SML-60  SAIREY GAMP AND MRS. HARRIS

SML-60  Sairy Gamp & Mrs. Harris (blank disk)

GENERAL INFORMATION. Sarah Gamp (better known as Sairey) is a major character in Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit and one of the best known of all his characters. She is a totally disreputable nurse, famous for her bulky umbrella and perpetual reference to Mrs. Harris, a purely imaginary person whose opinions, always quoted by Sairy, always confirm Sairey's opinions.  Hence, a "regular Gamp" came to signify a low-class, drink-sodden, uncertificated maternity nurse.  An umbrella, particularly a large, badly rolled cotton one, came to be called a gamp.
     Over the years, many collectors have been confused by the six-sided disc with the words "Mrs. Harris" inscribed on the surface.  She's not there because she never was.

Note: Baston designed a six-sided (hexagonal) base (SML-347) for his Dickens characters, locking them mechanically to a cottage background (SML-61) display. In 1946 he applied for a patent to protect this design motif and he cast the term "Patent Pending" into the base of each Dickens figurine.  In 1953 he was informed that the patent was denied.  All Dickens production form 1946 to 1953 bears the term "Patent Pending."

From Dr. Glenn Johnson's book, The Sebastian Miniature Collection.

home page	see all Sebastians	The Collectors Guild
Copyright © 2004 Sebastianworld, Incorporated.   All rights reserved. Revised: September 07, 2004