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.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

My Sweetheart's the Man in the Moon


My sweetheart’s the man in the moon.
I’m going to marry him soon.
‘Twould fill me with bliss just to give him one kiss.
But I know that a dozen I never would miss.
I’ll go up in a great big balloon
And see my sweetheart in the moon.
Then behind some dark cloud where no one is allowed
I’ll make love to the man in the moon.

James Thornton (1861 – 1938),  songwriter and vaudeville performer

This week is another moonstruck maiden and her moon man.  These star-struck sweethearts are pictured in my book Bawdy Bisques and Naughty Novelties: German Bathing Beauties and Their Risqué Kin. Underneath, these honeymooners are incised with the Schafer and Vater starburst mark and "1551." 
 

As you can see from this picture comparing them to the pair in my previous post, these are larger lunar lovers at 5.25 inches tall.   The bigger belle, in her excitement, has apparently dropped her rose, which lies abandoned on the base.  


This view shows the vases in the back, sculpted like swirling clouds.



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