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| Click on image to welcome the soap. |
Welcome Soap.
I never realized that soap needed to be greeted. But, this card from Curtis, Davis and Co. makes it very clear that soap tends to want a little pomp and ceremony when it arrives. Who knew?
I have no idea what’s happening here. Is the “Welcome Soap” box/sign directed at the androgynous gent who is greeting the regal looking girl? Or is he proposing marriage? Either way, he doesn’t look like he’s made out of soap. He’s got a horn, and a hat, and a long green cloak, and false eyelashes, but no soap. The dogs are very happy about it, too. Funny—Bertie never gets excited about soap. Quite the opposite. Even the horses are thrilled.
To be fair, Welcome Soap was a brand, not a greeting. This soap powder by Curtis, Davis & Co. was quite popular in the late Nineteenth Century. Launched in 1887 (around the time this card was produced), the soap came in bottles. James Mellen of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who trademarked the name for the firm in 1887 admitted in the Trademark documents (which I happened to find online) that the choice of the word “Welcome” for the brand was purely arbitrary.
It’s actually a rather handsome card with those gorgeous, rich, brilliant colors which make these Nineteenth Century chromolithographs so appealing to me. It’s just that the scene is theatrically bizarre. But, again, most of these cards are rather odd—and, again, that’s why I like them.
So, let’s have a caption contest. You know how it works. Put your ideas in the comments section.
20 comments:
"Ummm...what's that smell? The welcome soap is over there."
She does look like she's smelling something yucky.
It's better than the welcome bleach and steel brush I offer to guests.
And lemon juice and salt.
The guy in the cube nxt to me could use some of this.
They usually could.
Without welcome towels, it's a mess.
Drippy.
The horses are telling him it's a trap. The woman was the Victorian Joan Crawford and she's about to ask him if he "thinks it's clean."
Scrub, Christina, Scrub.
The Welcome Wagon Lady always wondered why the neighborhood dogs feared her.
Welcome Soap
"It's like a Frontal Lobotomy in a bottle."
Welcome Soap is just what you need to fix all the little problems that litter your life. Welcome Soap just washes them away for you.
You'll be the Queen of your own country. With Welcome Soap it's always good times.
Here are testimonials from some of our satisfied customers:
G.-"My mother in law tried Welcome Soap and now she is much less scary. All her scales fell off and she no longer breathes fire."
B.P.-" I have my people wash those dirty lying sheep with Welcome Soap and now they don't give any more problems. It saves on bullets too."
Wonderful! Bo Peep says "hello."
The Bo Peep thing is Funny.
I wonder why they chose Welcome. Why not any other word.
Welcome Soap Because Your Friends Can't Stand Your Smell.
That campaign marked the end of the brand.
Welcome Soap for your unwelcome dirt.
That's quite good.
The product started out as Welcome Soup which almost anyone would.
But it was so vile that the only use for the stuff was to eat coats of dirt off hard surfaces.
Rather than face bankruptcy they changed one letter and had a hit on their hands.
Ha! Funny!
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