Vintage Cast Bronze Double-Sided "Head & Tails" Erotic Ashtray. This "risque" novelty, often used alternatively as a pin or trinket tray and referred to as the "naughty soldier-and-maid" design, is a partial oval with a "top" side featuring a relief scene of a man in a World War I European style military uniform standing next to a woman in a period dress with her hand near her mouth. The spicy surprise comes when the piece is flipped over to reveal the "bottom," displaying the same scene of the couple from behind where the soldier has lifted the woman's dress and is touching her derriere. This "cheeky" artform was a common bawdy joke motif from the early-to-mid 20th Century (dating roughly from the 1910s through the 1940s), though less popular in the more puritanical Americas than in England, which was emerging from the austerity of Victorian norms during the time. 

Size: 4 1/2 x 3 1/4 in. 

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