I had been collecting “spaghetti” poodles and other animals for a while when I found this one in a back-woods antique shop in the middle of nowhere. It was the first day of deer season, and this shop in the woods felt like a dangerous adventure, with gunshots flying all around. It took forever to get there down a long, windy road. I found it, and took it home for a few dollars. I cleaned it up, as it was filthy. I wonder about it’s purpose and origin. It can’t really be a planter, since the poodle goes all the way down inside the tub. It’s too deep to be a soap dish. I guess it would look good with cotton balls inside it. Since it says “HERS,” I always wonder if there’s another one out there with “HIS” on it somewhere. I’ve never seen another one like this. It’s completely unmarked. The only “spaghettiware” on this piece is on the head and ears. Be careful with these poodles, they tend to breed.

What Allee has to say about this:
Completely fabulous! There’s no doubt there’s a “HIS” somewhere, or at least there was at some point in time.

One of the things I love most about this is that the feet on the tub look like the poodles feet which means very deep concept thinking by the artist. I also love the wrinkles in the towel, how the “hERS” isn’t centered and how the ‘ERS’ is capitalized but the ‘h’ is small, defying traditions of capitalization.

What I’m most crazy about is how happy the little poodle looks and, if in fact, the tub claws are supposed to be poodle feet how long her left leg is.

As to exactly what’s supposed to be contained within my first guess was soap. But that’s not necessarily gender specific so my second guess would be to concur with you and say cotton balls. Though there is no law against males using those either. I think the artist/sculptor just got so excited about their carving/molding abilities they decided to leave it deep and up to the user’s discretion.

All the way around, fantastic Kitsch!