Chalkware

Chalkware is an American term for popular figurines either made of moulded plaster of Paris (usually) or sculpted gypsum, and painted, typically with oils or watercolors.

Remaining pieces of MCM (and earlier) chalkware can be easily found today with more exotic or rare examples fetching hundreds or thousands of dollars by collectors on auction sites and other dealers.

Attracting fine, mundane and comic artists, chalkware reached a broad audience during the MCM era providing everything from representations of European sculpture, to kitsch images of exotic travel, cartoonish characters and potty humor.

Common motifs were dancers (often sold as a male and female pair), innocent or sensual figures, trees, flowers, animals, zig-zags, waves and modern abstract sculpture typical of the period.

One of the most popular motifs were of romanticized, stereotyped Asian, African, Native American, Hawaiian people in exotic (at times inaccurate) settings or costume.

An attempt to thwart competitors from copying their highly successful male/female paired chalkware lamps and statuettes was taken all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court by Benjamin and Rena Stein of Reglor of California in 1953.

Each registered design is recorded in a lever arch folder with consecutive registration numbers and can be accessed at the National Archives in Kew, London.