I wasn't fully aware what I had actually found here at first, I only knew she looked very cute and interesting in her commedia dell'arte mask and costume. She seemed to be made of a paper mâché composite type material, and egads the paint was so brittle, and badly flaking off everywhere that my finger tips touched. But for $2.00 I went ahead and bought her, and later while sitting in my car and trying not to handle her too much, I noticed the words, "Made in France" plus the name, "Terre de Retz" carved into the backside of the dress. Another signature (also located on her dress and visible in the right side angle photo of her below) appears to be from the person who originally painted her. Googling these words revealed this to be one in a massive, variety series of rare, deco era powder boxes from 1920's France. Boy, what a find! CLICK HERE to get a brief history and more info about these beautiful powder boxes over at Cleopatra's Boudoir!
Not only do you share with us your antique finds, you expand our knowledge of the world around us. I had never thought to seek out blog sites featuring perfume and the art that goes with such exotic scents (bottle wise, advertising wise, etc.)
ReplyDeleteAs always, Thank you Karswell!
She's got a great, wistful longing look, that's a really nice sculpt! The ruff makes her a bit unearthly stretchy which gives the figure a even more interesting look. That's quite the find!
ReplyDeleteThere is one thing to consider, restore or not to restore, that is the question.
ReplyDeleteRestoration might harm its value, and where would you find someone with the skill to restore this lady? Many who have something in need of restoring and end up leaving the item as is and let the new owner make the decision.
Whatever you decide, it is still a charming item.
I wonder if it's at least possible to spray this with something that would seal down the flaking paint--or is it the outer layer of the papier mache itself that's coming off? But I sure would hate to experiment and do irreversible damage instead.
ReplyDeleteGolly but this is a fine looking little paper sculpture. I'll bet these are pretty rare, as it feels kinda like a miracle that one would survive this long. Really cool find!
I honestly have no plans of restoring this, I'm the one guy in the world that actually likes things with a little wear 'n tear. The world is far from perfect, no reason why my collectables need to be!
ReplyDeleteOkay, more Knowledge Expansion up next, with a return visit to Satan's Flaming Infernooooooo!! Thank you all for the continued comments and kinds words :)