Video
Whittled Wonders
The author of a new book on bird carvings describes the root of his passion, and some of the whittled wonders themselves.
Video by Lynne Peeples

Click on the image below to view the video.

Joseph Ellis, a retired partner of Goldman Sachs and longtime birder, recently invited us into his New York City home for a little show-and-tell. Watch the video above for a taste of what we saw and heard from this avid collector of miniature bird carvings—from the story behind his hobby’s beginnings to the origins of the whittled works themselves. The same expertise and passion Ellis exuded that afternoon also fills his new book on the art form. A review of Ellis’s Birds in Wood and Paint: American Miniature Bird Carvings and Their Carvers, 1900-1970 appears in the March-April issue of Audubon.

Click on the images below for a photo gallery of bird carvings and their makers.