The case of Dr Charlotte Bach
Maker: Dr C. Bach, c.1967
Case on loan to museum
Leather case, 60cm, size 11 Norman Hartnell nylons, silk undergarments, foam constructs
Museum no: F.033
Born biologically male in a working-class area in Budapest, Karoly Hajdu came to England in 1948 with a plan to reinvent himself as a Baron.
He changed names throughout his life, firstly as Michael Karoly, owner of an exclusive hypnotherapy clinic in Mayfair, and later, after 20 scandalous years, including several aliases, two bankruptcies and jail time for fraud, as Charlotte Bach PhD.
Bach was best known for her fringe theory of evolution and hefty, never-published thesis Homo Mutens, Homo Luminens, in which she proposed every human was born with male and female aspects and the unconscious desire to experience life as the 'opposite' sex was the driving force behind evolutionary progress.
Bach's ideas developed a cult following that intrigued her contemporaries, such as Colin Wilson, inspiring his work The Misfits: The Study of Sexual Outsiders (1988).
The suitcase tenders hidden clues to the various identities of its owner and their physical and intellectual progression.
KEEPER’S NOTES: This bona varding, swishing Molly will not fail to turn your oysters up.
A cross-dressing milkman who regularly visited the city's many molly houses, Gabriel was convicted and hanged for the act of sodomy in 1726. Gabriel’s close friend, the potter Thomas Tyler, created the original work in tribute to his life and spirit.
The figurine of Gabriel is now lovingly remade by third-generation makers in Stoke-on-Trent. It portrays Gabriel in classic Rococo style, imitating delicate pastoral designs favoured by the famous Bow Porcelain Factory. Assembled by hand and decorated using traditional techniques, each piece is unique in its finishing.
*Limited edition
READ GABRIEL'S STORY