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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
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---<< BOOTS AND SHOES, >>---
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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.
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2 comments:
Imagine taking a nice morning walk and coming up to a squirrel as big as a German Shepherd. That's how the kitten looks. The bird is actually sitting on a footrest of the type shoe salesmen use. Even if the bird were a cockatoo, it is of giant proportions. Terrifying.
However it is beautifully drawn and I would like to get it as a Christmas card.
But I'd never put my bare foot on that stool.
It would make a pretty, if not nightmarish Christmas card. Thanks for telling me what the box is. I thought it was matzo. But, now knowing what it is only reinforces the bizarre size of the bird and calls the kitten into question, too. And no half-socks in the world would be enough...
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