The Large Stangle Bird Pottery Flying Mallard Duck Bird 3443 Ceramic Figurine is a beautifully crafted handmade porcelain figurine of a mallard duck in flight. In 1939, the Stangl art pottery began producing a series of bird figurines modeled after illustrations from the book titled “Birds of America” by John James Audubon printed between 1827 and 1838. This book contains approximately 435 life-size paintings of indigenous birds of America. Stangl began marketing these figurines at the start of World War II where they became an instant success due to the fact that European and Japanese porcelains were basically not available for export. After the war ended, the popularity waned as European and Japanese factories came online producing extremely fine figurines, thus the factory discontinued the Stangl Birds line in 1955. During their run, each example was hand-painted.