Shell Game

Any collector would be a winner with this shell-decorated box topped by two nubile bisque nudes. Although it has become common to refer to any antique shell-adorned box as a "sailor's valentine," the term should properly apply to the intricate and colorful shell creations housed in hinged boxes and produced in Barbados to sell to sailors during the 1800s. However, during the Victorian period it was fashionable for ladies of leisure to engage in shell craft, adorning boxes and other items with tiny shells painstakingly dipped in wax or glue and arranged in elaborate designs. The hobby was so popular that it was possible to purchase patterns and packets of presorted shells. An offshoot of the craze for shell-bedecked knick-knacks was a cottage industry in creating shell-encrusted souvenirs to be peddled at popular tourist resorts along the coasts of England and France. Wood boxes covered in paper, often in whimsical shapes, were decorated with sea shells, typically locally collected. While the sea shells were not as colorful and the patterns not as intricate as those produced in Barbados or Victorian parlors, the boxes were unusual and inexpensive souvenirs of a sea-side sojourn. Often a bisque figurine, a chromolithographed scrap, or other item was included to add color and interest. The two bare bisque bathing belles on this box certainly add both!

Both beauties are each around 4 inches long. It is not possible without detaching them to look for marks, but they appear to be part of a series by William Goebel of lovely ladies clad only in a ribbon tied around their high-piled tresses. 

The box itself is about 8.25 inches long and 4 inches high, not including the sizable shells covering the lid. It is made of thin wood covered in red paper. The interior is lined in faded red fabric and features a mirror edged in red cord. 

 

The Lady in Red

Oh! the lady in red, the fellows are crazy 

For the lady in red

She's a bit gaudy, but laudy 

What a personality.

1935, lyrics by Mort Dixon, music by Allie Wrubel

Most collectors, fellows or not, would be crazy for this lady in red in her saucy scarlet swimwear.  Of excellent china and 5 inches tall, she sits insouciantly in a molded wicker beach chair. 

This rubious beauty is actually a utilitarian powder or trinket box. Underneath, her seat is incised "D.F. 216," as well as with the William Goebel intertwined "G" and "W" under crown and "Dep." The Goebel mark is also stamped in blue.

Gals with Gump-tion

I have not been posting because I was in the midst of purchasing a new home and then moving and unpacking.  But as things have settled down and I am settling in, I will try to restart my bi-weekly posts.  This nubile nude reclines on her original box, which is padded and covered in golden brocade.  Her original light brown mohair wig is adorned with a fringe of fine golden-brown feathers and her pink slippers have molded, but undecorated, straps.  Her graceful hands are exceptionally delicate and detailed.  Of excellent bisque, this luscious lass is 5.5 inches long.  There are no visible marks.  One wonders what sort of elegant treat or treasure once resided in this beautiful box!

On the bottom of the box is round gold and white paper label reading "Gump's 268 Post St. San Francisco."  Gump’s started in San Francisco as a frame and mirror store in 1861, a partnership between Solomon Gump and his brother-in-law, Davis Hausmann. Gump subsequently bought out Hausmann's interest in the firm and in 1871 was joined by his brother Solomon, the business becoming "S & G Gump: Mirrors, Mouldings, and Paintings."  As newly minted millionaires from the gold rush started shopping for fancy goods to furnish their new mansions, the Gump brothers  began to specialize in lines of fine quality luxury goods. Following the San Francisco earthquake, the Gumps had to rebuild.  In an advertisement from the June  12, 1909, edition of "The Argonaut," S & G Gump Company extended a "cordial invitation to the public to visit them at their new quarters at 246-268 Post Street."  Although most sources I found refer to the location as 250 Post Street, I have come across references to the 268 Post Street address up through the 1930s.  This helps date this beauty on her box to the early 1900s.  Operating under the motto, "Good taste costs no more," the store became known for its carefully curated offerings of luxury goods and was particularly renown for its collections of Oriental art and antiques.  In 1995, after losing its lease, the store moved to 135 Post Street.  Gump's filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and closed its store on December 23, 2018. However, in December of 2019, Gump's was reborn at the 250 Post Street location.

Although she has long lost the bottom of her box and whatever label it may have had, this 3.5 inch tall voluptuous bisque belle came from the same source.  She appears to be from the same maker as the lounging lady, with the same finely-sculpted hands and pink slippers with molded, but unpainted, ties.  Her box lid is covered in almost identical golden paisley brocade.  The long reddish-brown mohair wig appears to be a replacement, but she retains her original skirt of embroidered tan, reddish-brown, and gold fabric trimmed with tarnished gold lace.  She also carries no visible marks.

Rarity by Riera?

This elegant Edwardian is all original, from the top of her jaunty chapeau to the bottom of her velvet-covered box base (except for the antique paper rose I added to hide some damage to her left fingertips).  Twelve inches tall, she has a bisque head and limbs on an armature body.  

Although there are no visible marks, the modeling and decoration of her face (especially the feathered eyebrows) recalls the lovely ladies made by Dressel, Kister, and Company.  The large expressive hands are also typical of Dressel.

Her feet are tacked to the box lid with little nails, which are cleverly disguised as shoe buckles.

Her base is actually a box, that may have once held some sweet treats or treasured trinket.

Her outfit would be the epitome of fashion in the late 1910s, with the unusual mushroom-shaped hat fitted low over the eyebrows, short jacket with a wide collar, high waist, and a full skirt, such as pictured in this fashion plate from 1917.

She may be a rare fashion doll dressed by Mademoiselle E. Victoria Riera, who created exquisitely costumed dolls in France in the early 1900s.  Riera is first mentioned in the French magazine Femina in 1908 as the winner of a doll dressing contest for three little ladies she garbed in detailed historical costumes.  Her dolls had bisque heads and limbs, which Riera bought from other manufacturers, and wore beautifully tailored hand-sewn costumes representing historical eras, regional folk dress, or contemporary fashion.  Her dolls were posed on velvet bases, often, but not always, with a label carrying Riera's name and the year.  These dolls were luxury items, exhibited at museums and high-end fashionable stores. Riera continued to dress dolls through the 1910s, including taking part in exhibitions to help raise funds for the French war effort.  This 12-inch fashion lady auctioned by Theriault's has an identical bisque head to my belle on a box, the same unusual feet with the nail buckles, and a similar velvet-covered base. Theriault's attributed her to Riera.