Impudent Imposter

This flirtatious and flamboyant flapper is from chalkware and was probably originally a carnival prize. Unmarked, she is 6.5 inches tall. At first glance, she appears to be a knock-off of Genevieve Pfeffer's Splashme dolls, but there are subtle differences, as the Splashme character has her folded hands tucked under their chin and has molded slippers (this seated bright-eyed bathing belle's bare toes are visible under her painted slippers). 

The position of her hands, the bare feet, and the small molded, but unpainted, wings behind her shoulders instead indicate that the underlying figurine is a direct copy of Rose O'Neill's pensive Kewpie or "The Thinker." The picture below is from my July 2008 article in "Antique Doll Collector" entitled "Genevieve Pfeffer and Her Alluring Girlies," which sets out the history of the Splashme bathing beauty dolls. The photograph contrasts O'Neill's thoughtful Kewp with Pfeffer's flirty girlie. So this round-eyed sea siren is apparently the illegitimate offspring of both the Kewpie and Splashme, with the Kewpie's form and the Splashme's face and ensemble.

Ironically, Pfeffer herself was once accused of copying the pensive Kewpie for her Splashme dolls. The defendants in a 1920 patent infringement suit brought by Pfeffer against Western Doll Manufacturing Company had argued that Pfeffer based her Splashme on the pensive Kewpie. In fact, the 1917 patent is for an "ornamental design for a doll" submitted by Pfeffer shows the original doll with the position of her hands and bare feet matching those of the Kewpie. In that case, the federal district court ruled Pfeffer's patent was invalid, finding that she had merely painted "baby doll" eyes, a flapper bob, and a one-piece bathing suit on a plaster copy of a Kewpie figurine and had not created anything new or novel. However, Pfeffer appealed and in 1922, the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals overruled the lower court and held that Pfeffer's patent was valid. The Splashme's eyes with their star-burst of long lashes, full red lips parted to expose white teeth, bobbed hair, and colorful swimwear would prevent any causal consumer from mistaking the sultry Splashme for O'Neill's innocent imp.