaced by one of bamboo.
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Others designs exist where the bird is similar to a Noveltic one but these are unmarked and most lack the large, doleful eyes of the Noveltic birds.
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Austria
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and the phenolic parts are the typical purplish YZ colour. |
The resin seems to have been dyed with Lithol Red (now known by the trade name of Lithol Rubin). Henry Howell's advertising literature refers to the staining of the YZ novelties with 'Lithol' - presumably a trade name at that time for Lithol Red - so it may be that the manufacturer of the resin used to make this piece also supplied the Howell factory. |
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Natural Wood
A great many novelty birds were produced simply from pieces of branch cut at an angle. The quality varied greatly but each has a certain humour.
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Horn
Spill holders made from cow horns, on which sat a bird, usually nut-based, were very common. The design didn't vary and many were simply, to the point of being crudely, put together. Other novelty horn characters - such as the drinking mug and the bookends and pipe rack below - were also produced.
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The Rest
'The Rest' (for a flavour, see the Non-YZ Archive) could easily warrant a whole website of their own. There is an enormous variety of non-marked novelties around - ashtrays, match holders, pipe holders, gongs, clocks etc. The majority, in common with YZ, use tagua or coquilla nuts but, as indicated above, the ingenuity of the Deco era produced some whacky designs using a range of materials.
