Please help me identify this figurine. My grandmother travelled to Europe several times in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s and always came home with paintings, figurines, dolls and dishes as souvenirs. I have not been able to find any hints about what this might be or where it comes from. Inside the base there are two hand painted digits. The first one looks like an L but could also be C, I or 1. The second looks like a G but could also be an S or an 8. The figure reminds me of the rhyme “Bobby Shafto” but Google has not turned up any similar images. Thank you in advance for any help
Be sure to look at the bottom of all of them !! Though it is uncommon,, some may have a factory mark !! Many of these were made in bulk by known makers but were sold undecorated to other companies !! The decorators were paid by piecework so they had to mark the ones they did in order to get paid !! Sometimes its a number ( factories had as many as 30 artist decorators) but initials were most common !!
I used to buy these at Woolworths at anywhere from $.29 to $.59 and give them as Christmas gifts. Now many of these are collectable without markings !! I bought the cutest silver poodle with two puppies on tiny chains one year !! Now I see them selling on ebay !!
Thank you for taking the time to reply. A little disappointing, but an interesting little history lesson. Granny loved these things, so I have a lot of unidentified treasures in boxes and I guess I have a couple of whatnot shelves of my own. Now it seems most of them will remain anonymous. I’m going to stick with my theory that this one is Bobby Shafto.
Looks like either a CS or LS problem is,, these are usually the decorators initials,, not a mfrs/makers mark !! Items like this have been sold everywhere even here in the U.S. !! 1940`s and 50`s many people collected tiny figurines !! My grand father had a shelf full !! They were not by known makers but could be souvenirs or purchased at Woolworths !! Most homes back then had what many called a what-not shelf, or knick knack shelf !! It was just a popular hobby that could be people or dogs,cats horses, tiny vases and others !! Yours is about average size for people figurines !! There was probably another to go on the left of that one !!
