This type of Victorian china fairing was given as a prize at fairs. I 'fancy' this one, my grandmother's originally, was made in the early 1860s by Conta and Boehme, a German company who perfected the art of mass production before the English manufacturers did.
The light referred to was a candle on top of the red cloth, long since broken off. I think it was rather 'fanciful' to imagine that two people could have a good night's sleep in this narrow bed!
My large Collins English dictionary gives 22 meanings for 'fancy'.
Thank you for sharingt this, Hazel. I remember fairings being very popular in the early 20th century in many working class homes because everybody loved to go to the fair and spend a few pennies, and often came home with these little prizes, but most were cheap plaster casts, not china. My grandparents had them on the mantelpiece, the dresser, and anywhere else they could find the space.
Hmm ... mantelpiece and dresser? They're not what we immediately think of in a modern home either, are they?
@wordpixman I always remember this on my grandmother's dressing table in the little cottage in the street in Claydon. She only had the one. It ws a long time before I found out what it was. It's been dropped and stuck together so has probably no value at all now as I understand it was one of the more common fairings. I also believe that some of them had quite bawdy little sayings! We still have a mantelpiece and a dresser!! I remember my father-in-law always wearing a tie even when retired and he used to take it off, roll it up and put it on the mantelpiece at night before he retired to bed. I wondered if it was an old Suffolk custom??!!
@quietpurplehaze ... thanks for that, Hazel. My father also wore a tie and observed the nightly ritual of rolling it up and putting it away with all his others in a biscuit tin on top of the kitchen dresser. He was a London East-Ender, so it was not necessarily a Suffolk custom, but close!
@wordpixman Oh well that's interesting! I also have a pic of my father around early 1950s sitting on the beach at Felixstowe in suit, shirt, tie and polished shoes!!!!!!!!!!
Hazel, love the collage and story! I think the small bed probably had something to do with people being smaller and being close helped on those cold nights, you know like a "three dog night".
You know if we were closer we would probably be friends.
@gnilrets Haha - I've never heard of a "three dog night". It's strange, isn't it, how one can get to know somebody through the photos they take?! Yes, guess we would be friends - my email address is on my profile so you could drop me a line now and then......
Hmm ... mantelpiece and dresser? They're not what we immediately think of in a modern home either, are they?
You know if we were closer we would probably be friends.