Pam’s Pictorama Post: I am kissing 2023 good-bye today with no regrets! Pushing that year right out the door and hoping for a better ’24. In full disclosure, there’s nothing about the early days of ’24 that are giving me much comfort that the year will be new and improved, but hope springs eternal as they say.

This marvelous item was a Christmas gift from Kim. I thought he presented exactly the right amount of optimism to look forward to the New Year. We’re a bit partial to elephants at Deitch Studio and I have written about one or two particular ones before – a box I bought for Kim and a toy he found and restored. And most notably a box Kim hand painted for his mom many years ago which until very recently lived on my desk at work. (Those posts can be found here, here and the Deitch box here.)

I have a long-held desire for an antique, large, stuffed elephant on wheels – of the kind a small child would have ridden around the house. I have come close a few times but the timing hasn’t been right. One of these days though. It’s good to know that there will be space for it here in New Jersey when the time comes – our New York digs are a bit tight for such an acquisition.

Nonetheless, this little elephant seems like quite the find. He emerged from a cabinet at the Antiques Center here in Red Bank. (There was also an acquisition of a very nice small cabinet and a metal dog – more to come on those.)

This fellow is made to secure a box of matches, a match safe of sorts. He’s brass I think and marked Austria. There’s something sort of rollicking and raucous about him, like he couldn’t be having a better time than sitting on our matches. He’s leaning back on his front legs, trunk well up in the air – for good luck for those of us who believe. The holder has holes on the bottom and I am not sure what those are for unless it is to help get the matchbox out.

I’d like to think this is how I am going to tackle ’24. Sense of humor hopefully intact and ready for a rollicking good time!