I was doing some online research today of an entirely vanilla kind and up popped this strange little china ornament that, of course, caught my attention. It was on an auction site and the vendor said it was a Victorian china fairing (the page is old and it had been sold).
He or she added: "Come home late and this is what you get...got, back in the Victorian era. A good whopping. This original antique China Fairing was made by Conta Boehme of Germany in the late 1800s. These porcelain china fairings were given away as prizes at fairs. The caption on this fairing is 'Returning at One O'clock in the Morning'...We can't tell if this is the husband or a naughty teen boy, but someone's getting a good spanking from mom and her hairbrush."
Is that Mom? To me he and she are a couple and she's teaching him that there's a cost to coming home after curfew.
Anyway, doing a bit more reading it sounds like fairings were prizes, but were also bought as gifts or souvenirs. What would you be trying to say to somebody you gave 'Returning at One O'clock in the Morning' to?
Its a non too subtle gift with a meaningful message: it set me a thinking - have you guys ever tried reversing roles, perhaps as an experiment ?
ReplyDeleteYes, in the dim and distant past. But as time goes on you get settled with what's most comfortable, don't you.
ReplyDeleteI's the other way around for my wife and me but only because I ask not because I'm late home or anything.
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