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Fairy Child
I just thought that you would appreciate knowing that the little girl who sits on top of the Fairy Soap bar is actually my Great Grandmother. She grew up in NYC and moved her family to West Haven, CT in the early 1920’s. Her older brother brought her to an artists house every Saturday for 2 months, to paint the portrait which you see today. With the money she received from the advert, she was able to feed her entire family for over 3 months. I’ve heard people compare her to Shirley Temple – because of her cute curls.
THANKS!
Names withheld on request
You can see more information about the history of Fairy Soap here
May 6th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
FairiesWorld really appreciates your writing to us. Our visitors are information hungry. Your story fills us full of nostalgia, what was then a small soap business starting up but now of course part of the giant Procter and Gamble worldwide empire. We know children were always being told to ‘wash behind their ears’ maybe this was the manufacturers way to encourage both parents and children to look as cute as your great grandmother. Fairy is still a well marketed brand of cleaning products in the United Kingdom however the company logo has changed over the years.
You can however find reproduction ceramic Victorian advertisment plaques for nostalgic products of a bygone age, so Great Grandmother still lives on in many households looking down angelically from her bar of white Fairy soap.
How satisfying that must be!
June 3rd, 2014 at 2:36 am
I found an original copy for Fairy Soap featuring the Fairy Child. It’s in an old Cosmopolitan magazine. Only the one page was found in the wall of a house we’re remodeling. If the family of the Fairy Child is interested in this ad, I’d be happy to mail it to you. Otherwise, I plan on framing it and hanging it on my wall when the house is finished. Thanks.
June 3rd, 2014 at 10:39 am
Thanks for writing that is so interesting, I recently moved too into a Victorian cottage c1833 which I am doing up, it is now renamed Fairy Cottage, I was hoping to discover something of interest and
found that at the bottom of the Fairy garden a brick shed full of others rubbish, empting it out lo there is an old toilet pedestal, no tank or working supply, but I have now discovered that this was the village public convenience in Victorian times, the entrance would have been through our front passageway shared with neighbour and there seems to be an identical brick entrance in the back garden of the house behind leading into the high street. My guess is that this might have been an alleyway between the two roads of this conservation area. I am still researching, there is a lot of historic village information but not any reference to this convenience as yet. Well back to the fairy, I wonder what the date of the magazine is? and the size of the advert?. It is some years since I received that correspondence which I found interesting, but I also received other correspondence claiming family association which seemed to have a contrary indication as to the who the model was. I thought it better not to get involved obviously over the generations the families have spread wide. Personally I think your idea is wonderful to keep it for yourself, just the thought of finding a fairy with so much history is enchanting, for not only did that company prosper to become one of todays multinational conglomerates but as a fairy artist your household is blessed with a treasure. Myrea