When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Vintage Japanese Bisque Lady Figural Whisk Broom JAPAN Half Doll Style.
Unusual and charming vintage, 5.5\"Japanese bisque/porcelain figural whisk broom featuring a finely modeled standing lady with molded golden-blonde hair and hand-painted facial features.
The lady stands upright with her arms folded gracefully across her body. Her face has delicately painted eyebrows, eyes and red lips, with softly painted coloring to her cheeks. The back of the figure is clearly marked “JAPAN.” Approximately 5.5\" tall including brush.
The figure remains attached to the original-style natural-fiber whisk broom, making this an especially interesting example of the decorative household accessories associated with the early 20th-century half-doll tradition.
A Little History
Small porcelain and bisque ladies became popular decorative accessories around the turn of the 20th century, particularly from approximately 1900 through the 1920s. They are commonly called half dolls, although collectors also encounter terms such as pincushion dolls, dresser dolls, boudoir dolls, tea-cozy dolls, powder-puff girls, and whisk-broom dolls.
The concept was wonderfully decorative: a small fashionable female figure could be incorporated into an otherwise ordinary household or dressing-table object. Examples were used on:
- Pincushions
- Whisk brooms and clothing brushes
- Powder puffs and powder containers
- Tea cozies
- Sachets
- Trinket and jewelry boxes
- Dresser and boudoir accessories
- Other decorative household items
Whisk-broom examples had a practical purpose as well as a decorative one. They were used to brush crumbs from tablecloths or surfaces and sometimes for dusting or brushing clothing. Contemporary collecting references specifically identify porcelain figures attached to whisk brooms as a recognized form of the half-doll/figural-accessory tradition.
This example is particularly appealing because the JAPAN-marked figure remains attached to its original-style natural-fiber broom, rather than surviving as a detached porcelain figure.
Please examine all photographs carefully. The photographs are an important part of the condition description.I have photographed the figure from the front, back and sides so that the condition, construction and JAPAN marking can be clearly seen.
Sold as a vintage collectible/decorative figural whisk broom, not as a modern functional cleaning brush.
