Nice Kicks

Throughout Europe, shoes have long been a symbol of prosperity, luck, and fertility. With the expansion of the porcelain industry, and the Victorian's love of knick-knacks, miniature shoes of china and porcelain, often with elaborate adornments, became a popular collectible and gift. This fanciful footwear is by the German firm of Galluba and Hofmann, demonstrating that this company produced products other its famed bathing beauties and fashion ladies, often featured on this blog.

The shoes are lavishly decorated with applied flowers and gilt (I wonder why I have never seen on of their lovely ladies so bedecked?). The pink shoes are trimmed with blue forget-me-not flowers, a popular decoration on china ornaments of the period, which were often given as gifts. Both pieces are 4 inches long and the boot is 3.5 inches high.

Each is stamped on the sole with Galluba's crowned shield mark. 

 

A Bee in Her Bonnet -- Well, Not a Bee and a Bit Farther South

This belle in a bustle by the German firm of Carl Thieme has appeared previously on this blog, but recently I came across what may be the source of inspiration for this gaudily-gowned gal tying her garter.

This early French fashion print shows a "Femme en Robe à la Polonaise."  This style, with a fitted bodice and the back of the skirt drawn up into swags, was popular in the 1770s and 1780s.  Thieme certainly seems to have based his belle on this early print, substituting a footstool for the stone and a tiled floor for the grassy lawn.  As these prints were made to appeal to wealthy women of fashion, it is unlikely that this lady's pose was originally meant to titillate.  It was instead a creative way to show the style of shoes and stockings worn to accessorize this elaborate outfit.  However, when Thieme  translated the paper print into porcelain in the late 1800s, the intent was certainly to entice. . . .   

. . . . especially as the bustle was hinged to lift up and reveal both the lady's blushing bare buttocks and a rather bold brown beetle.

What a Beautiful Pussy You Are!

"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love, 

What a beautiful Pussy you are, 

You are, 

You are! 

What a beautiful Pussy you are!" 

The Owl and the Pussy Cat, Edward Lear

With remarks by a certain presidential candidate regarding his propensity for grabbing pussies making headlines, I thought this week I would post this fine figurine of woman and her pretty pussy that any collector would like to grab.  By the German firm of Dressel, Kister, and Company, this nubile nude and her feline friend are of the finest china and decoration.  Marked underneath her left foot with crowned “L” in gray and freehand “2,” this curvaceous cutie and her cuddly kitty are 4 inches long and 3.5 inches.  The "L" mark replaced the bishop's crozier mark around 1900, under the proprietorship of Rudolph Lenck, and later his widow, Lina, who sold the factory in 1919.