Bathing Beauty of the Week

Ms. #538 is another bare-bottomed belle.  She is one of the fanciest flippers I have seen, from her fetching hat with its yellow plumes to the hand-painted flowers on her flaring skirt to her high-heeled pumps with ballet-type ties.  This colorful coquette is of the finest bisque and decoration, but is not marked.    

Turn her over, and you see that she is so intent on tying her shoes, she neglected to close her knickers. 

Bathing Beauty of the Week

Her chiton swirling around her,  Ms. #537 appears to be playing her tambourine with wild abandon.  Perhaps she is supposed to be a maenad, a female follower of the Greek god, Dionysus, who often danced around their deity in a frenzied rapture.  By Schafer and Vater, this beautiful bisque bacchae has a rather cheeky secret. . . .

for underneath are her voluptuous bare buttocks, framed with a laurel wreath.  In ancient Greece, athletes and poets were crowned with laurel wreaths as awards for their accomplishments.  One wonders just what this young lady's talents were to warrant a wreath around her nether regions. Of excellent sharp bisque typical of Schafer, this unusual flipper is 4.5 inches wide and 3.25 inches tall, and is incised "5838" underneath.

A friend said that this callipygian cutie is "resting on her laurels."  Wish I had thought of that one!

Bathing Beauty of the Week

 

Ms. #536 is a "modedamen mit gefäß" (fashion lady with container) according to the catalogue of Hertwig and Company of Germany.  She is part of a series of elegant Edwardian ladies "mit paperhüten und mit tuchschur bemalt" (with paper hats and painted flocking), striking insouciant poses.  Of excellent bisque  and modeling, she is molded in sharp base relief against a rectangular vase.  Her form-fitting and daringly decollete top is covered in fine green flocking, giving it the look and feel of cloth.  She wears the remains of her original mohair wig adorned with a  replaced blue crepe paper hat.  Incised "1086" on back lower edge of the vase, she is 5.5 inches tall.

 Here she is as pictured in the Hertwig catalogue.  Notice that the catalogue number matches the incised number on the figurine.

 

I have added more pictures to my page on Hertwig's petite pets, thanks to a generous English collector!

Better Safe Than Sorry!

This is another frisky fairing, featuring a fair maiden telling her rather forward gentleman caller, "Be good, and if you can't be good, be careful."  This may be one of the earliest safe sex public service announcements!  Variations of this phrase featured in several racier music hall songs.  Of good sharp bisque, and 3 inches long and 4.25 inches high, it is very nicely detailed and decorated for this genre.  Underneath it is stamped "Made in Germany" in a circle.