Postcard Image

Postcard Image
As the Victorian era passed into the Edwardian and Roaring Twenties, a market developed for bisque and china bawdy novelties and figurines of women in revealing outfits. Although now most of these figurines seem more coy and cute than ribald and risque, in their time they symbolized the casting off of the perceived restraints of the Victorian era.

These little lovelies included bathing beauties, who came clad in swimsuits of real lace or in stylish painted beach wear, as well as mermaids, harem ladies, and nudies, who were meant to wear nothing more than an engaging smile. Also produced were flippers, innocent appearing figurines who reveal a bawdy secret when flipped over, and squirters, figurines that were meant to squirt water out of an appropriate orifice.

Most were manufactured in Germany from the late 1800s through the 1930s, often showing remarkable artistry and imagination, with Japan entering the market during World War I.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Bathing Beauty of the Day; Day 30

This most regal lady is a 12 inch tall fashion figurine from Galluba and Hofmann.  She has a bisque shoulderhead and limbs on a cloth body and stands on her original bisque base.   Elaborately dressed in antique materials as Medieval nobility, under the base is written in faint purple ink "Allies Bazaar 1917.”  Some talented seamstress near the end of WWI took a German-made fashion doll and lavishly redressed her as an ancient queen to raise money for the Allied cause.  This elegant and exquisite lady is incised on the back of her shoulders “5842 Germany.”

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