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Starling Boxes These carved wooden bird houses were made in the 1870s by Vasilii Savinov, a talented self-taught folk artist from the village of Timirevo near Moscow. The artist fashioned his starling boxes as portraits an old man and woman who lived in his village. They were carved with an ax from the solid wood block of a tree trunk. Birds could fly in through the open mouth. Many folk artists of this period carved replicas of ancient Russian goblins called domovie which had the function of protecting a house and its inhabitants. Probably Savinov's starling boxes were intended to be a yard decoration rather than protectors of the house. Valentina Zhiguleva |
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