Tuesday, March 3, 2009

1930's Anonymous Bathing Beauty Carvings





These carvings were recently found in Defiance, Ohio. They were made by an anonymous artist with most of the carvings being the subject of bathing beautys (the largest being 26" tall). I was lucky enough to get a few of them.

8 comments:

John Foster said...

Awesome Joey. I'll bet you wish you had the entire set. Great post.

Dull Tool Dim Bulb said...

I believe the girl in green with the trumpet was made by Earl Eyman, who had a house full of them and charged admission.
http://dulltooldimbulb.blogspot.com/

Joey said...

Yeah, I totally wish I had the entire set! Harris (of course!) ended up getting the other really good pieces, including the woman that is 26" tall.

How does all the great stuff always end up in his hands? ;)

Joey said...

No way! Earl Eyman? Very interesting...

Jim, as always you are a wealth of information!

Dull Tool Dim Bulb said...

The house of his carvings was in Oklahoma, I know one fellow who used to visit, there were circuses, military bands, you name it. He used to charge a coin to get in and see it.
Most were tableau things, yours seem to be free standing...maybe earlier pieces. I know he did some large ones. I've had a hillbilly woman with a gun and moonshine, a little woman flag waver which was beautiful, some regular old guys. I usually trade them to my friend who collects them. America Hurrah in NYC, now defunct me thinks sold some, I think Fred Giampietro has a ferris wheel on his website.

Scott said...

What an amazing group! Congrats on your purchase- each one is terrific!

T. Risley said...

Hello, I've just recently inherited a Earl Eyman collection (a circus) and I want to get more information and history, were is a good source?

Joey said...

Hi T. Risley,

There isn't a ton of information on Earl Eyman available, although I think I still have a pdf of an article on him from a few years back.

Send me your email address and I can send it to you. Also, you may want to keep it, but if you don't, send me some pics. I would be interested or I can refer you to other people that would be interested.

Thanks!