Object of the Day: A Trade Card for Boots and Shoes

Click image to enlarge.

Here we have another issue with proportion. Either that’s one giant parakeet or one very small kitten. In any event, they’re not friends. To be accurate, the parakeet doesn’t really seem to care too much. He’s unfazed, but the kitten is entirely incensed.

That said, I find this card delightful and smiled when I found it amongst a new set of Victorian trade cards. In fact, I think that’s what I find appealing. It’s just such a Victorian scene. I’m not sure what the parakeet is sitting on. It looks like a box of matzo, but doubt it. Whatever it is, in pure 1880s fashion, it’s draped in a shawl and adorned with rosebuds and wheat.

This, of course, is a stock trade card which would have been selected from a catalog. The selector, it appears, was one:
HENRY DAMON, 
Boots & Shoes. 
25 Essex Street, 
BOSTON. 

The printer is listed as “something unreadable” Stetson, Printer, Quincy, Mass.

Let’s see what the reverse says:

HENRY DAMON, 

WHOLESALE AND RETAIL 

------------------------------

---<< BOOTS AND SHOES, >>--- 

------------------------------

25 ESSEX STREET, 

BOSTON. 

O.M.A.      M.R.A.      H.C.      and      U.F. 

I have no idea what those initials mean. All I know is that these two natural enemies—parakeet and cat—will forever be frozen in a strange, blasé, antagonistic dance. And, that, to me, is neat.

Click Image to Enlarge.

Painting of the Day: Kittens Playing Diabolo, 1900-1910

Click image to enlarge.
Design for a Picture Postcard
Louis William Wain
1900-1910
The Victoria & Albert Museum

The work of Louis William Wain (1860-1939), this Edwardian weirdness in Indian ink, watercolor and gouache is a preliminary painting for a picture postcard. Wain designed a series of postcards depicting kittens doing things that kittens don’t actually do. Typically, the kittens were engaged in “holiday” activities in which one would normally participate while at the seaside. Such “adorable” (or, quasi-disturbing images) were just perfect for the “Wish you were here” mentality of seaside postcards.

In this case, a group of kittens (even the one in a pram) are participating in a spirited game of diabolo. I confess, I didn’t know what the game of diabolo entailed . It seems that it the game originated in China and was brought to Europe by returning missionaries. The goal of the game is to manipulate a double-sided cup (by spinning, catching, twirling, etc.) with a cord attached to two sticks. Whoohoo! Sign me up for the North Texas diabolo team.

Nevertheless, the kittens seem quite happy at it.

The painting was created sometime between 1900 and 1910, and the final version was, indeed, produced as a postcard.

Sunday Morning Special: Three Little Kittens, 1933

I picked this screen capture just for your viewing pleasure.

Scary Van Beuren cartoon from 1933.  Also with a decidedly bad rip-off of “The Sun has Got His Hat On”  at the start.  Enough said.  

Happy Sunday!

Object of the Day: A Trade Card for Boots and Shoes

Click image to enlarge.

Here we have another issue with proportion. Either that’s one giant parakeet or one very small kitten. In any event, they’re not friends. To be accurate, the parakeet doesn’t really seem to care too much. He’s unfazed, but the kitten is entirely incensed.

That said, I find this card delightful and smiled when I found it amongst a new set of Victorian trade cards. In fact, I think that’s what I find appealing. It’s just such a Victorian scene. I’m not sure what the parakeet is sitting on. It looks like a box of matzo, but doubt it. Whatever it is, in pure 1880s fashion, it’s draped in a shawl and adorned with rosebuds and wheat.

This, of course, is a stock trade card which would have been selected from a catalog. The selector, it appears, was one:

HENRY DAMON, 
Boots & Shoes. 
25 Essex Street, 
BOSTON. 

The printer is listed as “something unreadable” Stetson, Printer, Quincy, Mass.

Let’s see what the reverse says:

HENRY DAMON, 

WHOLESALE AND RETAIL 

------------------------------

---<< BOOTS AND SHOES, >>--- 

------------------------------

25 ESSEX STREET, 

BOSTON. 

O.M.A.      M.R.A.      H.C.      and      U.F. 

I have no idea what those initials mean. All I know is that these two natural enemies—parakeet and cat—will forever be frozen in a strange, blasé, antagonistic dance. And, that, to me, is neat.

Click Image to Enlarge.

Painting of the Day: Kittens Playing Diabolo, 1900-1910

Click image to enlarge.
Design for a Picture Postcard
Louis William Wain
1900-1910
The Victoria & Albert Museum

The work of Louis William Wain (1860-1939), this Edwardian weirdness in Indian ink, watercolor and gouache is a preliminary painting for a picture postcard. Wain designed a series of postcards depicting kittens doing things that kittens don’t actually do. Typically, the kittens were engaged in “holiday” activities in which one would normally participate while at the seaside. Such “adorable” (or, quasi-disturbing images) were just perfect for the “Wish you were here” mentality of seaside postcards.

In this case, a group of kittens (even the one in a pram) are participating in a spirited game of diabolo. I confess, I didn’t know what the game of diabolo entailed . It seems that it the game originated in China and was brought to Europe by returning missionaries. The goal of the game is to manipulate a double-sided cup (by spinning, catching, twirling, etc.) with a cord attached to two sticks. Whoohoo! Sign me up for the North Texas diabolo team.

Nevertheless, the kittens seem quite happy at it.

The painting was created sometime between 1900 and 1910, and the final version was, indeed, produced as a postcard.