Yet Another Coquette in a Corset

The German firm of Schafer and Vater loved to make things in a series. This blog has already featured several of its coquettes in corsets series. These curvaceous cuties gad about in their white combination undergarments, with a blue corset cinching their waists and pushing up their already ample bosoms. There only other accessories are Schafer's trademark black stockings, reddish orange heeled boots, and a big blue blossom adorning their blond tresses. This lovely lass is the sixth one I have found in this series and who knows what other poses are still out there. However, this bisque belle apparently wants to be loved as much for her mind as her body, as she looks up from her reading.  And what weighty tome of history, philosophy, or the sciences is she reading?

Oh, never mind. . . . Five inches long, this voluptuous bookworm is unmarked.

 

Another Coquette in a Corset

This lissome lass wears a big blue flower in her blond tresses, accessorizing the blue corset cinching her hour-glass waist. She is part of a series of curvy cuties in corsets by the German firm of Schafer and Vater. In addition to the black stockings so typical of Schafer, the under-dressed damsels in this series have blue flowers adorning flowing blond tresses, camisoles that expose softly rounded shoulders or ample cleavage, white bloomers, and orange ankle boots. Of excellent sharp bisque, this lovely lady is 3 inches tall. 

Although she is unmarked, there is no mistaking what I call the standard Schafer "party girl" face, with incised upper lids, smiling parted bee stung lips, and a laughing expression that suggests that she has partaken of one too many flutes of champagne.

 

The Long and Short of It

A couple of weeks ago this blog featured an elongated bathing belle by the German firm of Schafer and Vater. Here is another long and lithe bather, this time accompanied by a very short and rotund male admirer. Talk about "opposites attract!" The caption beneath their bare feet declares "What the Sea Saw." This is a bit of typical Schafer word play, no doubt referring to that standard piece of playground equipment the seesaw (also known s the teeter-totter), where when one rider goes down, the other rises up. Of good sharp bisque, this odd couple is 6.5 inches tall. Underneath is a faint incised Schafer and Vater crowned sunburst and "9806," as well as a freehand black "56."  

 

Long Tall Sally

Well, Long Tall Sally, she's

Built for speed, she got

Everything that Uncle John need

Oh, baby

Yes, baby

Wooh, baby

Havin' me some fun tonight, yeah

Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, Enotris Johnson, and Little Richard, 1956

This long tall bathing belle is by the German firm of Schafer and Vater. With those elongated arms and legs, she certainly should be able to speed through the surf and into Uncle John's heart. Across the front of her base is the incised caption "Blackpool Mermaid." Blackpool is on the Irish Sea in north-west England. It became a tourist destination in the 1840s with the advent of the railroad and grew into a booming sea-side resort with a promenade offering a wide variety of food and entertainment. Even today Blackpool continues to attract millions of visitors to its seafront.  Of excellent sharp bisque, this sea-side Sally is a long tall 7.5 inches. She is incised with the Schafer and Vater crowned sunburst and "7981" on back edge of her base. 

Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay

Sittin' in the mornin' sun

I'll be sittin' when the evenin' come

Watching the ships roll in

And then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah

I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay

Watching the tide roll away

Ooo, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay

Wastin' time

Otis Redding and Steve Cropper, 1967

This comic couple by Schafer and Vater may be sittin' on the dock of the bay, but the man clearly has his eyes on something other than the tide.  The object of his attention has appeared previously on this blog, so I was pleased to find her male match.  Like his lady love, the man is of excellent sharp bisque and is unmarked. Their torsos are hollow and the legs are hinged with wire, swinging freely back and forth.  

Laugh, Clown, Laugh!

You're supposed to brighten up a place

And laugh, Clown, laugh!

Paint a lot of smiles around your face

And laugh, Clown, don't frown

Dressed in your best colored humor

Be a pallietto and laugh, Clown, laugh!

Music by Ted Fio Rito, lyrics by Sam Lewis and Joe Young, 1928

This clown certainly seems to have a lot to laugh about, as an intoxicating, and apparently intoxicated, lovely lady swoons in his arms. Of blue glazed china, this 5.25-inch tall figurine is actually a bottle, with the lacy cuffs and lithe lower legs of his tipsy tootsie covering the cork. Called a "nipper" by collectors, these comic novelty bottles were intended to hold a "nip" of alcohol. Such bottles were often offered as gifts or prizes by saloons, liquor stores, clubs, and carnivals. The clown is dressed in traditional Pierrot costume with skullcap, ruffled collar, loose tunic top with large buttons, and loose pants. Perhaps the woman represents Columbine, another character from the Commedia dell'Arte tradition, and this gallant Pierrot is rescuing her from the wiles of his crafty rival, Harlequin. Despite his laughing leer, surely this Pierrot's motives are pure--after all, look at the big beautiful bouquet her brought her. This nifty nipper is by the German firm of Schafer and Vater and is faintly incised underneath with the firms crowned sunburst mark.

Spring in Her Step

Tell this laughing lass to shake a leg and she will happily comply.  She appears to be peeking over the edge of her spread skirt, which forms a shallow round trinket or ring dish.  Her two lithe legs jut straight up, each attached to the base by a small spring that allows them to quiver and quake.  Although only stamped underneath in black "Made in Germany," she is no doubt from the company of Schafer and Vater, known for its lissome leggy ladies.  Of excellent sharp bisque,  this miss and her  shimmying stems are 3 inches long and high. 

A Bevy of Black Beauties

This coffee-colored cutie has had a few hard knocks in her long life, costing her a couple of fingers and a big toe, but she hasn't lost her big, bright smile.  Despite her dings, she is still a very desirable figurine, perhaps one of the scarcest members of the scarce series of black belles in skimpy chemises by the German firm of Schafer and Vater.  This delightful dusky damsel is 3.75 inches long and tall.  She is marked underneath with only a freehand "17" in black.  Her white chemise with green and white is worn by all her sisters in this series.  All the pieces in this series I have seen are of the same excellent sharp bisque with superb sculpting.

Her face is deeply detailed, from her flowing tresses to her tiny molded teeth.  The features are certainly ethnic, but not exaggerated.  

 The laughing lady with the coyly cocked head is exceptionally lovely from her wavy black hair to her delicate bare feet.  Again, her features are ethnic, but realistically modeled.  She is 3.5 inches tall and unmarked.   Her companion with the heart-shaped topknot has more exaggerated facial features, but she perhaps holds one of the prettiest poses, with a graceful hand curved modestly in front of her rounded bare shoulders and full breasts.  She is 3.75 inches high and is the only one in the series wearing a molded pink corset. The mocha-colored maiden is also unmarked, but another one I have in my collection is incised "3531."

This 5-inch long figurine has curly black molded hair and a soft shimmering coffee complexion, with beautifully modeled bare legs and feet.  She is marked only with a black painted "48" on the bottom.

While previously all the poses could be called playful, this miss strikes one that is a bit more prurient, cupping her bare left breast and patting her well-padded posterior.  Unmarked, she is 5.5 inches long.

Back to playful, this time with a perky pink piglet.  As well as lovely leggy ladies, Schafer produced a lot of pig figurines and on occasion combined the two.  This sweetie and her swine are 5.5 inches long.  It is incised underneath “3530,” but another example I had in my collection also carried the Schafer crown mark. As another lady from this set is incised "3531," this indicates that this may have been the number series for this line.

Another black belle from Schafer, but belonging to a different series.  She is simply one of the Schafer black-stockinged series of buxom blonds given dark hair and a light brown complexion.  She even has blue eyes!  These gals adjusting their garters are 4 inches high.

Like the Cherries Ripe

Her lips are like the cherries ripe

That sunny walls from Boreas screen.

They tempt the taste and charm the sight.

                                

                                         --The Lass of Cessnock Banks, Robert Burns

Well, this leafy lass is certainly proudly displaying something ripe, rosy, and round, but they are not her lips! This prurient pin dish is from the German firm of Schafer and Vater.  Of excellent sharp bisque, this naughty novelty is beautifully sculpted, from the luscious lady's tousled blond tresses to the realistically modeled leaves.  Unmarked, this cheery miss and her extra-large cherries is 6.5 inches long and 5 inches wide.

Neither Bad Nor Bold

I have previously posted about Grace Drayton's popular parody of the painting "September Morn" by French artist Paul Chabas. Drayton, best known for her pleasingly plump Campbell Soup Kids, portrayed a pudgy and wide-eyed little Miss Morn, sometimes accompanied by the caption, "Oh! please don't think I'm bad or bold, Cause where it's deep, it's awful cold!" This 6.5 inch tall version of Drayton's bare baby bathing belle is made from excellent bisque and is superbly decorated.

A close up of the face shows the wonderful details of the features, including tiny finely painted eyelashes and highlighted eyes.

On the back of the base is a blurred facsimile of Drayton's signature, "G.G. Drayton."  Although otherwise unmarked, it resembles similar pieces by the German company Schafer and Vater.

A Little More Than a Glimpse. . . .

In olden days, a glimpse of stocking

Was looked on as something shocking.

But now, God knows,

Anything goes.

                                              Cole Porter, 1934

In the days of long skirts and multiple petticoats, the image of a shapely female leg with a well-turned ankle often appeared in naughty novelties, such as these lovely lower limbs.

This risqué bisque is a naughty nipper, a novelty bottle that once held a "nip" of alcohol and was often given away by saloons, liquor stores, or at carnivals as gifts or prizes.  The German company Schafer and Vater is know for its comic or bawdy bottles.  Although marked only with a blurred digit, this 6.5 inch tall bottle resembles many of this company's products, especially its underdressed lasses showing off the their lithe legs in molded stockings.

This 5.75 inch tall leg is a bit of a mystery.  Of bisque, it is hollow and open at the top, as well as at the heel, so it could not have served as a bottle.  It is also clad in a stocking of real fabric and the shoe is covered in silk, further suggesting that this limb was not meant to hold liquid.  It cannot stand by itself, so I added the base, with a rod that fits up into the molded hole in the heel.  Perhaps it was meant to be a comic candy container and once had a bag of small sweet treats.  Or, with a base,  maybe it was a counter display to show off a brand of stocking?