Two Antique German Fairing Trinket Boxes, ht. 4, lg. 3 1/2.

More about this type of item:

A Victorian china fairing is a small porcelain ornament, often incorporating figures, ranging from about three inches (7.5cm) to about five inches (12.5cm) in height, and depicting a variety of scenes, humorous, political or domestic. The ornament almost always incorporates a base and many fairings have a caption describing the scene or making some point inscribed on that base. Although the majority of fairings are simply decorative, they were occasionally made in the form of pinboxes, matchstrikers or holders for watches or small mirrors. Some fairings were made in pairs, for example, \"Grandpapa - Grandma\", two separate statuettes of a small boy and girl, each dressed in adults\' clothing.

China fairings are so named because they were given away as prizes at fairs in the Victorian era, in much the same way that we would win a coconut at a fair today, although some were manufactured simply for sale. They first started appearing in the middle of the nineteenth century and remained popular until the start of the First World War

Genuine fairings are now keenly sought by serious collectors. In the United Kingdom they can range in price from a few pounds for the more common ones (such as \"Last in bed to put out the light\") to several hundred pounds for the rarer ones, the most keenly sought being the five fairings the Vienna series (uncaptioned, but characterised by a gold band around the base). As with any antique, the value of a fairing depends on its condition - they are particularly delicate and damage of any sort can seriously reduce their value - and, in the case of fairings that are paired, whether they are offered singly or with their partners.

Most fairings were manufactured in Germany by Conta and Boehme