This bronze bathing beauty is the last, but not least, of the trio of cast coquettes from the previous postings. She is clad in a bathing outfit consisting short-sleeved nifty nautical blouse and swim shorts to her mid-thigh. Ballet-style bathing slippers adorn her slender ankles and feet. Resting by her knees is wide-brim sun hat nearly identical that lying by the side of the statuesque siren from the previous posting, so they are almost certainly from the same foundry. Her smooth skin has a golden patina, while the bow in her chignon and sun hat are pale red, the blouse silvery, and shorts and shoes have a soft greenish patina. Just 3.5 inches long, she is delicately modeled with fine details. Like the prior bronze beauties, she is unmarked, but mostly likely was made in Austria around the early 1900s.
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.