Awwwwwwwww it’s a babeeee
Gooo gooo goody goody
This cutesy ikkle babeeee is a piece of what is known in the trade as crested china The crest in this instance is on the baby’s back and reads:
The Island and Royal Manor *Portland*
This whole inscription requires some pedantry. Portland is in south Devon, (England not Maine or Oregon). It is not an island at all but a peninsular. We Brits have a habit of calling places Islands that aren’t – you’d think we would know about things like that wouldn’t you? But there we go. We guess the Royal Manor relates to the Castle built by the Tudors there in 1540.
We digress – we have discovered that Portland’s museum (founded in 1930) was opened and curated by Dr Marie Stopes. Yes her! The Dr Marie Stopes, the famous birth control pioneer.
Does it not strike you therefore as strange that this wee souvenir is in the form of a BABY? Perhaps the penny dropped and production ceased – certainly we have been told that these Grafton China babes are very rare.
(kindly pass the sick bag)
