Ivor Markman
Coca Cola Animals
A lioness walks stealthily past the Pearson Conservatory in St George's Park.
By Ivor Markman.
In 1961, when I was still in junior school, Coca Cola brought out a small set of 20 animals, in a kind of plastic called ivorine, of various types of animals found in South Africa called Animals of Africa.
A 21st model, that of a springbok, was also later released.
To get your hands on them you had to collect 8 caps from the Coke bottles and then hand them in to the your favourite Coke dealer.
Collectors could also get a 3-D cardboard display on which to mount the animals.
Well, I cheated a bit.
There was no way I could drink enough Coke to collect the complete set so I went to the fridges and sorted through the discarded bottle caps under the built-in opener, and collected enough to trade for the animals.
My favourite cafes, the Wingate Cafe, Pelo's Cafe and Texeira's, all in Cape Road, were where I conducted my searches.
That's how I got enough caps to trade for my collection.
Many of my friends were disappointed the animals were not cast to scale but we soon forgot about that.
The animals were amazingly accurate and personally, the collection sparked in me a love of our wonderful diversity of wildlife for which I will forever be grateful.
At one stage I tried to paint them but soon gave up the idea as they were far too small for my inexperienced hands to create anything worthwhile.
Fortunately I used water-based paints which were easily washed off.
Recently I found my collection in a plastic packet and decided to have some fun combining images of these tiny little plastic statuettes and some of the sights of Port Elizabeth.
Remember, each of these tiny plastic models are between one and three centimetres tall.
All these photographs were shot on location and are not Photoshopped.
Just bear in mind all these animals, with the exception of the giraffe, were once found in great numbers where the city of Port Elizabeth now stands.
Hope you enjoy them and imagine what it was like when the animals lived here.
Incidently, a full set of these animals, complete with display, was sold at an auction in the US recently for $210 (R2 250).
Copyright Ivor Markman 2012
Hyena outside the Feather Market Centre.
Gemsbok at the Campanile.
Goose at the old Post Office clock tower.
Giraffe on the Donkin Reserve.
Eland at Fort Frederick.
Crocodile outside Fort Frederick.
Rhino at Prince Alfred's Guard Memorial in St George's Park.
Kudu overlooking North End.
Ostrich outside the Public Library
Warthog in the Norwich Union bus station.
Lion in Baakens Valley.
Flamingo at North End Lake. The legs were not strong enough to support the body so the artist had to add some "reed" supports.
Zebra at Newington Street.
Springbok overlooking the Baakens Valley. This was not part of the original set.
Hippo in the Baakens Valley.
A wildebeest gallops across one of the Donkin Reserve mosaics.
A gemsbok stands outside the old Erica school in Central.
Not quite sure but I think this is a female impala bounding past the Cenotaph War Memorial.
A chacma baboon enjoys the shade of a Central street.
An elephant trundles past the City Hall.
A Cape buffalo stands guard outside Prince Alfred's Guard Drill Hall.
A magnificent Sable Antelope in front of the giant South African flag on the Donkin Reserve.
