At Last. . . a Man!*

Anyone who has followed this blog knows that I need a man, most specifically a beach beau by Galluba and Hofmann, but considering how rare the male of the bathing beauty species is, I am on the lookout for any handsome seaside studmuffin. This gorgeous guy has recently joined my collection, much to the delight of my bounteous bevy of bisque bathing belles. Of sharp precolored bisque with loop jointed arms, he is 6.5 inches tall. He has a slim, well-toned male body. . . 

including a nice tight tush.

There are holes in the soles of his feet for the supporting rods of a stand. The only mark is "Foreign" stamped in black on the sole of his left foot. In 1890, the United States Congress enacted the McKinley Tariff Act, which included the requirement that items imported to the United States be marked with their country of origin. The use of "Foreign" was initiated as a way to comply with the Act, as well as subsequent laws enacted by other countries. The "Foreign" mark not only indicated that an item was manufactured for export, it could be used to avoid marking the originating country's name on a product when there might be some tension between it and receiving country. For example, goods from Western Germany imported behind the Iron Curtain and some Japanese goods manufactured for import to the United Kingdom through the 1940s might carry the "Foreign" mark. 

In this case, I think this gent can be safely attributed to the German firm of Hertwig and Company, dating from the 1920s through the 30s. On January 7, 2001, Theriault's auctioned off samples from the Hertwig archives, which included this bisque bride and groom. The modeling and facial decoration on the groom is nearly identical to that of my guy.

A similar Hertwig bride and groom from my own collection also establish the strong family resemblance.

I suspect with the jointed arms and the holes in the feet for a supporting stand, my new guy was intended to be dressed (the jointed arms would have made costuming easier) and displayed, most likely as a groom. However, he certainly nicely sets off his new swim attire, created from a scrap from an antique wool bathing suit.

* The title is a line from a 1937 Warner Brothers cartoon entitled "I Only Have Eyes for You." In the cartoon, all the characters are anthropomorphized birds. The homely ice man is wooed by the lonely spinster, but he has a crush on the pretty Katie Canary, who longs to marry a radio crooner. Early in the cartoon, the iceman delivers ice to the spinster, who tries to woo him with all sorts of food. When he hides under her bed, she shouts, "At last. . . a man!" (around 2:09 minutes) and dives in after him (it's a sexist joke that Warner Brothers used over and over through the years).