The "Gibson Girl" was a popular design of ideal feminine beauty that garnished the Art Nouveau era of the late-1800's through the years leading up to the end of WWI. Invented by sketch artist, Charles Dana Gibson, the famously penciled lady boasted a buxom wholesomeness (tightly corseted), a long and elegant neck, the air of upper class respectability and usually a broad mound of high-piled curls. She was a fragile albeit progressive woman who defined the times, appearing on magazine covers, newspaper ads, sheet music and merchandise items such as ashtrays, cameo jewelry, souvenir spoons and least of all...buttons. This very old Bakelite button, possibly made as early as 1919, would've come out just as the Gibson Girl's heyday declined—a transitional time when the 1920's began upholding more wild variations of the modern woman in the form of fast-moving chippies and haughty flappers who bobbed their hair. Set in gold and mounted on bright green Bakelite, this Gibson Girl looks warm and matronly. The first time I saw this button I thought the featured matriarch was a brothel's no-nonsense madam, possibly named Josephine. Courteous, but always down-to-business, she's one helluva seasoned mama.
-Sherbert McGee
No comments:
Post a Comment