Let's Talk About Pottery & Collectables
Collectables => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: Carolyn Preston on September 24, 2009, 12:36:43 AM
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And here is a new mystery for us...
This is my "Bonnie Lassie" (BL for short), a piece of what I believe may be Carnival Ware, which I have on good authority (Glen from the GMB) has little to no connection with the carnival glass that she is so knowledgeable about. Unfortunately.
She is 14 inches tall (including the base and the hat).
However, maybe somebody else knows about her, who made her, why she was made, etc.
Carolyn
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Not exactly Carnival Ware, but along the same lines! This type of simple, cast plaster figure was a cheaply made ornament (though quite decorative in its own right, especially nicely painted ones like yours), which were given away at fairs, fetes etc, and are generically known as 'Fairings'. The older ones from the early-late 19thC, which were usually earthenware or low-grade porcelain, are widely collected and can be quite valuable. Yours looks to date from around the 1950s, and these were often made by 'homeworkers'. They were simple to make as all that was needed was a rubber mould, a bag of plaster-of-paris and some paint, and as they were generally produced by amateur hands, such as housewifes making a little pin money, the quality of the finish varied greatly from very poor to very good. Yours looks to be one of the better ones, and though the value is very subjective, a collector would possibly pay upwards of ?20.00 for an example as nice as this, supposing that you could find the right collector..
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Fairings used to be seen a lot when I was a child, my grannie had loads of them as she adored going to the fair and winning things! I was allowed to play with them, but none of hers was as big as yours Carolyn - 14" sounds big for a fairing - the ones grannie had were around 4" tall, certainly no bigger than 6".
Ohhh I just found this site about china fairings too: http://www.chinafairings.org/ - might be worth contacting them too about your wee lassie Carolyn. :x-fingers:
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Did fairs not also give out items made of *CHALKWARE* ?
Click Here - Please (http://cgi.ebay.ca/vintage-Carnival-Chalkware-Hula-Girl_W0QQitemZ350255163561QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item518cd5a8a9&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14)
Can you scratch a mark in the bottom with your fingernail, like you could with a piece of chalk Carolyn? Or is it harder?
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Fairings used to be seen a lot when I was a child, my grannie had loads of them as she adored going to the fair and winning things! I was allowed to play with them, but none of hers was as big as yours Carolyn - 14" sounds big for a fairing - the ones grannie had were around 4" tall, certainly no bigger than 6".
Ohhh I just found this site about china fairings too: http://www.chinafairings.org/ - might be worth contacting them too about your wee lassie Carolyn. :x-fingers:
I'm not feelng it here, Anne. These are way, way smaller than BL. And I get no special message with mine either.
I think Fairings might be just a British thing rather than international.
I thought it was chalkware, but according to Rose, that's not it, either. Off to check her link now.
Carolyn
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Okay Rose, I have now done the official scratch test. Failed miserably. Even with my fake nails, could not scratch a thing on the bottom of it. However, looking at your link (and some others I found) it does strike me as being very similar.
Carolyn