the class-o-matic

Admittedly, at first glance, most of you will find this post pretty silly.

But, in my defence these quirky objects are - while being faintly ridiculous, secretly marvelous.

Especially, if you look just beneath the surface (excuse the pun). These fishing lures, often called "poppers" are a wonderful fusion of individual styling and some tangible glimpses of real engineering vision, and, just as the classic shark finned Chevy and Ford cars of the American post war, these too, eloquently express the sentiments of their era. 

In fact, I'm not really overstating the case, as this little slice of mid-century Americana - is as expository as any Fender telecaster guitar or any of Raymond Loewy's famous designs for Lucky Strike cigarettes or Coca Cola. Objects, naturally reflect their time, in both form and in materials, and some more notable examples are reasonably so - candidates for the time capsule. 

If you want to know the secrets of an age, check out their toys.

And, as surely as the pale pastel mid-century desert architecture of Las Vegas implies, these mad hat fishing lures are quintessentially mid American, and subtly reiterate that most American of virtues, hope.

Hope, in the sense of that near compulsive faith in one's success, however unlikely, because how else could they possibly work ? They sure don't look like fish? The standing joke of course is - that they catch fisherman, not fish.

Beginning as a fashion in late 1880's in England, artificial lures were then hand made by artisans. Exported world wide through the colonies at the turn of the century, along with other cultural artifacts amusements and pretensions, mass production began in earnest around the 1930's, and continued unabated up and until the 1980's in most of America. 

By then, these artificial fishing lures were are as ubiquitous as the telephone. Naturally each era, re-defines and re-expresses the aesthetics and technologies their age, none, much more so, than these eccentric little baubles. Enjoy