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.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Bathing Beauty (?!) of the Week


This week features a naughty novelty rather than a bathing belle.  Mr. #448 is a clown who appears to have misplaced his seltzer bottle or squirting flower and is substituting a more personal appendage.  Incised "649" on his buttocks, this bisque buffoon is 3.25 inches high.  There is a lip around his molded orange-brown cap that once held  a rubber bulb, and when he was filled with water and the bulb squeezed, a stream of water came out of the appropriate orifice.   

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