Another China Charmer by Gebruder Heubach

 

This bobbed-hair bathing beauty is by Gebruder Heubach.  Of excellent china and beautifully modeled, this 5 inch long nude is incised underneath with "11899" and stamped with "Made in Germany" in a circle in green.  The circle mark is identical to another Heubach bare belle pictured earlier on my blog   That lithe lass is incised "11896" (Heubach used a 10000 and 11000 number series for many of its nudes and bathing beauties).  Like her seated sister, this slender siren has her carmel-colored hair molded in a very short, severe style, full well-shaped coral lips, a very pale complexion softly shaded with faint blushing, and a slim adolescent physique. 

Too Much Maid!

This bawdy bottle features a bare bather surrounded by leering bald men.  Called a "nipper," because it was meant to hold a nip of alcohol,  this naughty novelty was made by the German firm of Schafer and Vater.  It is 6 inches tall and incised "6776" on the back edge.  Under the skinny-dipping siren is the caption "September Morn."

Here is the original "September Morn," now in the collection of the New York Museum of Metropolitan Art.  This rather innocuous nude, painted in 1912 by French artist Paul Chabas, was once one of the best known and most reproduced paintings in the United States.  After it was exhibited  in the Paris Salon, where it won the Medal of Honor, the painting traveled to a gallery in Chicago, where it was displayed in the window of a local art store.  The city charged the store owner with violating a city ordinance barring the display of lewd pictures.  The ensuing trial and acquittal of the owner brought the painting to public attention. Subsequently, the picture journeyed to New York City, where, again on display in a gallery window, Ms. Morn caught the censorious eye of Anthony Comstock, leader of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.  Reportedly,  an outraged Comstock charged into the gallery, declaring that there was "too little morn and too much maid!"  After the gallery refused to remove the painting from display, Comstock threatened legal action, but never followed through.  Surrounded by scandal, Ms. Morn became part of popular culture, reproduced on anything from fine art prints to cheap stick pins.

 Her popularity soon led to parody.  Here is another version of Ms. Morn from Schafer,  created by Grace Drayton, best known for her pleasingly plump Campbell Soup Kids.  The caption reads "Oh! please don't think I'm bad or bold, Cause where it's deep, it's awful cold!"  Of excellent sharp bisque, this 6.5 inch tall vase is incised with both the Schafer sunburst mark and a facsimile of Ms. Drayton's signature, "G.G. Drayton."

Another version of Drayton's little Miss Morn.  This 5.25 inch tall figurine also carries Drayton's signature.

Here  Drayton's pudgy parody appears on a plate.  The back of the plate carries the stamp "Z.S. & Co. Bavaria."

This 13 inch tall composition nude may have been inspired by Ms. Morn.  Although the arms have been reversed, otherwise the pose is the same.  She retains her original mohair wig and probably was given away as a prize at a carnival or boardwalk arcade.

Bathing Beauty of the Week

This fantastic fashion lady by Galluba and Hofmann is as big as she is beautiful.  A little later in the Edwardian period, she has sheer tinted stockings instead of textured stockings, slim heeled pumps in place of low bootines, and she lacks the ribbed undergarments found on some of her earlier sisters.  Although still shapely, she is slimmer, without the exaggerated curves typical of the earlier fashion ladies.  Her face is especially exquisite with large blue-grey eyes and parted lips, her graceful gestures display her delicate and detailed hands, and a molded necklace encircles her slender throat. Of the finest bisque and modeling, she is 10.5 inches tall, with no visible marks.   She has been redressed and her mohair wig is a replacement.  Under her shirt is an old auction label from  Sotherby's York Avenues Galleries label (she was Lot #376), but there is no date.