Bidspirit auction | Antisemitic Figurine Depicting Fagin, the

Antisemitic Figurine Depicting Fagin, the Jewish Character from Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist - Antisemitic figurine depicting Fagin, the Jewish character from Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist. Heavy cast brass. England, The first decades of the 20th century. The figurine portrays Fagin as an elderly man with a long beard and slightly stooped posture, wearing a long, loose coat with large pockets, a reference to his role as the leader of a gang of thieves. His hands are clasped tightly to his chest in the manner of a man jealously guarding his treasures. The figure stands on a base modeled as a stack of books bearing the titles of Dickens's best-known works: Oliver Twist, The Pickwick Papers, and David Copperfield. Figurines of this type were typically produced as decorative desk ornaments or paperweights. The figure of Fagin, portrayed as a Jewish criminal and the leader of a gang of child pickpockets, originates in Charles Dickens's novel Oliver Twist, first published in 1838. In the novel, Fagin is depicted as a stereotypical Jew with unkempt clothing and disheveled hair. Dickens presents him as a thoroughly villainous and manipulative character who trains children to steal and seeks to corrupt the young Oliver. Throughout the novel, Fagin is referred to repeatedly not by his name but simply as ”the Jew.” Although Dickens later expressed regret over this stereotypical portrayal, particularly after selling his London home to the Jewish banker James Davis, and removed many of the repeated references to ”the Jew” in later editions of the novel, the character nevertheless became widely accepted throughout Europe as a stock representation of the deceitful, criminal Jewish stereotype perceived as a threat to the surrounding society. Height: 14 cm. weight: 80 grams. Good condition.