Symbolism of bird and Cupid on trench art piece?

This is a US Navy cartridge case dated 1898, made by Union Metallic Cartridge Co. It fits the 6-pounder (aka 57mm) rapid-fire guns which were on most Navy ships ca. 1900. Is the baby with flower a Cupid or what? Is the bird a raven or what? Does the pairing of these images mean anything?

 

Wild-eyed guess but . . . I think it may be a "take" on a "Kewpie doll."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kewpie

It doesn't have the little curl on top of the head, but the "stance" and body and head/face of the "doll" (to me at least) looks like it was "inspired" by a "Kewpie"-doll.

 

I agree. Cupid isn't usually fully clothed. Plus, is that a flower he's holding?

 

looks like a poppy...or closed tulip...and that's no raven....more like a robin..

 

Could be artistic license, but robins don't have fancy tail feathers like this one. I was thinking maybe a parrot (sort of.)

 

well ravens don't have tiny beaks......so there...

 

Would it make sense for it to be a dove?
Also depending on time art was done “ring around the roses”?

 

General rule: Cupid does not wear shoes, especially not bump toe shoes. Before I moved on to the comments, my first thought too was that he looked like a Kewpie (which comes from Cupid).

Laughing a bit because I just got here after answering a question about birds on cameos & the shaky grasp of ornithology in that realm. Audubon did not do this one either. I don't think it's an accurate depiction of any bird. A bit like a dove, since they're romantic, with a fancy tail to make it prettier.

Imagery is more like a valentine than the classical mythology-inspired cameos. Sweetheart gift, I'm thinking.

 

Doesn't look like a dove ,looks more like something tropical.

 

Distelfink?

 

Looks like a Kewpie to me too. Holding a Dutch tulip-shaped lollipop?

Is a distelfink anything like the southern Dutch/Flemish 'distelvink'?

Literal translation is thistle finch, because they like thistles and other spiky flowers.
(Just so northern Dutch don't get confused, Hollanders and others north of the rivers call it a 'putter'.)

 

Must be like the German word for the bird. The image I posted is a good luck symbol of the 'Pennsylvania Dutch', who were really Deutsch, German, & painted these colorful symbols on their barns & houses. Checking Wiki, says also Swiss. When I was growing up, it was synonymous with Amish, who were, Wiki again informs me, along with some other Protestant sects who believed in living simply, just a fraction of those who came over.

They were a linguistic group who spoke, says Wiki, Palatine German.

 

I just looked it up in the German wikipedia. The official German name for the bird in the photo I posted is 'Stieglitz'. The word is originally Polish, but the bird is called Distelfink in some dialects. They don't say which. Maybe those close to the Dutch or Belgian border? The english name is goldfinch.

The Pennsylvania Dutch (as you said, Deutsch) are generally Mennonites. Mennonism originated in Friesland, the Netherlands, but people from different parts of Europe went to Friesland to join.
The Frisians pronounce a v like an f. The word distelfink could be Dutch or German.

To add to the confusion, the Amish are a Mennonite subgroup, a branch of Swiss Zwingliism, which originated in Alsace. Palatine is a southwest German dialect, and Alsatian is one of the Palatine dialects.

 

And here I thought it was some kind of parrot...

 

A small parrot, masquerading as a finch, and native to Europe and Central Asia. Or a finch, masquerading as a small parrot.

 

I vote for Kewpie and parakeet. Maybe his wife, girlfriend or mother was fond of those. The tulip makes me think he was serving in the Netherlands. I know my uncles weren't allowed to send anything home that indicated where they were serving to keep troop movements private. Maybe it was a way of subtly telling them where he was.

 

I think this was made during a time when there were no US military in the Netherlands. The Netherlands was neutral during WW I.

 

You're right, Mennonite is a better word. Article I read said they were only a minority fraction of the settlers to that area, who mainly spoke Palatine German.

Now when we say Pennsylvania Dutch we do mean only the Mennonites, who have preserved earlier customs & play them up for the tourists.

 

There are several categories for trench art,one is "factory" made by cottage industry after the war.

 

Hi,
The term Penn Dutch referred to the Amish, the Mennonites were a smaller division of the Amish that adopted the new ways of dressing and living and talking,
electricity and automobiles and other modern ideas. The Amish have created so many people that the land was not able to support them all. Some Amish have started other places in Ohio and Indiana. The other Mennonites also moved to other sites including Maryland. The term PA Dutch always refer to the Old Member Amish in Pennsylvania.
greg