Frisky

Pam’s Pictorama Post: I purchased this sweet, tiny tidbit online a ways back and don’t remember who to credit with selling it to me, although it was on Instagram I think. They sent it along on this bit of cat notepaper I am also sharing below, but first for Frisky.

Frisky is an adorable kitten on a cutout card, only about two inches long. It is amazing that she was tucked away for what was probably a very long time, kept safe for my ultimate acquisition. She is a fluffy, tabby stripe kitten and she bears a sign which says, Born Blind. Below her it says, Frisky, Tag Day Toronto Humane Society. (Although I have never had an entirely blind cat, I am told that they adjust very well to their home surroundings and navigate very successfully.)

I gather that a Tag Day appeal would have consisted of people asking for support on the street and handing these tags out. The Toronto Humane Society was founded in 1887 by John J. Kelso and it was dedicated to promote children’s aid and the humane treatment of animals. (Arguably an odd combination, it shifted solely to the humane treatment of animals in 1891. The Children’s Aid Society then became an independant entity as well.) Much like the hospital I work for now, it was founded primarily in response to the cruel conditions horses and animals on the street suffered. By this time it was obviously caring for domestic animals that needed homes as it does today.

As below, the back of the card reads, We want 75,000 Members. Every Good Citizen should be a member of the Toronto Human Society. Send a dollar to Headquarters, 11 St. Albans Street and you will receive your membership card. I don’t know Toronto especially well, but for those who do I am told that the Humane Society originally found its home on Bay Street, and I am told that St. Albans changed into Wellesley at some point. It is now located on River Street.

*Back of card with mailing info – membership was a dollar. Wonder how much they raised and how many members they got.*

In its most recent Impact Report the humane society raised about $17.5 million of contributed and program income combined, much of that coming from bequests which is interesting to the fund raiser and former planned giving person. They have an active pet food bank and provide about $5m in below market care annually. Clearly a worthy cause.

As it happens the Humane Society is out in force on the streets of Manhattan right now and I am stopped by them daily as I walk to and from work, asking if I love animals. I have nothing against this form of solicitation, especially from a known charity (although I admit that the lesser known charities doing this can feel a bit scam-my for me), however they ask for reasonably large donations and it is not how I choose to make my charitable contributions. As a fundraiser I know they must raise large amounts of money this way as the cost is fairly high, so it has to be worthwhile.

More or less 3″ x 4.5″ this is just folded over but seems to be designed as a blank card bit of stationary.

I mentioned at the top that this tiny card came with this bit of cat stationary, or blank card, with these two little cats (one smaller than the other) sit in anthropomorphic splendor. One cat, sporting tatty boots, a tunic and trousers, reads a book while eating what I will assume is an apple. The other, a smaller fluffy white kitten, is perched next to him in a dressier suit of clothes with a white ruffle around his neck. They sit on something which looks like a bench but sort of morphs into something that almost appears to be a windowsill. There is no maker or production mark although this tiny illustration is finely done.

Since they came to me together and one is so tiny I will keep them that way as I tuck them away in the Pictorama library for future generations.

With Best Wishes

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Apologies if I seem to be rushing the season a bit but this fellow has been haunting the top of my desk and I guess I just thought he deserved his day. Such a precise little tabby – I said he but really if I had to guess looking at it, I would say this is actually a girl cat – something about the precision of her. She is sporting some bells, and we will assume that they are in the jingle bells sense, although they could also be worn in service of warning birds of her less than benign intent. For better or worse I am not sure she is catching any mice with it on.

The mousing question is a big one, especially in the context of bird catching and outdoor cat behavior in general. We silly humans would like our cats to draw a line between killing rodents and birds. All this led to mom making her cats indoor ones decades ago – although there were other factors like increase in car traffic, dogs and more. Betty loved birds though and I can only think of one or two occasions when her beloved cats brought her up short with this issue.

Our enormous orange tabby, Pumpkin, was guilty of it once – however the same cat caught water rats as well which seemed like a good thing. There was an almost endless stream of mole, vole and mouse bodies left strewn around as gifts. (My sister Loren had a cat, a tuxie named Milkbone, who left her just the heads and lined them up on the stairs. Their house had a serious mouse issue.)

I think we tried bells briefly, but our cats were Houdini’s in training and always slipped out of them virtually immediately. Subsequently the issue of the collars getting caught on things became a concern and the collar and bell was a brief venture indeed. (And as someone pointed out online recently, kitty doesn’t want bells ringing in their face constantly either.)

*Peaches perched on the stairs the other morning.*

It is my belief that it is the girl cats who carry on the grand feline tradition of hunting, although boys certainly will – Pumpkin as an example. However as I have said before in a now oft told tale, when my friend Winsome discovered a murdered mouse in the house in New Jersey (silly, silly mouse to visit a house with five cats) without having any way to know, I put my money on Peaches, the feral female as the cat in question. (For a recent post about Peaches great escape into the outdoors and fetching her home go here.) If something unwanted showed up in the apartment I admit it would be Cookie not Blackie that I would fetch to the rescue. (Recent readers know that I encountered a mouse in my building’s gym the other day, mentioned in a post here. Evidently my chatter about it that morning gave my trainer mousie dreams that evening. I am guilty of sort of tossing a cat in the direction of an undesirable visitor such as a water bug and hoping for rescue.)

*Photo postcards of Lindburgh by Underwood.*

However, even for me I have digressed greatly. Today on this holiday postcard we have this chipper and fine-looking feline with a nice white bib and bright white feet tucked together. Her striped tail is wrapped around here, and the aforementioned jingle bells are in a string around her neck. She is focused on something off camera and perched on a patterned tablecloth of sorts. There is something subdued about the card – an enthusiastic holiday greeting it is not quite. The focus is sharp on her face and chest but then blurs a bit, bringing that part of her forward. It is an unusually good photograph of kitty.

This card was never mailed however, oddly, on the back someone has written, With love from Marjorie to Mary. This is my little pet cat. However, this is a professional card distributed by the E. A. Underwood, Gold St. Studio, Saffron Walden. Portrait & Landscape Photographer. So our writer is just kidding when she says it is her pet cat – an undemanding one at the very least.

*Underwood had several postcards of Yankee Stadium.*

Meanwhile, Underwood is a somewhat underwhelming postcard company of the early 20th century devoted primarily to people and places – many seem to be painted pictures of pretty girls (some with men), Yankee Stadium, Charles Lindburgh. The company was, as above, located in Saffron Walden in Essex, England. This card seems a bit different for them as those examples that are not illustrations as above are colored photos of locations.

So Pictorama kicks off the greater holiday cat season today with a soft jingle jangle. Let the cat celebrations begin.

A Basket Full of Baby

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This little fellow wandered into the house via one of the postcard shows. It seems properly autumnal for today, which for future readers I will note is November 1 and Marathon Day here in New York City. (It looks like a prime day for it at 41 degrees, sunny and less windy than it has been.) It is also the day after Halloween and the day the clocks roll back so a sort of busy weekend here in Manhattan. The yellow fall light is putting us in the harvest moon and speaking of that we have enjoyed a few enormous moons, one which was also a glorious red.

I can’t be absolutely sure, but I believe this little fellow is Rags, aka The Famous Rotography Cat. (An earlier post on him can be read here and another recent post with him here.) Here he looks young and somewhat kittenish, adolescent maybe, and like perhaps he had a long day of posing and is about to put his nose down and do some serious sleeping. So much for hard work that day.

In addition to Rags, I always think that the Rotograph photo studios must have had a constant, roiling pack of kittens churning through the studio for photos, although Rags was a constant star and ruled the roost into adulthood. (I just found that there is a children’s book dedicated to him and using Rotograph photos as illustrations.) I do hope all the little ones found good homes if they were no longer tiny and less useful to the photographers.

The basket here is one that could hold any kind of fruit but this time of year my mind turns to apples. Although our modern world makes apples available to us year-round (in reality they have always stored well in a cool place), there is nothing like the apples of fall here in the New York area.

I worked with someone at Jazz, Wynton’s former assistant Edith, who was a sort of apple expert and connoisseur. Evidently, she had deep knowledge of all the different kinds; we only discussed it once or twice. Although I am somewhat flexible, I have a deep affection and preference for Macintosh apples which sadly have fallen out of favor. For me their level of tartness and texture is just right, however I gather that being slightly softer they are harder to ship and therefore less desirable. Also, being open to certain fungus they are also unlikely to be organic.

I have toyed with planting a Macintosh apple tree in the yard in New Jersey. The winters are a bit hard for them I gather and I have not mastered the burlap wrap for the winter which I would need to. Meanwhile, I would plant in the late spring, hopefully in a sunny spot. Three to five years for first real crop. Worth thinking about.

*A particular favorite leaf from Kim this week.*

Having said that (and digressed considerably), this basket could just as easily have contained peaches or pears or other things. There is a bit of wire (I would worry about that with the kitty) sticking up which actually gives the card a little more visual interest. The Rotograph copyright is just on the lower left of the basket and in script, A basket full. With the black table on a black background, it is all velvety dark and the surface of the card is mat, contributing further to this effect.

Unfortunately, this attractive effect also makes the written note at the bottom near to impossible to make out. It appears to say, From, baby Sleep (?) To Baby Bartes. It was mailed from Schenectady, New York on April 26, 1907 at 9 AM. It was sent to Carrie Bartes, West Berne, alt bo (?) NY. At the bottom it also says, c/o Mrs. Bartes. It was received in West Berne on April 27 with no time stamp. I don’t know what the alt bo referred to and instead of Miss it reads Mip – which a bit of research shows was either the way a double “s” could be written in script or, perhaps as a result, a title occasionally recognized as Mip replacing Miss on early marriage certificates etc. (This is really my fact for the day – I had no idea.)

In my postcard posts I feel like people often select an image of a cat and assign it to a pet they were visiting. Occasionally it is an actual picture of said real cat (obviously usually sent by the owner), but sometimes like this it is just a reference and you wonder if Baby actually looked like this or is it just generically cat. Also, the practice of sending postcards to children is very sweet and was a thing. I always imagine how much they must have enjoyed getting them and perhaps that is why they were preserved, tucked away over time. (Although there are clues that perhaps our Miss Carrie Bartes is still too tiny a tot to appreciate this when recieved.) Meanwhile, yes, postcards were sort of the cat videos of their day, being shared with friends and family.

The beginning of November marks the race to the end of the year – always a busy time for fundraisers. However, I have some excellent bits to share over the coming weeks so let the season begin.

Felix in a Crowd…Again

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I misplaced the card I wanted for today and I am doing a rare reexamination of this card from an earlier post back in 2022 (so new to some of you) which resurfaced in the search today. (The original post can be found here.) In the first post I looked at this card as documenting a performance but today have had another look at it and am now seriously reconsidering it as a Halloween party. I believe I purchased it online, maybe on eBay or maybe on Instagram, I do not remember. It is a photo postcard that was never sent but shows evidence of having been glued into a photo album, black paper sticking to its back. There is no writing on the back and so no indication of when it was taken.

*More crossdressing, nuns, arabs and a better look at these small kids. The more I look, I feel like there are adults mixed in here.*

The sheer size and variety of costumes makes me consider that this is indeed a Halloween party of sorts. It is from the period of ambitious homemade costumes. We have a row of clowns and crossed legged young men wearing ghutrah (the headdress of Arab countries – had to look that up), many more clowns are sprinkled throughout the crowd, some boys in drag, a nun, some gypsies. A careful look reveals a woman in the upper right corner holding something with a sword sticking out of it – a corpse perhaps? (What was I thinking the theme of a show with this variety of entries could be?)

*Detail of Felix and friends. The costume looks more homemade when we see it closer up.*

Clearly the stand-out for me is the small person (child?) in the center wearing a splendid Felix the Cat costume. He or she might be the only one in a full mask in this large group, identity completely hidden. Surrounded by Arabs at his feet, a man in a dress holding some unidentifiable bottles nefarious accessories on one side, a crossdressing nun behind him, a man in a tuxedo (very little imagination showing here) and a woman who appears to be dressed like an American flag (I want to say these sorts of stars and stripes costumes were a thing). Tucked almost entirely out of sight is a small woman with her face almost entirely hidden by a hajib with a star on it. Another sand out for me is the woman in the black and white checked ballooning trousers wearing the big witch hat – she has a sort of gypsy-pirate looking girl next to her.

*This woman with weapons and some sort of dead creature attached to her clearly had an ambitious vision. Detail, top right.*

*Woman in checked trousers is a real stand out. I love the collar too!*

*Above the woman in the checked trousers to the right of the card, interesting men in these costumes which also seem to have a reference to the Arab world.*

While this group seems to mostly represent older teenagers and maybe adults, kids are lined up at the bottom so it was a very mixed group. They have gathered somewhere in front of this sizeable stage and we can assume that the folks at the top are on the stage and maybe even risers to get so many people nicely in the photo. On either side are these enormous mirrors which give us a glimpse of the room – coffered ceiling and large decorative columns on one side. (One of those columns is in front of the mirror on the right as well.) The other side gives a tiny glimpse of balcony seating or catwalk of some kind. Curtains are pulled back on the stage and a single bare bulb hangs as well as perhaps some old scenery. The floor is a shiny parquet in front of the group.

*A santa (!) and one of many inevitably caught with their eyes closed.*

Without knowing for certain I would say Felix helps us place this photo as taken in the mid-to-late 1920’s. A rather grand gathering, although notably without any specifically Halloween decorations so perhaps the original take remains valid. Either way, I think we can assume a good time was had by all and a happy Halloween to those celebrating or participating today.

Spring Street, Los Angeles

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This was an unusual purchase at the most recent card show. I generally only buy location cards for places I know and am especially fond of. (For some local New Jersey ones you can find posts here and here.)

Although I have visited LA on many occasions, and I have a very close friend there who I love to visit, I have never become fond of the city. It is so enormous that even despite having covered a lot of territory over time, I still don’t really carry even rudimentary map of it in my head, although I guess I have pieced together some areas. Between the Met and Jazz at Lincoln Center I found myself out there on a more or less semi-annual basis, maybe more like every three years, up until Covid. I traveled less for Jazz after Covid and not back to Los Angles before leaving at the end of ’23. I don’t drive and even if I did, I still wouldn’t drive there, which to my mind always seems like just a lick and a prayer from getting killed let alone lost.

For all of that this hand painted night scene of an old Los Angeles with these green street cars (the one nearest us is labeled Hollywood) and glowing lights, just had to come home with me. It is far from a Los Angeles time any of us could know and it is amazing to consider one with such old buildings, small streets – public transportation! The huge moon hangs in the sky and streetlights and windows glow.

I can’t help but get drawn in and can imagine that this is a Los Angeles with some allure, what it might have been like to be there on a warm and sultry evening. Horses (some blurry with movement) remain a feature with several carts and a few carriages are being drawn by them. People throng the streets and sidewalks. Hard to see but the few women are in long dresses. I assume the photo was actually taken during daylight and (very effectively) painted into a night scene later.

Other than the partial sign for Parlors on the left, the others are largely lost in the printing and perhaps painting process. On the right the awning is for an undisclosed Studio (photo perhaps?) and to the back on the left there is a sign on the side of a building which appears to be for LA Clothiers. Unfortunately, even with a loupe the others are indecipherable.

The colors, which I sort of assume were striving for some accuracy, are great with the reddish building, the blueish one and then the green street cars – all illuminated by yellow and orange toned lights. The moon (a complete fiction?) is huge and shines down on this street with an illusion to a few clouds, no stars were attempted. The street blurs into the horizon, lined with streetlights, and appears to go on infinitely into the distance.

A quick internet search actually reveals that some of these more massive buildings are extant today. If and when I make it back out there I might like to see Spring Street. This card was never used and was produced by the Newman Post Card Co. Los Angeles and San Francisco.

My favorite son and export of Los Angeles is of course Kim who fondly remembers coming into consciousness there. He fondly describes his first memories of the world taking place in a bungalow in a residential area. (That too seems to exist as his father sent him Google photos of it not that many years ago.) Kim may have seen this card first – I don’t remember – but we agree it was a worthy if unusual purchase.

A Joyous Halloween

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: I am a bit late this morning – slept in to try to nix a nascent head cold and then went down the rabbit hole of some other responsibilities. However, now that I am getting geared up, I thought I would cheer us all up with a Halloween entry as that spook-a-thon is now a week away.

Halloween is cheerfully embraced where I work these days and not only do folks dress up but there is a much-vaunted contest by department. There was interest in the administrative folks on my floor banding together, but it turns out that my staff to a one is Halloween adverse. Funny, I seem to meet a lot of people these days who do not see the charm in the holiday. Europeans tend to find our version a bit over the top and I can understand that if you didn’t grow up here – but I am a bit surprised at how many people are just like, yep no thanks on Halloween. Personally, a day when I can at least throw on my cat ears and maybe a tail is a good one. Not to mention the glory of black cat merchandise that the holiday is responsible for producing.

Today’s postcard is an embossed and shiny gold trimmed one with a black cat driving a grinning (leering) jack-o-lantern cart of sorts which is fueled by six captive rodents (I am voting rats here as they are in reality the same size as the cat), with the lead fellow looking particularly chipper and come hither, standing on his hind legs.

The cat has a long and curling (rat tail like?) whip he is playing. He sports some sort of sash across him and a smart top hat. No smiling task master this though – he is baring his teeth in a snarly grimace. In addition, he displays claw paws, a tail in somewhat of a state of alarm and so many, many whiskers!

A single star appears over a smiling moon rising. Pink clouds are a nice contrast over blue ones and a darkening blue sky. There is a town with some towers of sorts in the distance, behind trees. The best for me is the checkered gold design at the top and bottom.

Our jack-o-lantern cart is also a bit malevolent. Eyes are rolling upward and his carved grin is a bit sharply snaggle toothed. It casts a blue shadow and runs on little red painted wheels. It should be noted that the mechanics of it have not been ignored and one can see where the rats are secured to it in numerous spots. The gold trim, still in good shape, shines over the whole card creating a play of highlights.

This card was never mailed and there is nothing written on the back. A small maker’s mark (an SB) indicates that this was made by Solomon Brothers who appear to have specialized in a line of holiday cards at the dawn of the last century.

Meanwhile, I had a mousie encounter the other day. I had a very early morning workout with my trainer (via zoom) in our basement gym here. I was pretty sleepy and as my eyes began to focus, I realized that what I thought was a particularly large dust bunny (our building not really notable for its gym cleanliness), was in actuality a fat, gray mouse perched on top of the mats hanging on the wall. While generally a friend to most animals (for some reason I am a bit iffy on crocodiles) it doesn’t mean that the sight of a mouse doesn’t generally send me to standing on a chair and screaming in a good imitation of Olive Oyl.

I managed to keep my (relative) cool and decided that we could co-exist for the hour as long as we maintained our own space. This was ultimately achieved, although he did flick his tail a few times. I didn’t have the heart to report the tiny fellow to the powers that be, after all he was just trying to get in out of the cold I guess. On the other hand, I hope he isn’t waiting for me still when I go down later today.

Quite Pleasant

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today is a Louis Wain card I picked up the other day, a bargain due to the small hole and damage in the upper left corner. I imagine it hung on a wall maybe? Odd spot for just one hole. Nonetheless, it is fine for our enjoyment here at Pictorama.

Regular readers know I have a bit of a fascination with what it would be like to be using and receiving such cards on a daily basis. Maybe after a dinner party or gathering you might receive this one with a note on the back as a thank you. (Don’t even get me started on the dearth of thank you notes written now – I mean I would take them by email but gosh! Saying thank you is a dying art.)

It was quite pleasant is in script at the top, the sort of note Wain seemed to favor on this series of cards. I wonder how he did it – it appears to be his handwriting but somehow, I don’t think it was on the original art for example. (For similar Louis Wain cat cards you can find posts here and here for starters.) Two very different cat couples are enjoying themselves in a gently festive atmosphere. An odd sort of fluffy standing lamp almost looks like a hat on this lady cat, sporting a big blue bow and holding a pink fan in her paw hand.

She and the gent bringing a hot drink are making eye contact. He has more sort of collar on, green. His green eyes match and her blue eyes match her bow. The whiskers and eyebrows of all the cats stand out very straight. All four are brown tabbies, three browns and a gray. The pair smiles at each other and they both have white spots on their chest and tummies as well as sort of a white star in their faces. They are a sweet next-door-neighbor kind of couple.

There is a long bench they are all seated in front of and sort of potted ferns as a background behind them. The other cat couple is where things get a bit more Wain. There is something a bit racier about that gray striped girl with the big red bow slightly askew. Her nose and mouth a bit redder than the others, yellow eyes. She (somehow) holds a fan in a paw we cannot see while Mr. Brown Tabby appears to have an arm around her. She looks like a party girl! Meanwhile, Mr. Brown Tabby has a bit of a leer, like he is having some thoughts that would not bear sharing. His smirk and sideways look at her say it all.

Fair to say a good time, if a somewhat different time, was had by all. One thing I find a bit odd is that the gray girl and boy with the cup and saucer both have oddly short tails – I assume this was a sort of foreshortening but there is something a bit off about it. In addition to the ferns, there is a decorative screen of the type I think might have been popular at the time. There is a sort of screwy abstract design in the pink, yellow and blue found elsewhere in the card.

This card was never sent so we are left to just imagine what parties it might have thanked hosts for in that long ago Victorian time. Louis Wain on the other hand, remains timeless.

Catskill

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: It is a crisp fall morning here in New York City and my mind is wandering to trees changing and the particular joys of this season on the east coast. I feel like trees have not really started to change yet in the city although maybe a stroll through Central Park will tell me differently. I remarked in New Jersey a few weekends ago on the absence of any leaf color yet. Having once worked for Central Park I know the variables required for the changing color of leaves is a specific rubric of cold air, snow the prior winter and rain since. Tricky business as to when and how much.

I have always loved the changing color of leaves in the fall (as does Kim who collects particularly interesting specimens on the streets of New York to share with me), but until I went to college I had not given much thought to people who had never lived with it. A friend from the west coast was fascinated by the leaves changing in Connecticut that first year which brought it home to me how special it is. Living in London a few years later I missed it. The leaves change there, but I guess but it didn’t feel the same, maybe living in a city for the first time. However, I made a quick trip to Berlin by happenstance and I remember that the leaves were turning and the yellow fall light was more like home. (It brought my grandparent’s home in Westchester to mind in particular for some reason.)

All this makes me daydream about a day trip upstate – pumpkins and fresh apple cider on tap. I doubt we will do it this year, various responsibilities tie us to Manhattan right now. And I should note that this card actually shows a summer vacation there. Nonetheless, it is bringing an autumn trip to my mind.

This card was purchased at an earlier iteration of the postcard show – maybe back last year. A vendor there specializes in Catskill cat cards, and I have bought several from her. (A few other Catskill postcard posts can be found here and here.) This one, sporting these two vacationeers in their jaunty outfits, made me laugh. I especially like that their hiking attire allows for tail visibility and maximum mobility – and that their sort of gaiters or hiking socks are perhaps that or more likely just the stripes of their tabby legs. Jaunty caps allow for expressive pointy ear movement as well. One cat gentleman has a walking stick and the other maybe binoculars, it is a bit indistinct. The one with the stick has a kerchief tied around his neck, while the other displays a sort of button down top – both are nice, belted jackets over walking length shorts or gaiters. This is some serious hiking attire for the early part of the 20th century.

Oddest of all though is this little pack cat trailing behind them. Although each of the anthropomorphic cats is carrying a case (which may be strapped across them?), this poor, smaller tabby kit has a pack and perhaps also a case strapped to his back. His paws somehow don’t quite touch the ground (was the artist thinking of horses and all feet off the ground at some point running?) giving him the appearance of floating or maybe hopping along behind them.

The front of a very early car pokes into sight at the bottom, a bright green. It has lines emanating from it which might mean it is a bit overheated – it doesn’t seem like those old round headlights are emitting the rays. Best of all however, there is a tiny mouse perched on the front of the car as hood ornament, a small comical detail.

Our gentleman cat hikers are on a path surrounded by evergreens which appear somewhat dwarfed to fit this scene. More green trees and mountains entice from the distance. At the top of the card it reads, Vacation Days, in the Catskills, N.Y. 229. This card was never mailed and the maker on the back is, C. W. Hughes & Co. Inc., Mechanicville, N.Y. and C. T. American Art Colored. No artist is credited. C.W. Hughes appears to have had a several decade but somewhat unimpressive run from about 1900 into the 1930’s. A local New York company as shown, not much notable is found about them.

I leave you with the October nip in the air and a desire for pumpkins, gourds, apples and the like. I will see how best I might scratch this particular itch before fall descends into the holidays and then winter. For those of you craving more, I share a link from a prior post trip up to Cold Spring a few years ago. It can be found here.

Cat and Mouse

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: On the front the sender wrote, Dear Mally, Please thank your mistress for her nice letter. Is the turtle dead yet? Be a good cat and don’t get a sun stroke this summer. Your loving friend. Greta.

It was this brief missive on the front which nudged me toward buying this card yesterday. It was mailed to, An “Mally” Care of Miss Anna Albertson, Magnolia, Camden Co., New Jersey. It is postmarked four (!) times, from Philadelphia at 1 AM, March 18, 1902; as an Exp. Letter with the markings Vevey, -9.V.02 -7, Exp. Lettr. (that one is repeated); and Magnolia, NJ and 1902 the rest is illegible. It is a good thing she didn’t try to do more than address the back of this card. The card was produced in Eastern Europe with maker’s information in several languages.

The card is lightly embossed in places – the cat’s eyes and paws and the mouse emerging. The drawing is nicely rendered and there is a house, a branch with some leaves, and a tree, peeping out behind the cat. This is a soft and friendly looking cat with a gentle glow in its eyes- who I might add isn’t actually really looking at the mouse and certainly not threatening it. The mouse looks equally congenial.

Cats can be funny about mice – and rodents in general, thinking rats here. In my life I have seen them eat dry cat food out of a bag side by side and I have also seen cats hunt rats and deliver a series of dead mice, moles and voles, to our doorstep growing up. One of the Jersey Five killed a mouse recently and left it near the front door – warning or gift. (It is hard to understand a mouse stupid enough to enter that house, yet we have visitors occasionally.) Our outside cat visitor, Hobo, was found eating a rat once.

*Back of the card with four cancellations.*

Much like humans, it is hard to understand the cat motivation and why they can be unpredictable this way. I attribute the recently deceased mouse at the house to Miss Peaches without having a way to know for sure. Female cats are often the hunters and she is quite feral. Still, virtually all of them lived on the street at one point and presumably it is one way they managed to eat. I always wonder when I see cats and rodents living together if someone shouldn’t be concerned that on a bad day the cat will just munch it?

Alas, meanwhile I wonder what was wrong with the poor turtle and its ultimate fate! Mally the cat must have liked to sunbathe in the extreme heat, hence the warning about sun stroke. This was written in March and so maybe dreaming a bit of summer days and a visit to come or one passed. Even the scene on the card looks a bit wintery. Camden and Philadelphia are not too far apart although I assume in 1902 getting from one to the other was a bit of an event and conceivably it was less urban than Philadelphia at the time.

So there you have the first of the haul from yesterday’s postcard show. Kim was a patient co-conspirator and helped me do some of the searching. It was not one of my most comprehensive purchases but a few gems to come.

Falling: A New Leaf

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I am taking some liberty today in sharing this New Year’s card. However, autumn has always been my mental New Year in many ways. I am one of those people who never left the back-to-school mentality and as the leaves change and the chill comes, I start to think of starting anew rather than of a year dying.

Fall this year has been spent at many work related events and I share a portrait of Cookie and Blackie below from an event we held this week. The artist, Andrea Cáceres (@andrecaceresg or hello@andreacaceres.com), was employed for a full evening of pet portraits which she mostly did from photos, although the live pooches in the room were many too.

And across the room was a pet psychic, Phoebe Hoffman (info@phoevehoffman.com or PhoebeHoffman.com). I spent about 10 minutes with her talking about NJ cat resident, Stormy. I have always wondered about her past – she is a gentle but extremely fearful stray who was still very young when Mom found her. She seemed to know what a house and people were all about however.

Phoebe said that Stormy had indeed had a home, but she was largely neglected, was either left or lost. Stormy is a sweet little thing, gray tabby, but even over several years will not quite let you touch her.

She also told me that Stormy is living a very happy life (no surprise there), but while she appreciates her cat family, they annoy her sometimes – the other four of the Jersey Five, three are bro’s. (I am afraid they do pick on her a bit.) Stormy seeks alone time and finds corners of the house to be left in peace. Evidently, she “needs to be herself and has some sass in her” and will likely come around to being petted in her own time, but she likes that we don’t push her. She was fond of my mother, who was not mobile at the end of her life (we would joke that Stormy liked that she could never go after her) and Stormy would come and visit Mom in the middle of the night sometimes.

*Our Miss Stormy. She does love to eat but she is scaredy cat.*

Meanwhile, I’m not entirely sure that I rise entirely to the celebration (albeit gentle) of this card, however I am considering how best to renew myself for the coming year and live my best life. Of course, it is the black cat that does it for me on this card. He looks like he might just start drinking the champagne if these two are heading out of the room – which perhaps they are. It is his interest and annoyed cat urgency (pay attention to me) that makes the card fun.

It is a photo-collage, with the couple dropped into a drawing of a room and New Year’s celebration. (I wonder if the drawing is also somehow from a photo but I can’t quite figure that out.) There are interesting patterns on the tablecloth – streamers fallen from above for this private midnight celebration? Looking up that seems to be the case. The pattern on the woman’s dress picks up the green of the streamers, the pattern on the champagne bucket, some pears and a few paintings on the wall. Our lady is looking out at the viewer while the gentleman’s attention is entirely on her. A private party launch into the new year – home alone with kitty and champagne.

The card was never used and so I have no precise information about a date. It says, Bonne Annee at the bottom so we know it is French. The maker appears to be REX and there is a serial number. All I can find is that they were, not surprisingly, makers of this type of card in the early 20th century and presumably French.

Pictorama readers may remember that October is our anniversary which rings in later this week at 26 years. I love that our anniversary is this time of the year. While the actual day was unseasonably warm, the crisp fall brings it to mind. Kim and I have never been much on celebrating our anniversary, however I wouldn’t be surprised if my gift for him shows up in a future post. It is small but interesting. Not saying any more about it for now. But I will let this card be our celebration placeholder for now.

*One of my dahlias last week when I was in NJ – no reason, just because I can share!*

In the real world Kim is escorting me to the postcard show in Greenwich Village today and that and lunch out will likely count for our annual observance of the anniversary. More to come in future posts.

However, a shot across the bow and know that change is coming to the denizens of Deitch Studio and Pictorama. I am not exactly sure of our precise course, but we seem to be headed on the path. I generally find change abhorrent (I am indeed cat-like in this way, love my routine), but deep down I know that all will be even better when the dust settles. Stay tuned.