collectible

Krazy Cuppa

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: This tiny treat came to me via our good friends Pete Poplaski and his partner Rika Deryckere. We had the great pleasure of a visit with them recently when they hit New York City on an East coast sort of blitz. About a week later, this lovely little item arrived in the mail – they had brought it for me and forgotten to give it to me.

I have long lusted a bit over these tin toy tea sets. Made by J. Chein & Co. in the 1930’s, the full set was sold in different sizes from a five piece to, I think, 22 pieces. Tantalizingly AI tells me there is a tea set of cartoon cats which are neither Felix nor Krazy Kat but refuses to show me images of such. Personally, my guess is that the internet has it wrong and this is the only Chein set of this kind, and the image is randomly identified as Felix, Krazy or not quite either of the above. I see no evidence otherwise.

The red version – check out the teapot and tray!

This little cup and saucer are from the more popular yellow version of the set. There is, evidently, a red version as well. The tray in particular would be a nice addition to this cup and saucer. The teapot is a very unusual shape and leaves me wondering what they were smoking over in the design den of Chein in the day, very Alladin-esque. I have tried to give you a sense of scale in my photo. This is a mighty tiny cup of tea!

Mark on the bottom of the cup.

These tea sets generally show evidence of having been given hard use and the extant ones reflect it. They were fairly indestructible however and although they might fade or rust a bit it is easy to see how and why generations of children must have played with these sets. One can imagine the dolls, teddy bears and playmates and parents that were served via them. A photo post of the teatime image below can be found in a very early post here. That one has Krazy as an actual guest among others.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

The cup has an image of Krazy on each side and sports a cheerful metal handle to the teacup. The bottom has the maker’s mark, J. Chein & Co, Made in the USA, on the bottom. The saucer has a cheerful domestic scene of a Mr. and Mrs. Krazy enjoying tea on a rolling cart, her service and him seated. Each has gloved (five fingered) hands. There is a portrait on the wall – I am going to say it is of a junior Krazy kid. Outside of the sort of general look this of course has nothing to do with Harriman’s depiction of Krazy but is a reasonable representation of the later animated cartoons. It is a lot to fit on such a little saucer. There is no mark on the bottom of it.

This saucer packs a whole domestic scent onto its scant 2.5″ surface.

For someone for whom space is a premium, this lovely gift might be the perfect sampling from this set. Although if the tray or the teapot came my way they would be welcome additions too. For now a very special shout out to Rika and Pete for thinking of me and Pictorama!

Fickle Puss

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: It is a stormy Sunday here in Manhattan as I write this – day two of a Nor’easter which is huge and parked itself over the eastern seaboard.

It is especially wreaking havoc on my area of New Jersey it seems. I had planned to head down today but had rescheduled due to something other than the weather. However, now lots of flooding, the Asbury pier and boardwalk we were so recently on is covered by the swollen ocean for the moment and nearby places like Point Pleasant seem to have high tide water up to their doors and worse. (My Asbury Park post can be found here.) My dahlias are taking a beating and our basement pump may or may not be holding its own.

Orwashers was crowded yesterday morning when we went for our weekly order! It was a cozy haven in the storm.

Here in New York the apartment is cold (no heat yet!) and as a result we slept late under the warm blankets. Even when Blackie came to get us he was somewhat seduced by the warm sleepiness and curled up for a brief purr and pet.

With a Pictorama sort of logic I have chosen a Louis Wain card to cheer us up on this stormy weather day. The set up is a simple one but executed with pure Wain. Three tabby cats in a love triangle. The orange male who is evidently older, dropping both a cane and a pipe in shock as he looks on in dismay at what we assume is his wife cat. She is with her new paramour, a sporty gray tabby who uses an umbrella as a walking stick. He wears a natty bow and I must say, there’s something a little wicked in his smile. (She may regret this!) So enamored are they of each other that they don’t even see Mr. Orange Tom. The house in the background completes the story – our slick erstwhile gray tabby man is a homewrecker.

Back of the card.

The unnamed sender of this card appears to take advantage of the scene and gently tweaks, I shouldn’t have though you to have been so long without sending me a card. On the back it is addressed to, Master C. T. Travers, Woolfanger, Warlingham, Surrey. It was sent from London SW on March 20, 1905 at 12:15 AM. Not quite the sad tale of Wain’s cat woe, but still an appropriately chosen card. I assume it was to a child and that they would know immediately who would be writing this note from London. I’m sure he rushed to send a response and clearly this was kept somewhere safely since it has come down to us more than a hundred years later.

A new dahlia which waited to bloom for the first time when I wasn’t there! This bloom brought in before the storm and photo sent to me this morning.

The storm here continues apace – evidently into tomorrow. We ran some errands yesterday during a lull so I think we are positioned for a quiet day at home. Maybe some cleaning, lots of reading and perhaps a bit of cooking. I wish the same for all of you – especially those who are also in the line of this storm. Stay safe and have a cozy day if you can!

Love me little, love me long…

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: I felt like today needed a Louis Wain interlude – we haven’t had one for a bit and nothing is more jolly than spending a little time with Mr. Wain and his very active imagination. Pleasant to spend the morning lost in his whacky world for a bit.

Obviously, this is a valentine postcard. The felines as drawn are just starting to slip into the Wain world of disintegration that they will ultimately morph into, eyes a bit larger and just something a bit crazed about the expressions. The girl cat dangles a fan from one claw paw and appears to be perched on a stool. She sports a big red shiny bow and leans on a bit of fence or railing; and we can see her tail curl behind her. Her giant green eyes are down looking at the fellow with the mandolin serenading her.

Both cats are orange striped, although his black stripes are darker than hers and, along with his black ears, it gives him a very tiger-ish look. He is showing us a bit of white tummy too and I can’t decide if the white in his head is light (reflection of the moon maybe?) or fur color – his muzzle is after all, white. (And he has a little white spot on his chest – a bit like Blackie.)

Our fellow is quite ardent in his romancing on this little mandolin. Toes (and fingers?) are all quite defined on these kitties, but I especially like his curled toes. He looks up at girl cat and she more at his mandolin than him (maybe she’s shy?) and this is clearly a ruckus in someone’s backyard.

Speaking of backyard there is what almost appears to be a grove of sunflowers behind them. Only two actual flowers though one over him and one facing down over her. There’s something about that flower that makes me think Wain is saying she’s trouble.

The top of the Valentine reads, Be My Valentine and then, below his signature, we have this little ditty, Love me little, love me long, Is the burden of my song. Except it isn’t a ditty at all, it is the first line to a long poem from the 16th century. (Read it here.) However, perhaps more notably, it was also taken by the author Charles Reade (1814-1884) for a title to one of his books. (Kim went on a Reade reading spree a few years ago but I did not catch the fever. He was a fan but said he was a bit uneven and a quick look online this morning appears to confirm that is the general opinion of him. Large antique volumes are still around although maybe they have gone to New Jersey.) My guess is that is where Wain grabbed it from. Published in 1859 it would have been old but well known.

The back of the card is addressed in a sort of charming, neat hand. It reads, Dear Russel; Do you like a valentine like this? Hope you received many pretty ones today. With love, Miss A. Holland. It is addressed to, Master Russel Hoover, R.R. 1, Sterling, Illinois Care Harry Hoover. It was sent from Sterling, Illinois on February 13, 1913 at 3 PM. Although I read many messages like this, for some reason I find this very thoughtful note and card poignant this morning as I read it. He must have liked the card (and the sentiment) as it survives in such good condition these many years.

Back of card.

I purchased this early last summer at the Metropolitan Postcard Club show. I am sorry to say we missed one at the end of the summer on the weekend we were moving back from New Jersey. I must check their schedule and see when there is one this fall – I am sure they missed me or more likely my wallet – back in August! I do love these shows and I think it is time for me to pay an annual fee of $30 and join as a member. I have been following them around for about a decade, over at the Holiday Inn on 57th Street in years gone-by. I should be supporting their cause.

Meanwhile, today (Saturday) I am off to purchase a new phone. My purchase of my current phone was a Covid activity – I remember being masked and lined up outside. Today should be more pleasant (I hope) than that although having a new phone, appendage that it has become, is always a mixed bag with getting used to it. However, on our recent trip to Washington this one was on constant life support with an external battery. Wish me luck! Also, our day concludes with a visit from our friends Pete and Rika who are visiting from France. A shoutout to them (they are Pictorama readers) and we look forward to seeing them. More to come.

Kitten with Fruit

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today is a (somewhat) rare Pictorama painting post. Mostly these seem to be summer New Jersey posts as this is the home with enough wall space for paintings. Some of you may remember my pig painting purchase post from last summer (post can be found here), although cats are more typical and prior posts of some of those acquisitions can be found here and here.

Having said that, this one was acquired from a seller in Britain (@oldstockantiques, his website can be found here), via Instagram and has sat, still in the shipping wrapping in the New York apartment for several month until it could come out here. As a result, when I unpacked it I felt a bit like I was seeing it for the first time all over again. (Good thing my taste is consistent!) There are actually others still to come (largely but not all cats by far), but we start here today with this one which is my favorite.

I don’t know if you can see it from the photo but this painting is old and the surface is a bit reptilian in places as the top layer has crazed and crawled over time. I would guess that this top layer is actually a glaze and there might have been a moment when removing it and replacing it made sense but I think that day has passed and it doesn’t really impact the enjoyment of looking at it. The frame, which I like very much, came with the painting and from the back I would say they have been together for a good long time.

As you can see from the back, this painting was done on an old form of prepared board (Academy Boards prepared for oil painters it says) and sold by Geo. Rowney & Co. 18 Rathbone Place, London. I believe I have purchased both Rowney pastels and oil paints in my life. The nails holding it in are new but I think that is gratis the seller, along with the bit of string and hooks to hang it. It appears not to be signed, front or back although I won’t say there wasn’t something that is now obscured by the crawling surface.

Back of the painting.

To start, there is something about the pupil dilated wide-eyed look of this kitten that draws me in – I always think that it is as if he truly was asked to pose amongst this wild assortment of fruit and flowers and is wondering what the heck is going on. The cat is well done although we really only see his vaguely peevish head (note ear askew too) and sort of a nod to the rest of him – there is a bit of paw where the crazing is bad on the right side. A few trumpet lilies are at the top and wandering down to these somewhat oversize peaches, an oddly too small avocado (with a giant pit) and some grapes that look a bit like they are of the glass rather than the food variety.

Kitty is of course a tabby, pink nosed and bewhiskered. I would say the article was a better cat and flower painter than a fruit one. There is a moody background too – a sort of sunset horizon and a darkening cloudy sky – also a victim of the surface to some degree. I would say a careful look suggests that there are bits of blue sky among the dark clouds.

It may sound funny to say since I am far from being a kid, but I have only recently given myself license to buy paintings. I mean, I have made paintings, sculpture, prints and certainly photos myself, however the act of purchasing paintings always seemed like something only grown ups like my parents did. I have bought art on paper (in large quantities as you know) but never paintings. It took inheriting a house along with some paintings to prompt thinking about it as an option.

In my mind purchasing paintings was always something my father did. From the earliest time I can remember Dad (almost always him and only occasionally Mom) brought paintings home. He was a particular sucker for a seascape (future post on that), but also an eye for landscapes – never figures. Dad had a good eye. I wouldn’t say we have the same eye but nonetheless, the paintings he purchased are good ones and I have them up in the house now. It is nice to find an avenue of collecting like this so late in the game and it will be interesting to see what I can come up with.

Fishy Wain

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: I tossed this into a purchase pile recently as clearly somehow these are Wain or Wain-ish cats; however I would bet dollars to donuts that Louis never saw a payday for this one. However, having said that, I cannot easily locate another version of this image online, only one other copy of this card itself.

A few posts back I discussed the history of New York postcard producer Franz Huld and much to my surprise this morning, his credit runs along the side of the front of this card, Huld’s Correspondence Series No. 23 Franz Huld, Publisher, New York. (That post of an entertaining card about the Catskills, Hanging on the Moon, can be found here.)

Meanwhile, just yesterday Pictorama had a post about another innovative early postcard maker but in Germany. I think of that one as more of a high end (photomontages and trick photography) and our US friend Huld as sort of creatively low end if you will. (I am only on my first cup of coffee today so stay with me a bit.) Huld had a much briefer run in the business and never on a huge scale of production and maybe wasn’t above a bit of image thievery. Just a thought anyway because this card looks distinctly culled from something else and does not bear the Louis Wain signature nor credit however those are Wain cats.

This card was mailed but the postmark has been torn off therefore I cannot accurate date it. If I put it roughly at 1910, Huld is coming toward the end of his several years of production but still active and in upstate New York. However, the real smoking gun is that Wain was living and working in New York from 1907-1910, but only doing newspaper work. He was producing two newspaper strips, Cats About Town and Graymalkin. There is evidently no record of him producing postcards here. So my guess is that Huld lifted this image somehow from a newspaper illustration and craftily “repurposed” it.

One of the few images I could definitely tie out to this period of New York newspaper work. I do think there is some under-valued and interesting Wain work published in newspapers. While much of it was repurposed and collected, I have definitely seen work, mostly for sale as tear sheets, that I have not seen elsewhere.

On the card we have two grainy Wain cats, one yellow fellow attacking a meal of fish – his mouth in an “O” of expectation. I like the way his paws manage to hold the implements in a logical way which I would personally find challenging if I was drawing this. The orange, grumpy, cat looks on in expectation holding a three-prong fork and knife up like he might bang on the table with them. Next to them in script it reads in neat script, This is no Fish Story. Again, while maybe in the quirky style of Wain somehow perhaps misses the mark?

Detail of a Christmas page done by Wain that I purchased and wrote about last December.

The sender of the card has underlined the above and written, No-sir-ee – Dearest Ross; How are you enjoying your vacation. I am having a fine time. Love to all, Bradley. It was mailed to Master Ross W. Guernsey, Schoharie, Scho, Co. New York. As I mentioned before, the stamp and cancellation has been torn off so no date and no point of origin for the card. (In sorting out the address a bit the internet told me that Ross W. Guernsey was a life-long resident of Schoharie, New York. I have no way of knowing if that seems true or AI just sort of winding me up.)

Our friend Mr. Huld was sadly certainly not the only one taking advantage of Louis Wain and liberating his work for his own purposes. This is perhaps though the most egregious and evident example I have run across. Still, I remain grateful for a snippet of Louis Wain I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. I intend to continue to sniff out some of this newspaper work in its original form.

Winkin’

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Like most New Yorkers I awoke to a much cooler day today after several days or grueling and punishing heat. And this fellow was looking up at me on my desk when I got here this morning. (Envision my desk, an old drawing table someone gave me, as a living, roiling, mass of things which occasionally coughs up something from a lower stratum. One morning last week it was freakishly an early family photo of Kim’s. I don’t remember having seen it before and have absolutely no idea how that ended up in the mix.)

I purchased this card at the most recent edition of the postcard sale. You would think that it might be embossed with the very textured, woven look of the background (like the surface of an old suitcase), but it is not. This very sporty cat however, who has a hat, high (detachable?) collar and bow tie all of his day. That chapeau (more or less the same blue as his natty bowtie), is at an especially jaunty angle and sized just right for between his pointed ears.

As cat coloring goes, he is a bit nondescript. His hair is sort of a brown mix but without a distinct stripe like a tabby. He’s got a saucy look with his gaze directed, not at us, but toward someone or something to the viewer’s left. While it isn’t all the way to thuggish, his wink isn’t one of affection and I would say he’s a tough guy. (Cats blink and wink with affection and sometimes of course as they get sleepy – which being cats is much of the time.)

This card was mailed from Rotterdam on April 3, 1917 (I needed Google’s help with that) and addressed in a purpleish ink to Mej. W. H. van Etten, Oudshofstraat, Steenbergen. In the same ink and hand on the left, it appears to say something like, Jac. Pat.

So this uncredited artist could be the Netherlands answer to Louis Wain. He looks like he is up for some trouble – I can see him shooting craps or pulling a minor heist. While Wain’s cats can have that quality there is something always a bit scattered about them and there is usually a sly joke somewhere.

Back of the card.

The only identifying mark on the card is a stylized PN and the number 2501-4 on the front. While an internet search shows Postcard News as utilizing these initials, they appear to be a later, American card company.

As a kid I had a remarkable tortie named Winkie. I have probably written about her before although not that I can think of at any great length. She was my first cat soulmate, was extremely smart (arguably too smart for her own good), and had several extra toes on each front paw as well as an extra joint somehow which made her look like she was on her tip toes.

I’m sorry not to have a photo of Winkie available, but here is Cookie Fussbudget Butler.

She and my cat Otto have left me with the impression that the girl cats are smarter than the boys, although the fellows are more likely to be very affectionate. This plays out a bit with Cookie and Blackie. However, it must be said that lately Cookie has become assertively in need of attention and leaps onto the bed nightly (dramatically jumping over Kim’s pillowed head and mine), lands next to me and begins loud meowing for pets. She has always been the more vocal, chattier of the two cats and now the vocalizations are long, loud and drawn out conversations and I suppose recriminations. Cookie (aka Cookie Monster), the tuxie of the two, is quite a card.

Hanging on the Moon

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: although this is clearly a photo collage of sorts somehow on the fence about calling it a photo post today; nor is it a cat card. However, it is one of many made to entice people to the Catskills on holiday with current revelers sending word home on them. (With their funny cat images my collection of them is burgeoning. Recent posts with Catskill cat cards can be found here and here.) This is a nod to those folks who are commencing their holiday and vacation travel on this July 4 weekend. Let the summer begin!

This card was both written on and addressed but not stamped, so unclear if and how it got to its destination. At the bottom is says, Dear Ethel how is this. Iva Ott November 4, 1907. It is addressed, in a more adult hand, to Miss Ethel Sanford Kelly Coss Del Co, N.Y.

It’s a nifty card and kudos to the person who put it together. The bottom is a landscape photo of the mountains the area is known for, dotted with houses and farms. A space of white has been left and then the sky. The couple are originally from a photo although how the sky and the moon were actually made is lost to me. There is a sort of deckle edge at the bottom of this portion like it was actually carefully torn by hand for the effect wanted.

Appropriate for today! An Uncle Sam puzzle card by Huld I found online.

The couple sit close to each other, hanging off the moon, with a very long spyglass, evidently peering down at the people and places below. It is held by the woman while the man is pointing to something (or someone) specific in the landscape below. Printed at the bottom it says, Viewing Fleischmann’s, Catskill Mountains, N.Y. They seem quite jolly and content with their perch in a cat bird seat, high above the valley.

A close examination of the surface shows sort of half tone dots which means the images came from something already printed. This really is a collage of probably three images.

One section of a Puzzle card also found online.

Along one side there is the publisher’s copyright. It says No. 4003. Copyrighted 1906 by Franz Huld, Publisher, New York. An interesting article on Huld that the internet spit out can be found here. (Someone named George Miller is the author and he has done some extensive research in order to write it.) Some highlights from the article are as follow below.

His first business address appears at 170 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in a 1900-1901 era directory and is among the first listings for postcard publishing. The author of the article describes his wares as occasionally ugly, without gilt trim or compelling pictures of children or animals. However, he was creative (as evidenced by this card) and according to the article, primarily Huld published commemorative issues, views, comics (especially “write- aways”), collector’s issues, and novelties. That makes a lot of sense skill and sensibility-wise when we consider the construction of this particular card.

The only feline postcard I found among his images.

Huld’s New York listing remains only until 1910 with a filing for bankruptcy in 1914. It is believed that Huld died in October of 1928 at age 67. The man liked a good novelty card (including some puzzle ones that were mailed in an envelope), and I recommend the article above for more information and some additional images. Clearly he was an early player in the business of postcards and a somewhat formative one.

With our temperatures still hovering around 90 after days over 100 here in New York City, we do not have any travel on our agenda here at Deitch Studio. We will be staying here in the city with air conditioning (we hope), cats and ice cream to keep us company on the country’s 250th birthday weekend.

In the Yard with Cats

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I am heading to New Jersey tomorrow for a few days and this card has me in a pleasant mind of backyard time I hope to enjoy. My roses are in bloom and the gorgeous purple-blue hydrangea, both front yard and back, is starting its ascension into its first flowers of the season. The herbs are well on their way and I understand my grapes have finally come back with a will. Strawberries have already made an appearance and the dahlias are shooting up en force!

I will, of course, be greeted to varying degrees by the resident cats there. Beauregard will claim as much lap time as possible while Milty and Gus will shove in where they can. Stormy and Peaches, my girl cats, are my scaredy cats and although they may (or may not – thinking of you Peaches!) be glad to see me.

The grapevine has returned with a vengeance I am glad to see. All the garden photos are via my friend Winsome.

If you pay attention to all things cats on the internet, you know that catios are all the rage and you can purchase them pre-made (think screened tent for your cats) and less expensive, or you can build a more elaborate version. Ideally the cats have free passage from house to safe outdoor harbor in the catio, but there are an increasing number where the expectation is that you will plop them in and take them back out yourself. Of course, I have considered these but I am not carrying my precious pusses outside to put them in a flimsy screened enclosure. No, I would have to be one of those folks who built something solid and give them cat door access to it.

Although I grew up with cats that roamed free in the yard and divided their time in and out of the house as a matter of course, this is no longer the way in the area where I grew up and where we now have a house. At some point, keeping your cat inside, or with a collar for brief outside turns, became the way of things. Cats are chipped now in case they are lost, although something about putting that in her cats always made my mother nervous. Although all these cats came from living on the streets, none of them has set a paw outside since.

The aforementioned Peaches.

There is something wonderful however about my childhood memories of cats wandering in and out, more or less at will, without thinking about it. They enjoyed it so much and all the better if we were outside with them. As I kid I would sit outside and play with them for hours. I actually haven’t thought about it for years.

Like this photo we might have had a light indoor chair outside, although it would likely be alongside a bunch of lawn chairs. (My father eventually bought heavy outdoor chairs and tables at garage sales, but I was older by then.) If we were outside at least a few of the cats and the dog would be out with us although, maybe someone was sleepy inside too. There were no particular rules. We just never thought about it. Everyone pretty much came in at night unless for some reason they had a mysterious kitty rendezvous and were off on a toot for the evening. Noted but not a cause for alarm.

The dahlias are showing early promise.

Looking at these folks and their cats in their backyard in the dabbled sunlight it makes me think about it. The women are in their long dresses of the day but summer versions and the man, seated behind them, is in a suit with a tie. (One could say he is sort of not quite fully participating.) Those summer cottons which while beautiful must have required difficult laundry and endless patient ironing. Hard to see but the woman in white is leaning on a bit of a chicken wire enclosure behind her. When we look closely there are beds of plants, something leafy and green climbing up an arbor to the viewers left and behind them.

It was clearly a bit of an occasion. Girl kitty (my assumption) is wearing a big bow and looks a tad unhappy about it although not in full on revolt. She perches in a timid way on the chair with a cushion. She is a light-colored tabby-ish kitty, orange most likely? The other looks like a tom and he is in a loving if tightly gripped hold for the photo. Look at the stripes on his legs! Those black bands! Both have white faces and front paws. Handsome fellow!

Backyard is blooming!

The yard has a high fence around it as far as we can see, although technically not one that would keep an interested (let alone determined) cat in or out. My backyard is also fenced, but given small spaces as entry points near the ground I have found all sorts of animals back there including a fox who got in and admittedly didn’t seem to know how to get out. (I opened the gate and invited him to take his time leaving.) Cats do come by occasionally – that is how Stormy and Gus came to live with mom. Some of you might remember the stray tom I christened Hobo who we fed on and off for several years.

Hobo back in 2023.

This photo was never sent and nothing was written on the back. On the back there is a very faded company logo for Central Studio, and an address, 103 College Street, Burlington, VT. It is easy to imagine that this was taken in Vermont, a singular photo postcard and the cats were clearly rallied for the photo opp. It is a wonderfully distilled moment from a long ago summer.

Meanwhile, on my way to the Jersey shore so a Jersey summer specific card to come tomorrow!

The Well Dressed Puss

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Ah, what is the well dressed cat wearing these days? At work I saw a few sporting Knick’s attire (dogs wear it better I am afraid), some need newborn baby style onesies to keep them from a surgical site (kinder than the cone of shame if it works), and there is this strange meme on the internet to put them in yoga pants, which turns out to be a stunningly bizarre look. I may have mentioned that we have a policy against dressing the cats here at Deitch Studio and they seem to be grateful for it. Once again, this seems to be a fundamental difference between cats and dogs. I have handed over many a branded bandana to a pup at work and most seem to embrace it.

This off IG. Oh my…

The imaginary sartorial bliss of these well drawn felines from 1908 certainly provides a counterpart in the space of time and imagination. I’m hazarding a guess to say this artist (it is unsigned) is an early US pretender to the Louis Wain throne.

These four gentleman cats all duff hats, jackets – three have monocles, two have walking sticks – one sort of shillelagh-esque on the end. Each kitty has a different model hat, but each one is stylish in keeping with the period. I was actually in New York City’s oldest hat store yesterday, JJ Hats, founded in 1911. It was doing a fairly booming business, and I admit I made a not insubstantial contribution to their income for the day. (Maybe some hat related posts in the near future. I stocked up.) It was there, several decades ago, that I purchased the black Stetson cowboy hat Kim wears as one of his first birthday gifts from me.

It’s actually currently under scaffolding but it looks like this!

Hats of all kinds on display.

These kitties have a variety of top hats, a stove pipe and a sort of bowler/deer slayer model. They wear fancy pointed shoes and dressy sort of smoking jacket style coats – one with a boutonniere. Their trousers, some cuffed and others not, all have a decoration down the leg I associate with tuxedo pants. (I just looked this up, the stripe down the side of tuxedo trousers is to hide the seam and give them a more cohesive look. Who knew?)

Tempted to buy Kim a new straw hat…these can survive a rain storm.

Even their collars represent a variety of styles of the day, mostly the high, white stiff ones that would have been attached by a few buttons, although our fellow in blue with the top hat seems to be wearing a different, long flat one. We have a few different cat kinds here too – from stripe-y short hair to a fluffy Persian look. Hands (paws) are mostly conveniently tucked in jacket pockets, with the exception of one gloved one holding a walking stick on the end.

The top of the card poses the question, Are we top-notchers on dress? Well, look at our clothes. This seems to arise with a bit of smoking detail around it. Behind the gentleman cats a vague landscape of mountains and perhaps water and grassy fields is sketched in. I would have thought these natty kitties belonged in a more urban setting.

Hats purchased.

Someone has written, Love to Leslie From Margaret at the bottom. It is addressed to Master Leslie H. Stauffer, 5314 Addison Street, West Philadelphia, PA. It was mailed from Braddock PA on February 5 1908 at 9 AM. I always think about these lucky children getting these fun cards in the mail at the turn of the century.

Cookie is, of course, always in formal dress, even when napping behind Kim on the couch.

As it happens, Kim and I head off to Philadelphia shortly. He will be reading at Partners & Son bookstore tonight. I hope to report on that and a whole bunch of other Deitch Studio activity around Kim’s book, How I Make Comics tomorrow so stay tuned.

Write Soon

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Saturday is dawning very bright and hot again today, although it promises to be a bit better than the last few days which have felt much July than June. We shall see. There could be ice cream in my future.

We here at Deitch Studio are regrouping after a long week of work including some promotion for Kim’s, How I Make Comics. Kim taped a podcast yesterday with Harry Siegel (I even got to chime in), and that will be showing up on Lit NYC in about a week we are told. (Kim has done two others, one with Amusing Jews which can be found here and another with Robin McConnell on Inkstuds, which has not come out yet.) Next week we head to Philadelphia for Kim to do a talk at Partners and Sons bookshop and then things seem to calm down a bit as we drift to New Jersey for the summer in about a month. We will have the summer to recoup.

I try to take my part-time job as the in-house promoter for Deitch Studio seriously. Yesterday the interviewer asked if I was going to pursue doing a podcast with Kim. (I ventured some speculation on that in a post here.) I answered honestly that maybe after all the initial promotion for the book is over. Right now we are pretty deep in it without starting anything new – yikes!

Artwork advertising for the gig next week. I love seeing a selection of my toys in this one!

As I sit here, Kim is writing a letter to his friend Zach Sally about Zach’s book, Folrath, which he sent to Kim via a friend at MoCCA recently. Cookie is enjoying the approximately 30 minutes of sun she gets on a certain chair each morning this time of year. Blackie though is having an off morning not eating his food and I am eyeing some meds I might need to put in him to help.

The coffee is on, the smell wafting into the living room, (the end of a loaf of Orwashers excellent sourdough bread awaits us as toast) and I realize I truly digress, but it has been on one those weeks and Saturday morning finds us a bit exhausted. Fresh Direct will be dropping off some groceries soon, however other than maybe making a quick soup I would say this weekend is all about collapsing a bit and resting up.

Orwashers last weekend. It is always so cheerful and jolly that I find myself taking pics while waiting in the line that generally goes out the door.

Meanwhile, for the main event today (if a bit belatedly and far down in this post) I share an embossed, die-cut style cat card purchased last weekend. A scaredy cat threatens I’ll get my back up if you don’t write soon! The cat has a deep 3-D quality and highlights (you can see he even casts a small shadow), which make him stand out further on this paper which has a faux linen quality and tooth to it. He is a true miniature version of a German embossed Halloween decoration. There is no copyright or publisher’s information on the card.

On the back there is a postmark of Janesville, Wisconsin, with a June or July date I cannot read, 1908. Rather plaintively it says, Why don’t you ever write to – Lucy. And it is addressed to Mrs. M. C. Vosburg, Ft. Atkinson, Wis. R.F. D. No. 3. Poor Lucy. So I guess this card was chosen to the point here. I do hope Mrs. Vosburg wrote to Lucy eventually.