Victorian Fairings

Victorian Fairings

Victorian Fairings

Victorian Fairings derive the name from the English fairs where they were sold are given as prizes.

The small figural groups were made from porcelain, and often brightly coloured.

Cheap, cheerful and aimed at the popular end of the market, fairings have the same saucy humour of the seaside postcard, complete with punning captions.

Favourite subjects included marital scenes, canoodling lovers, cats, dogs and children.

Events from everyday life such as visits to the dentist, and the Crimea and the Franco prussian Wars also inspired models.

Though English in theme and caption, fairings were in fact made in Germany for export.

The principal manufacture was conta and boehme of possnek.

Victorian Fairings

though the firm’s early fairings were unmarked, from the late  1870s models were stamped on the base with a crooked arm holding a dagger, and pieces were also given an impressed serial number.

After 1891 the words made in Germany were added.

Early fairings are often better moulded than later examples.

Victorian Fairings

Quality had declined  by the end of the century and new products such as Goss and crested china provided increasing competition in the souvenir market.

Demand for these German made items came to an end with the outbreak of world War one.

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