Pam’s Pictorama Post: This March Sunday, a much yearned for spring thaw let alone summer, seems quite far away still. This Manhattan morning can’t quite make up its mind if it is going to be gray all day or not, but the temperatures will hover in the low forties – not unreasonable for March but we can’t help but yearn for the halcyon promise of summer. So for my part it seems that the least I can do is immerse us in a swimming cat card today.

It appears to me that in the early days of the 20th century, the Tuck company put all their eggs in the cat card basket it would seem – and emerged victorious. Churning out first Louis Wain cards, then these Boulanger ones and eventually making their way to Felix ones a few years later. (Examples from prior posts and a bit about Tuck can be found in posts here and one of the Felix Christmas cards here.) Clearly cats helped build the Tuck empire. By the time Felix rolled around they were card publishers to the King and Queen and I can’t help but wonder if that means that maybe George V was mailing Felix holiday cards?

This card is credited to Maurice Boulanger – the not-quite-Wain – whose cat antics are of a slightly less sardonic variety than those by Mr. Wain. (Albeit he is usually less pointedly ironic, this card as below which I posted about recently where Mr. Cat is preparing a rat feast!)

Today’s card is from the earlier days of Raphael Tuck, before royal recognition it would seem. It was sent in 1908 with a sloppy postmark (marring the front a bit) on September 5 from Marblehead, Massachusetts – a lovely beachy place. (I have visited a childhood friend there and it is a wonderful seaside area not far from Boston.) This card was mailed to Winthrop Stacey and then simply Orne St. Town. On the message side it says simply, H.T.S. R.F.N. W.P.S. Don’t stay in too long. E.

This is sort of a pitch perfect message to go with this image of happily splashing cats, adult and two kits. (Splashing is printed at the top with lovely little flowering plants winding through it and a nice decorative frame top and bottom.)

The execution of the splashing cracks me up, a bit primitive but gets the idea across. The kittens are splashing dad (or is it mom?) and little white caps indicate some movement in the water. Two seagulls wheel in the sky above them unnoticed. Their catness does not extend to that at the moment – they pay them no mind. And of course traditionally cats eschew water so in that regard these are anthropomorphic kits too.

A lighthouse is perched on land in the distance – it reminds me of the Sandy Hook bay where I land when I take the ferry to New Jersey. (And really quite near where I myself learned to swim as a tiny tot.) As mentioned above, an errant postmark registration lightly mars the front of this image over the grown up cat on the left but doesn’t take away from the overall card. The yellow in the sky indicates either sunrise or sunset – I vote for the latter – and of course picks up at the top of the card.

Summer will arrive here as suddenly as winter did I suspect. The Farmer’s Almanac says that it will be a hot spring season and while I am not a fan of heat and humidity I look very much forward to evenings on our deck under twinkle lights and the hummingbirds and bees feasting on the dahlias and strawberry plants. Here’s for contemplating summer days!