Itinerant Italian boys sold plaster figurines and displayed small animals in city streets well into the 20th century. Below are photographs of (from the left) an Italian boy in London with a monkey, photographed in 1854; figurine and trinket vendors photographed in the 1870s; an Italian boy in the early 20th century.

Above is a sculpture of a figurine seller in Tuscany – commemorating the emigrants of the city of Lucca and its surrounding towns in the nineteenth century. The statue stands in the courtyard of the Museum of Plaster Figurines and Emigration, at Palazzo Vanni in the small town of Coreglia Antelminelli, not far from Lucca.

The museum celebrates the art of the figurinaii – the plaster artists who manufactured the statuettes sold by the street vendors. It has over 1,000 figurines on display and tells the story of how the figurinaii travelled all over Europe, America and to the Far East.

The museum’s website:
http://www.comune.coreglia.lu.it/cultura-sito/museo-della-figurina-di-gesso-e-dellemigrazione/