Naughty Kitty! Very, Very Naughty Kitty!

Along with bathing beauties and naughty novelties, I also collect antique and vintage maneki nekos, the famed Japanese beckoning cat.  Known as the "lucky cat" or "welcoming cat," the maneki neko is supposed to beckon good fortune into a home or business.  Sometimes, I find a "two-fer," a vintage neko that is also naughty.  This rather prim-looking pussycat sitting proudly on his pillow has a very naughty secret. . . .
 

 

for underneath is an extremely explicit erotic scene of two lovers.  This piece was certainly influenced by shunga, the traditional Japanese erotic art, generally appearing in woodblocks.  The vivid and unashamed depiction of sexual activity (and the exaggerated genitalia) are typical of shunga.  This feline (and his frisky friends) is 4.5 inches high and appears to be made of the same low-fired clay as the traditional hakata ningyō.  This neko has his left paw raised and Asian art expert Alan Scott Pate, in his delightful and informative book, Maneki Neko, Japanese Beckoning Cats--From Talisman to Pop Icon, writes that in some traditions the raised left paw is associated with "night businesses," such as bars, restaurants, and brothels (signed copies of this book can be purchased directly from Mr. Pate at info@antiquejapanesedolls.com).  Instead of a lucky cat, this neko might instead be called a "get lucky" cat.

 

The nemuri neko, or sleeping cat, is closely related to the maneki neko.  The serenely sleeping feline symbolizes peace and harmony.  The most famous nemuri neko was immortalized by the master woodcarver Hidari Jingorō at the Tōshō-gū Shrine in Nikko, Japan.  This cat-napper is depicted as the traditional tricolor Japanese bobtail,  and her elaborate bib indicates that she is a pampered and prized pet.  But this napping neko also has a secret side. . . .

as this content cat also conceals an explicitly sexual scene.  Also of clay ceramic, this figurine is 6 inches long. 

A Bathing Girl Who Is a Real Doll

In addition to bathing beauty figurines, I also collect antique dolls.  Sometimes I find a little treasure that fits into both.  Inside an antique and slightly battered cardboard box labeled "Bathing Girl". . . .

is the little bathing girl herself, clad in her original brightly-striped knit bathing suit and matching cap, trimmed with silky bows.  Marked "Heubach Kopplesdorf 250-17/0 Germany," and 6.5 inches tall, in her day, she was a rather inexpensive  play doll, but sweet and pretty enough to catch a little girl's eye and win her heart.  I could see a row of these bathing girls displayed among the lithographed tin sand pails and wood-handled fish nets in some little souvenir shop along a 1920s seaside boardwalk.  Papa, Mama, and little Eloise are taking an leisurely evening stroll after dinner down the pier as the last rays of the setting sun glimmer red and orange over the lapping waves and the shop lights come on.  Suddenly Eloise stops, pressing her slightly sunburned nose against the toy shop window.  There stands the dearest little doll in the whole world!  Dressed in a pretty striped bathing suit just like Eloise's, the doll has eyes as bright blue as the morning seaside sky, shining auburn curls, and is just the right size to fit into Eloise's pinafore pocket!  Papa and Mama, noticing that Eloise has fallen behind, turn and see their daughter staring longingly at the little doll.  They share an indulgent smile.  After all, they are on holiday, Eloise is a good little girl, and the doll is not at all expensive.  A few minutes later, Eloise, her sun-kissed cheeks even rosier, skips happily between her parents, smiling down at her new little companion. 

Bathing Beauty of the Week

This bizarre vase is part of a series by Hertwig and Company of Germany.  This particular peculiar piece was entitled "Der Gutmutige" (the good natured).  Atop the bald pate of a monocled man  perches a young woman in a short glittery dress.  There is a hole on one edge of the monocle and corresponding holes in the woman's hands, and if a cord is run through the holes, the woman appears to be playfully tugging at the man's monocle (as one friend said, she has "caught his eye").  Judging from the lady's brief and garish outfit, she is perhaps a showgirl of some sort and the man is her good natured and generous sugar daddy.  Of the finest sharp bisque, with excellent modeling and details, there is an opening in the back of the man's skull.  Incised underneath "1273," this piece is 5.5 inches tall.

       

This a copy of a Hertwig catalogue page picturing the entire strange series.  They are from left to right, the "The Lovers," "Grass Widow," "Merry Widow," "Suffragette," "Those Dames," "The Good Natured," and "Their Dream."  Note that the number in the catalogue matches that incised on the bottom of the above vase.

A friend sent me this picture of another of these Hertwig oddities.  This one, according to the catalogue page, is "The Lovers." What at first glance appears to be an out-of-place waterfall is actually the lady's fashionable fur stole and matching muff.

Bathing Beauty of the Week

Made to perch on a pretty pincushion or fluffy powder puff, Ms. #547 admires her gold bracelet, while we admire her.  Her amber eyes with their smoky gray shadowing are typical of the finer pincushion figurines and bathing beauties made by the German company of Fasold and Stauch.  Although only 3.5 inches tall, including her base, she is beautifully modeled, with arms and legs free from her body and delicate hands with free thumbs.   Of excellent china, this beguiling bare belle is incised only "6540" on the base.

A Flea in Her Ear. . . .Or, A Little Farther South

Madame, the flea that crept between your breasts

I envied that there he should take his rest.

The little creature's fortune was so good

That angels feed not on such precious food.

John Donne (1572-1631), On a Flea on His Mistress's Bosom

For centuries humans have been fed on by fleas.  Yet these nasty blood-sucking, disease-spreading parasites engendered a genre of early eroticism, the flea hunt.  The image of a nubile young woman intensely searching her naked milk-white skin in the intimacy of her boudoir appeared in everything from fine art to bawdy ballads.

Woman Catching a Flea, Georges de La Tour, 1638.

But fleas are tiny, and sometimes the pursuit for the pest requires a posse, so it was not uncommon to also portray a helper, often husband or lover, literally shedding a little light on the hunt.

The Merry Flea Hunt, Gerrit Van Honthorst,  1628

Although certainly far later, the concerned couple in In #546 continue this historic erotic theme.  Of excellent china, this 4.5 inch tall figurine is finely painted and beautifully detailed.  It is marked only with a faint and partial blue crown underneath.  The concentration on the helpful husband's face as he holds up the candle and bends closer to better scan his wife bare breasts is truly touching!  Schafer and Vater also produced a flipper featuring a lone female searching for a frisky flea.

Visions of Salome

A friend forwarded me an online article announcing that interpretative dancer Maud Allan's original Salome costume, currently held by the Dance Collection Danse (DCD) in Toronto, Canada, will receive treatment from the Canadian Conservation Institute.   

 

 

Once conserved, the costume will join other Maud Allan artifacts in DCD's extensive Allan archives, which, according to the article, include a bisque nodder (this example is from my collection). . . .

 

 

and Salome cigarettes (also from my collection).

 

 

 

In fact, Ms. Allan, during her brief stardom as the "Salome dancer," inspired all sorts of diverse memorabilia.  The name "Salome" may invoke many visions, but a waltz is probably not one of the first to come to mind (my collection). . . .

 

Although born in Canada in 1873, Maud Allan moved with her family to San Francisco, California, while a child.  She became an accomplished pianist and in 1895 traveled to Berlin to continue her music studies, but in 1902 abandoned the piano to become a dancer of "musically impressionistic mood settings."  Allan, who designed her own costumes and created her own choreography, first debuted in the title role in “The Vision of Salome” in 1906, but it was in 1908 when she appeared on the London stage that her Salome achieved stardom. Her two-week engagement stretched into 18 months and she became one of the most famous and wealthy female performers of her time.  After her triumph in England, Allan would tour Europe and the United States, but her fame quickly faded. The fad for interpretative dance was passing as troupes such as the Ballet Russes combined the freedom of interpretative dance with the discipline of ballet, creating a new, polished, and more challenging form of modern dance. In 1918, Allan returned to England to star in Oscar Wilde's "Salome," and became enmeshed in an unsuccessful libel action that ultimately destroyed her reputation and career (for more information regarding the "Black Book" trial, I recommend Philip Hoare's book, Oscar Wilde's Last Stand).

 

In my book, Bawdy Bisques and Naughty Novelties, I have a chapter devoted to Ms. Allan and the bisque and china Salomes she inspired. 

 

 

Bathing Beauty of the Week

Ms. #545 shows that good things come ON small packages.  This sultry sultana is by Schafer and Vater, and the same harem lady was also produced sans box.  Of excellent china with sharp modeling, this beauty on a box is 4 inches tall and carries the Schafer sunburst mark stamped in black.  The undulating odalisque is of pink precolored china, as can be seen where the cold-painted gilt on her skirt has worn off, while the box was cast in white slip.

Bathing Beauty of the Week

Smiling sweetly from her shower, Ms. #542 must be washing off sand on the seaside, because she is a bathing suit with molded horizontal ribbing.  An unusual piece, the bathing belle is molded in pure white bisque, while her shower stall (which is open in the back to form a vase) is of green precolored bisque.  The modeling is sharp and detailed.  Just 3.75 inches tall, this bathing belle vase is incised "7742" underneath. 

Bathing Beauty of the Week

Peeking out shyly from her curtained wicker beach chair, this little bathing belle was a recent find at a local estate sale.  Across the top of the chair is a cursive  caption, "Houston, Tex."  She is part of a large and varied family of souvenir bathing beauties, charming little china trinkets made in Germany, and bearing the name of some city, often not one generally associated with sunny beaches or seaside frolics.  She is just three inches tall and is incised on the back "5483 Germany." 

Some more of the souvenir sorority.  These little ladies are generally well done for this type of novelty memento and they can be found in a colorful and wide variety.  Although they are authentic antique German bathing beauties, these souvenir bathers are surprising affordable.   A delightful and diverse collection could be formed just from these sweet souvenirs.

WARNING:  Mundial Company of Belgium is issuing copies of some of these little souvenir swimmers.  Look at HR228 and HR229 and the HR886-1B through HR933-3 under "Baigneuses."  HR228 and HR229 have crests for Barry Island and Yarmouth, rather than cursive captions.  The other series is a fantasy combination of angular ashtrays and various bathing belles, carrying printed captions for resorts in France and Italy.  As is typical for this company, the items do not carry any marks indicating that they are new items manufactured in Belgium.

Bathing Beauty of the Week

 

As Ms. #541 demonstrates, a man's, and a bathing beauty's, home is his or her castle.  I suspect she was once an aquarium ornament, with the openings in the castle to accommodate a curious fish, or a perhaps a bubbler.  Stamped underneath "Foreign 42" and of good china, she is 6.5 inches high.

Bathing Beauty of the Week

Ms. #538 is another bare-bottomed belle.  She is one of the fanciest flippers I have seen, from her fetching hat with its yellow plumes to the hand-painted flowers on her flaring skirt to her high-heeled pumps with ballet-type ties.  This colorful coquette is of the finest bisque and decoration, but is not marked.    

Turn her over, and you see that she is so intent on tying her shoes, she neglected to close her knickers. 

Bathing Beauty of the Week

Her chiton swirling around her,  Ms. #537 appears to be playing her tambourine with wild abandon.  Perhaps she is supposed to be a maenad, a female follower of the Greek god, Dionysus, who often danced around their deity in a frenzied rapture.  By Schafer and Vater, this beautiful bisque bacchae has a rather cheeky secret. . . .

for underneath are her voluptuous bare buttocks, framed with a laurel wreath.  In ancient Greece, athletes and poets were crowned with laurel wreaths as awards for their accomplishments.  One wonders just what this young lady's talents were to warrant a wreath around her nether regions. Of excellent sharp bisque typical of Schafer, this unusual flipper is 4.5 inches wide and 3.25 inches tall, and is incised "5838" underneath.

A friend said that this callipygian cutie is "resting on her laurels."  Wish I had thought of that one!

Bathing Beauty of the Week

 

Ms. #536 is a "modedamen mit gefäß" (fashion lady with container) according to the catalogue of Hertwig and Company of Germany.  She is part of a series of elegant Edwardian ladies "mit paperhüten und mit tuchschur bemalt" (with paper hats and painted flocking), striking insouciant poses.  Of excellent bisque  and modeling, she is molded in sharp base relief against a rectangular vase.  Her form-fitting and daringly decollete top is covered in fine green flocking, giving it the look and feel of cloth.  She wears the remains of her original mohair wig adorned with a  replaced blue crepe paper hat.  Incised "1086" on back lower edge of the vase, she is 5.5 inches tall.

 Here she is as pictured in the Hertwig catalogue.  Notice that the catalogue number matches the incised number on the figurine.

 

I have added more pictures to my page on Hertwig's petite pets, thanks to a generous English collector!

Better Safe Than Sorry!

This is another frisky fairing, featuring a fair maiden telling her rather forward gentleman caller, "Be good, and if you can't be good, be careful."  This may be one of the earliest safe sex public service announcements!  Variations of this phrase featured in several racier music hall songs.  Of good sharp bisque, and 3 inches long and 4.25 inches high, it is very nicely detailed and decorated for this genre.  Underneath it is stamped "Made in Germany" in a circle. 

You first, my dear Gaston. . . .

This comic china figurine is known as a fairing, because these small inexpensive porcelain pieces often were given as prizes or sold as souvenirs at fairs from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s.  Made in Germany, many fairings carry a caption.  This fairing features two well-dressed gentlemen apparently preparing to share the buxom blonde beauty lying on the bed behind them.  The caption reads, "After you my dear Alfonse."  This phrase was made famous by the American comic strip, "Alphonse and Gaston" by Frederick Opper, which featured two garishly dressed and extremely ugly, but extraordinarily polite, Frenchmen.  The comic first appeared in 1901; however, neither of the fairing's rakish roués resemble the grotesque Gaston or Alphonse and their elegant clothing is closer to what a Victorian gentleman would have worn in the late 1800s.  Although it is possible that the fairing dates from after 1900, I wonder whether it is earlier and that the comic strip's catch phrase actually was inspired by some preceding vaudeville act or music hall skit.  The quality of this fairing is quite high for this genre, with detailed modeling and nicely done decoration.  Stamped "Made in Germany" in a circle underneath, this funny fairing is  3.5 inches long and 4 inches high.

Bathing Beauty of the Week

Ms. #535 is a supersized sensual siren by Galluba and Hofmann.  Her high-piled molded hair is unusual for Galluba, but her exceptionally beautiful face is decorated in typical Galluba style.  She is 5.75 inches tall and is incised "9600" on back of the base, as well as stamped "Germany" in red inside the base.  

2013 Austin Doll Collectors Society Show!

The Austin Doll Collector's 38th Annual Doll Show and Sale will be on October 19, 2013, at the Norris Conference Center.  Check under  Pages for more information.

The Last of the Toothsome Toothpick Tootsies

This will be the last post on the series of sensual sirens attached to green precolored bisque toothpick or match holders, all apparently by the same mystery maker.    Ms. #389 appeared earlier on this blog.  Of sharp bisque with excellent modeling and decoration, this 5 inch tall literate lovely is incised “5513" between the back legs of her chair (Ms. #440 is marked "5516" and Ms. #504 is incised "5193," further supporting the supposition that they were indeed by the same company.) Once there was a green jasperware container of some sort attached to the right side, but now only two bits of green bisque remain.  

   

Whoever the manufacturer was, the company seems to really liked women and wine.  Ms. #534 carries a big bubble of bubbly,  while her sister holds out her wine glass to be filled. These two buxom imbibing belles from my blog posting of December 4, 2011 both pose by precolored bisque containers shaped like champagne corks.  The beauty in blue holds up her champagne flute to a rosy cheek, while the other in orange pours herself a drink. 

The Return of the Toothsome Toothpick Tootsies

This week I return to the review of a series of toothpick or match holders featuring a bisque beauty in a rather revealing outfit standing against a small container of green precolored bisque.  Although I do not know their manufacturer, I am certain it is not Schafer and Vater.  Like Ms. #504, who was featured on January 23rd, this buxom blonde wears a fairly scanty swimsuit.  Perhaps in keeping with the water theme, the  green precolored bisque container behind her features molded reeds.  Unmarked, except for a freehand "4" in blue, she is 5.5 inches tall.