Fringe Benefits

This fabulous fun funky flapper lamp features a chalkware bathing beauty sheltering herself from the sun with an oversized parasol that serves as the lamp's shade.  The shade still retains most of its fancy fringe of glass beads, probably made in Czechoslovakia.

The old wire runs up through her body, making rewiring to modern safety standards difficult.  Fortunately, I bought her because she is a beautiful bathing belle, not because I needed more lighting.

The flirtatious flapper herself is 16 inches high.  She closely resembles these plaster poupees (from the fantastic collection of Nannette Rod) modeled after the naughty, but nice, illustrations by French boudoir artist Maurice Milliere.

Although she has suffered a few dings and touch-ups over the decades, overall this lovely lady lamp is in extraordinary condition for her age, considering the fragility of her materials.  Such lamps were most likely produced as prizes for carnivals and fairs.  This gambling push card offered "the lucky winner" an almost identical lamp.

The picture on the push card shows that the lamp was originally bedecked with two ribbon bows, one covering the place where the stem of the lamp attached to the figure's hand and the other just below the socket.  I tried to recreate the bows using fine silk ribbon.