Limber Lasses for Your Ashes

These athletic ladies adorning ashtrays are from the German firm of Weiss, Kühnert, and Company.

Here is a picture from the WKC catalogue, dating from the 1920s or 1930s. 

This flexible flapper is the same model as the ashtray pictured in the catalogue, second from the left.  She is incised underneath "Germany" and "6231," matching the catalogue model number.  While certainly charming,  this china piece, like many WKC products, is of average quality and the decoration is a bit hasty, with dabs of black from her heeled pumps running down her right calf.  Her facial painting is very simple, with one stroke brows, black eyes and  lid lines, and  bestung dark red lips.  She is 3.5 inches long and 3 inches high. 

This ashtray is incised underneath "Germany" and "6232," also matching her model number in the catalogue.  Painted in graceful script on one edge of the base is "A Present from Southend-on-Sea."  Southend is a British seaside resort in Essex, dating back to the Georgian era.  She is 4 inches long and 3.25 inches high.

The limber lasses, along with model #6230, began showing up as separate figurines, without their ashtray bases, shortly after the reunification of Germany, and were sold as antiques, although they were clearly modern creations.  Their quality was better than that of the WKC originals, with swimsuits that were a light solid color with a darker trim and tinted stockings; the ball in Model #6230 was often striped.