Friday 8 March 2013

Full and beautifully pear-shaped


Above and below are Georgian pen and ink sketches of two young women, recently acquired by me for not a huge amount of money, though I dare say that I will lose more money on them than I hope to.

Either the person who made them was an amateur, or they had some rather interesting-looking friends in their coterie. The lower one reminds me of contemporary portraits of Casanova and the one above suggests one of his many conquests - and some of mine, on dark and stormy nights. She looks like a good laugh, though - which is half the battle - and I bet her arse was full and beautifully pear-shaped.

Actually, now I look a little closer, the one above would look just like the Green-Eyed girl impersonating a lamprey if you put a hoodie over her face and pulled the draw-strings so tightly that it puckered her mouth into her chin.

I was in conversation with Green-Eyes and her boyfriend last night, when she suddenly said (to me, about her boyfriend), "M*** has only got one ball. Did he tell you that?"

M*** looked at her askance for a second or two, then said, "No I haven't, I've got two!" He flashed me a worried glance to see if I believed him.

I knew what Green-Eyes was up to, and I went along with it, knowing that - like most males - he did indeed have the requisite two.

"Don't worry," I said with a reassuring tone to my voice, "I've got three, and they haven't done me any particular good."

Me and my grand-daughter have an understanding which surpasseth all understanding.


17 comments:

  1. I hate to say it, but the top one looks like George 111.

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  2. I knew a fellow a long time ago with only one ball -- he was an opera singer -- a double bass! Which is quite astonishing to me. If he'd had two would he have been a quadruple bass or would having two have meant he was just a bass? ;-)

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    1. How well did you know this fellow to be so privy to his private parts, may I ask?

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    2. This was a fellow who had a 'passing' fancy to me. I suspect that all the girls he met and had a passing fancy to, he felt obliged to inform of his situation -- but I never got close enough for a personal investigation! He was a great date though as he liked to frequent the best restaurants and go to the ballet and the opera. When he first met my husband he presented the two of us with a very fine bottle of Dom Perignon.

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  3. I'm afraid that I think their faces look like their pear-shaped arses !! Do you think that the Georgians really looked like that Tom ? ...... they always seem to look as if they've got thyroid trouble !! XXXX

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  4. Do you think the Georgians always drew their women like this? You see so many of these full faced ladies - probably much admired in those days.

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    1. Some of them were a bit more sensitive - like the professional ones, for instance. They were cruel with satirical sketches, though - as in George the Third.

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  5. Beatrice and Eugene Coe. To mind!

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  6. re my above comment. I'm now wondering if the lower picture isn't a rather poor likeness of Queen Charlotte.... I think you have a pair of royals!

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    1. Did you buy them at auction as a pair? How were they described?

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    2. There are 6 likenesses (3 each) on one sheet in two rows. They were described as a 'print', and I bought them in a junky antiques place. I will look up contemporary likenesses of Charlotte.

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    3. Hmm. Despite Charlotte's connections with Bath, I think that would be stretching the imagination a bit too far, but thanks for the suggestion.

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