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Sculptor, Lafayette L. Rittgers
produced humors novelty figurines from
1939-1956, out of his studio in Chicago
ILL. By 1941, Rittgers employed
six individuals to produce, and paint
his humorous figures. Rittgers signed
and copyrighted his work, and on this
set it appears on the back above the shoes. Because
the chalkware figurines were each
painted by hand, there are slight
variations. This baseball theme sets
were
copied by other companies, but never
quite matched the workmanship of the Rittgers.
The comical sports series sets
featured; wrestling, basketball,
football, Golf, bowling, baseball which
included: an umpire with a chest
protector, a baseball player, and the
more common, 1941 copyrighted disgruntled
pitcher, batter, and umpire. The Batter
and catcher featured here was
copyrighted in 1946, and are harder to
find. The early batter statues had a bat made of
plaster, but they didn't hold up very
well, so later pieces have wooden bats.
The label placed on
the bottom of the catcher's shoe reads
““DISTRIBUTED Exclusively by SUTTLE and
RITTTGERS, Inc. 4311 North Lincoln Ave
CHICAGO 18 ILL.” Suttle and Asmus, were
the first
wholesale distributors that sold the
figurines for Rittgers. Lafayette
Rittgers later became a partner in the
sale and distribution on the figures
when Asmus left the company.
Chips and missing paint are common flaws with these figurines. Minor flaws
will not hurt the value as much, but
more severe imperfections make it hard
to sell. In mint condition, you can
expect to pay a premium
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