cat collectible

Ukiyo-e Cardigan

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: It’s a rare cat fashion post today on Pictorama! I try not to subject you all to too much feline fashion, mostly the occasional Felix or Kim Deitch t-shirt, but today is a jolly exception.

While I have well documented many interesting purchases via Instagram (it seemed to take hold during Covid) it has been almost entirely restricted to antique jewelry and collectibles. (For some of the other Instagram purchase posts you can have a peek here and here. For a prior t-shirt post you can read it here.) However today’s sweater is an adventure into unchartered territory. I would rate it as successful.

Me this AM with Pride and Prejudice playing in the background and modeling with sweatpants.

Last Christmas I veered (somewhat regrettably) off this path and purchased mugs with pet pics for my friends and Cookie and Blackie decorated socks for Kim. These had mixed results at best with black cats reading murky on mug and socks – the fluffy white bichon of my friend on a green mug being the winner of that group and Cookie better than Blackie on the socks. The same company is trying to sell me pet photo pj’s this year. (My friends and Kim can rest assured that I am not trying that!) Still, generally being an optimist, hope springs eternal and I could hardly whip my credit card out fast enough for this sweater and I do not regret it.

Friends and family, you are safe this year! Not purchasing these…

An advertisement for this cardigan came up in my feed one sleepy morning several weeks ago. When I first saw it I thought it was a one off and as soon as I realized that it could be purchased I snatched it up in the twinkling of an eye. I remain unsure if the company is in Japan although ultimately the order was fulfilled out of North Carolina. It has been about a month and I confess I was a bit worried about if it would arrive or if I would get an email demanding an additional Trump tariff to bring it into the country. However, it didn’t cost a fortune and I figured I would just write it off in my mind if it never came or if it was dreadful once it did.

Kitty couture has been sneaking into my wardrobe lately.

It arrived last night and I confess, I think it is a bit whacky but really utterly splendid. And frankly if working for an animal hospital doesn’t give me some latitude on cunning cat clothing than I can’t imagine who has a better job for sporting it. Admittedly, feline fashion has been sneaking into my wardrobe recently – a top with a black cat head, a winter scarf with cat images and even cat headed gloves for fall.

Sorry I can’t get a better photo but this is another worthy version. Congregating kitties.

I will confess that it is made of what I would best describe as a “wool-like” fabric, not surprising at the price point it was purchased at. (However, on a cheerful note it will frustrate the moths that continue to plague me.) The sizes (is it considered unisex I wonder?) seem to run a tad large and I think the small will be a bit big on me. Cardigan sizing is of course pretty forgiving. I could say that this is just for weekends but no, I am planning on styling this baby for the office!

Wikipedia tells us the true significance of ukiyo-e lies in its reflection of the transient, pleasurable aspects of life in Edo Japan. This genre offers insight into the aesthetics, values, and lifestyle of a society fascinated with present pleasures and cultural experiences. One site calls the original cat prints the cat memes of the 18th century.

Historic woodblock prints of the kind that inspired this sweater pattern above.

Of course the real stars on this sweater are the kitties. They stare at us, appear to wave, one paw up. they all seem to sport sort of bow-tied neckerchiefs.

Evidently based on historical Ukiyo-e woodblock prints of somewhat anthropomorphic cats, these are a clearly contemporary take. My sweater is called Many Cats Are Watching You. The Japanese writing appears to say things like, Humans are truly useless – sort of like the Japanese cat version of the candy hearts you get on Valentine’s Day.

I believe the translation is Look at me forever.
And Humans are truly useless.

If you too just must have one, my cat cardigan can be purchased here. As I said, it runs a tad large in my opinion and is indeed made of some fabric which might originally have been old soda bottles. The company name is Tokyo-Tiger and their website seems to break down into items by animal type – cat, frog, raccoon. There are a lot of t-shirts of little interest to me, a few other cat cardigans of note however – I could have a wardrobe of them. You can also acquire hats, towels, pajamas and coasters. For me, it is a about the clutch of kitty cardigans however.

Advertised as an “ugly” sweater, I take a bit of umbrage at that. I am thinking it needs the simplicity of a straight black skirt or trousers with either a tank or a turtleneck under it, maybe a belt and perhaps pearls to elevate it a bit. If I did own yellow or hot pink trousers I would be tempted however as well. While the possibilities are not quite endless, for now I plan to wear my cat love on my sleeve for all to admire.

Who’s a Scaredy Cat?

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: While my timing may miss the mark for Halloween this year, the subject matter in a sense is pure Pictorama. The cat in question showed up from an auction house on Halloween night, having been purchased at an online auction a few months ago. While most auction houses I have encountered actually get items to me very quickly (one called Everything but the House sends out their packages with startling efficiency seeming to arrive within days) clearly some are more pokey. I purchased two things recently, at different auctions, and they have slowly meandered in a few months later. They are both welcome additions and today we start with this kitty – the other is a rather great future post.

Pams-Pictorama.com collection – the office annex. There’s something about his only having three feet on the ground which entertains me.

This fellow appealed to my black cat Halloween loving sensibility for obvious reasons, although I very rarely purchase contemporary items. I am occasionally persuaded and this cat entertained me. I will say, I won it at auction for next to nothing but they really socked me on postage. I actually rejected what they said the postage was going to be at first and figured if I lost the cat and the few dollars over it so be it. Oddly they came back with something more reasonable and here he is.

It is my intention to have him join another Halloween cat which has graced my office for many decades. I was working at the Met and I don’t remember how this couple knew that I collected black cat items, but they made a gift of it to me one day. Seems their son was a buyer working for Martha Stewart and was responsible for sourcing decorative items for the various holidays which would then be shown in the magazine and probably also sold under her brand. This cat had been a sample among the items he proposed and it was rejected. Somehow his parents saw it and grabbed it up for me.

More jagged teeth and yellow eyes; he’s missing a bit of paint on his nose sadly.

It has always been my office black cat if you will. (For many years I also kept the Happy Life wind-up toy, below, in my office because it has a calming and cheering effect on me. I was known to wind it up for staffers under distress, especially while at the Museum. I wrote a post about this soothing toy here and you can see it’s a clip of it wound up as well.) There has been occasional conversation about the scary black cat when he was introduced at various offices and why I have him and I usually just tell the story of his acquisition. However, over time for those staffers who have seen me on zoom from home they have been treated to a small view into the mighty black cat collection and it makes more sense. No one at the animal hospital has asked and I assume that has something to do with being an animal hospital? Or are they just not surprised to find me guarded by a scary black cat.

New kitty on Kim’s desk. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

Both of these cats are made with a plastic arched cat body which is covered in black “fur”. The smaller older one (or one from my office, who knows the age of the additional one) has more wiry legs and you can almost pose him but I have never pushed it. Overall, this new fellow bigger and sturdier. Part of me wonders if he had shown up rather than the other if he would have made the grade with Martha. He is better made, although clearly from the same sort of origin.

The new cat is more substantial in every way. Both have glass eyes and whiskers although both stand out a bit more on the new cat. The office cat has those sort of spindly claw paw toes which are arguably a bit more intimidating than the fluffy feet on the other and his tail is on a jauntier angle. However his red nose is a bit comical and makes him friendlier than the shiny black one on this cat. His ribbon has always struck me as at odds with his overall appearance and if the new guy sported one it is long gone.

Fangy kitty close up.

Both have been endowed with differently ferociously toothy mouths. The smaller cat has more teeth and the new one has fewer but they really look like they mean business. The many hard whiskers stand up on either side of the gaping mouth complete with a bright red tongue.

This fellow is going to make his way to the office this week now that he has had his baptism by Pictorama post. Unlike my prior offices, I have somehow fallen short of actually decorating this one in a meaningful way. (A post about the black cat sheet music that decorated my office at Jazz can be found here.) My first office for the animal hospital had a terrible leak (think water pouring into pots on the desk and floor) and I refrained from subjecting any of my framed sheet music to it. We moved offices last January and the new office does seem pretty water proof yet somehow I have yet to attempt to brand it much as my own. Perhaps I should be more concerned with the image he projects to staff, yet to know me is to know my love of all black cats – just ask Blackie and Beau!

I Was Much Surprised

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Every day that is a Louis Wain day is a good one here at Pictorama! I have had the pleasure of adding many Wain posts to the collection here at Pictorama, including a review of the recent book. (Some of those other posts can be perused here, here and here for additional Sunday leisure reading.)

Like my post a few weeks ago, this is another example where the sender has (consciously or unconsciously) enhanced the card with their message. Somehow when I saw it I just laughed at those words in script under the cat – thinking that he was much surprised by the basket of kittens! Surprise Pops!

Instead the brief missive written on the card is from a grandma to a sick child – chicken pox I suspect. I believe it reads, I was much surprised to hear of your spotty face. I hope its back soon be better & no marks left, don’t scratch it. Your loving Gramms. (The woman didn’t believe in periods for the most part so I have added them.) It was mailed from Paddington at 5:30 PM on May 5 of 1905. It was sent to Master C. T. Travers, Woolfanger (?), Markingham, Surrey.

The card was produced by the Raphael Tuck & Sons Company and declares in tiny print that it is a part of their Write Away postcard series. It also proclaims that it was designed in England and chromographed in Bavaria. I have only started to focus on the Raphael Tuck cards as sort of the sweet spot for Wain. (They also produced a rather fascinating set of Felix holiday cards. I have a few in my collection and find them almost impossible to turn down at auction – although they go very pricey. One is below and the post for it can be found here.)

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Finally onto Mr. Wain himself. Grumpy Papa cat drops his pipe at Momma cat coming from behind the door with a basket load of kittens. Is it the first time she is presenting and surprising him with the kits? Was he, like any traditional papa, pacing and waiting pipe in hand (paw) to hear the baby news? Regardless, it is a bit of a sour puss he presents.

He happens to be tabby-spotty (additionally accurate for this card), he stand on hind legs, tail down. Ears are back in a cat look of annoyance which Wain has morphed with a human expression. Mom cat just looks tired and the five kittens (that we can see) are a mix of tabby, marmalade like Mom a white and two grays – ready to hop out of the basket and start causing chaos. Adult cats stand on a carpet of a sort of wild print with this bit of door between them. As always, Wain manages to express much with a brief, somewhat sardonic vignette.

My family only won the kitten lottery once which if Mom was here she would agree was more than enough. Our female tortie, Winkie, escaped out one morning while in heat, teaching us forever to get kits spade as quickly as humanly possible. Her paramour appeared to be a tabby we’d never seen before. And surprise she ultimately produced a gray tabby, a marmalade one, and two grays – so not unlike this bushel.

Honestly Winkie had little use for them after a few weeks of being very possessive. We kept them all (Tigger, Squash, Ping and Pong) and our feline family burgeoned at that point for a long period of time. I think it brought us to seven. The cats were still free range outside in those days so it was a bit less evident than the Jersey Five (plus visits from Cookie and Blackie) are in the (small) house today. Ultimately Winks started to pretend she had no idea where these interlopers had come from and would growl at them or at best ignore them.

Arguably Wain is pretty much at the height of his popularity and success when this card was produced. It is nice to think of Grandma, long ago, going to the shop and picking it out especially for Master Travers who was suffering a bit from this childhood ailment. My guess is that it cheered him immensely.

Tomasso Catto Singers

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Pam’s :Pictorama Post: Today’s post is an oddball card I picked up at the postcard sale recently. It portrays the never ending saga of cats atop a roof, singing their nightly woes and joyous howls. I have numerous entries in this bonanza of images although a favorite is an unusual panorama photo of cats on a fence (and dogs) shown below for a post that can be found here.

Pams-Pictorama.com collection

This is another of those postcards which is address and date by the sender but no evidence of mailing. On the back it says, For Beatie From Dad. Ramsgate. 24/3/07. Therefore this card is a bit older than maybe I would have guessed.

Cats on rooftops though is also a thing and I wonder about this. Blissfully, I have never found one of my cats, or a stray for that matter, on my roof. That might be because I lived in a very high two story house growing up, but even our more compact house in Jersey does not have rooftop kitties. I assume it is more of a function of houses and row or townhouses close together? How do they get up there and down again? Attics maybe? It must have been a thing because you see them portrayed on roofs as much as fences. Here it is a red tile roof, but definitely a roof nonetheless.

The artist has provided us with some cat diversity in this quartet, two marmalades, a dark gray and a white-ish tabby. Tails stick out handily for the composition on either side and peek up on either side of the Baritone and the Contralto, arguably somewhat strangely placed for the Baritone, sort of in front of him.

These musical felines clutch an advertisement sheet, with claw paws, that looks like it doubles for their music. It promises, Every Night Lessons in Howling by the Tomasso Catto Family Speciality Midnight Concerts/ Three Blind Mice Words by – Prowler Music by – Howler: Sung Nightly by the Mew Quartette. Their fluffy feet peer out below the paper. The orange on the end, Tenor, seems to look the most like a participant in and old-fashioned barbershop quartet. Meow!

(The post for this particularly good Louis Wain image below can be found here.)

Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

I don’t know about my Pictorama readers but I could never rest easy at night if I heard cat fights or howls in my yard. Although I know enough about cats to know the ruckus that can be raised, I admit to being glad that our colonies of strays is largely reduced enough that this is no longer a routine event here in Yorkville or in Fair Haven. A cat meowing outside will drive me nuts looking for it. Far from tossing a shoe at them I would of course be worrying about it. My mother was the same – hence the admission of Stormy and Gus into our family over time. They arrived at the back door with all paws on the ground however.

There were some good times for cats, even domestic ones, that managed to spend the occasional evening out with the fellas or gals as it may be. I have written out our cat Zipper who used to through parties in our garage for the local bunch after raiding a neighbor’s eel pail kept for chum. The price of domestication as I pointed out in a post last week where guest speaker Temple Grandin talked about a dog at the hospital that had eaten and entire shoe. For a quick look at that interesting talk see below. Our town in New Jersey seems to want to strictly restrict cat residents outdoors and the Jersey Five are all indoor cats. Needless to say, up on the 16th floor in Manhattan, so are Cookie and Blackie!

Posting About Postcards!

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today I am taking a moment to revel in my postcard purchases, but also to celebrate the postcard show itself. To anyone who has been to the current incarnation of this sale this might seem a bit extreme as it is in a small church in the West Village and made up of about nine dealers.

The first reference to this show in my life dates back to college when one of my professors, collage artist Maureen McCabe (her site here), mentioned in passing that she loved to go to a postcard show in Manhattan. She would pick up vintage cards which she would use in her collage boxes. (She mentioned getting vintage paper dolls there which I have never seen!) Frankly, in my naivete I had never heard of or considered such a thing. Antique stores and flea markets were a part of my childhood but shows of such things for sale had never really occurred to me. And postcards no less. It set my brain mulling.

The art of Maureen McCabe. “Fate and Magic”, 2013, copyright of the artist. That could be a vintage paperdoll right there…

Fast forward a number of decades and somehow or other it came to my attention that there was a vintage postcard show (the Metropolitan postcard show) at a (then) old and tatty hotel on the far west end of 57th Street. In my memory at the time it was a Howard Johnson, it appears to be called the Watson Hotel now. (Another sliver of memory is that in my 20’s my then boyfriend, Kevin, and I would get day passes just for swimming pool access in hotels in Manhattan in the hottest of summer. This was one of those somewhat cheesy hotels.)

Who would have thought a room with nothing but postcards for sale would be of so much interest? In those years there was probably twice as many dealers and maybe even some ephemera that was beyond postcards. (How big was it when Maureen went?) If memory serves there were a few people of some note signing or roaming the space. I bought fewer cards and spent most of my time and money at a high flying dealer table groaning with Louis Wain cards.

Sadly, with Covid like some many things it shutdown and although I was on their mailing list it seemed to be a number of years before I caught up with them again. Now I find them in the West Village and reduced in size.

Oddly, for me it is perhaps a bit more manageable and I seem to come away with increasingly large scores and yesterday proves the point. It was a miserably rainy day which may have depressed attendance although business seemed reasonably brisk to me. Kim was with me and settled into a pile of photos of early actors and actresses and even made a few purchases and you will probably see those over time too.

View while digging through a box labeled “Cat”.

Today’s card was purchased by me early in the show as I made my way through each dealer; it is Mainzer at his best. I have written about Mainzer before (which can be read here and here) who is sort of the later heir to the Louis Wain throne. Mainzer, as a card producer, picks up that ball in 1938 and runs with it, arguably until at least 2005 when taking the reprints of the cards into consideration. Prior to 1955 the production address was 118 East 28th Street here in New York. (On a whim I did a Google Search on the address and it is worth a look, the Kaime Arcade building with a very interesting facade.) After 1955 it is just noted as Long Island City and that is what is printed on this card. Eugen Hartung was the artist.

While mama cat, dressed for a day of shopping with stockinged legs, heels, hat, gloves and fur trimmed coat, chooses between two postcards, her offspring are tearing the place apart – including I might add, her poodle on a leash! In case you are wondering, yes, each of the postcards has a tiny cat drawing on it. (The other prints on the walls appear to be flowers however.) Allow me to note some oddities about the store. It seems to stock not only postcards, prints and fancy wrap boxes, but oddly globes adorn the shelf too. Cut off at the top seem to be some written labels I cannot quite make out and appear to be written in Hartung’s native Swiss German.

Another view of inside the church where the Metropolitan Postcard show now resides several times a year.

The well appointed shopkeepers are both in a uniform dress with matching necklaces. While the one with glasses focuses on Mrs. Cat, the other tries to contend with the kits. She has come running with a pen in hand, clearly interrupted in her clerical duties. The kittens, two boys and a girl, are well turned out but unlike mom and the salespeople do not wear shoes – bare paws all the better to climb with. Each magically has their tail come out from their clothing – including the little girls whose pantaloons we see. Mom’s tail, and that of the saleslady, appear from under their overclothes. (I’m always curious about how tails are worked into anthropomorphic cats.)

Several kinds of cat are represented for variety – Mrs. Cat is a tabby, the boys a tabby and a tuxie, little girls is a marmalade. The saleswomen are marmalade and lastly an odd mix like maybe she has some Siamese in her. One final curi-oddity is that the pooch, having opened the cabinet below, has released two large mice. No one, even the dog, is paying any attention to their escape. A pleasant mayhem is enjoyed by all.

Back of card – how did it find its way back to the US I wonder.

Someone has penned card b at the bottom right. An addition mystery about this card is the back which shows that this was evidently mailed to Japan from an indeterminate place in 1976 and has, obviously, made its way back to the United States to ultimately be sold to me. It says in a neat childish scrawl, Dear Jacob, the school is very good and close. all the children are kind to me. I am learning and getting better. I will see you in camp. Nathan. It was sent to: Jacob G. Cohen, 1-32-28 Ebisu-nishi, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo, 150 Japan. (And for your information, a postcard to Japan in 1976 cost twenty-one cents.)

Lastly (because I have clearly droned on a bit) may I just say that curiously this store reminds me very much of one I used to go to in New Jersey, near the house we now have. I cannot remember the name but was a true old fashioned stationary store and carried not only cards and assorted writing materials, but the more esoteric things a stationary store carried before the internet, such as form contracts like leases, which is what my mother used to go there for. It was long and narrow with windows all along one side. There were similar blond cabinets and perhaps more of a dusty business-like feel but something about this card nags at my brain with that memory. It is sadly now a Dunkin’ Donuts, just a few feet from the post office and grocery store we walk to frequently.

So there you have it – the postcard show and our first edition of the acquisitions.

Love-ly Lamp

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: I think Pictorama readers know by now that I am very susceptible to stumbling on something while scrolling through the internet, eBay and Instagram in particular. I see a heck of a lot and, if you think of it in proportion to what I see I inquire about a small amount and purchase and even smaller amount – although it does pile up. Anyway, this lamp popped out at me while casually strolling through Instagram and I went so far as to purchase it for the house in Jersey. It came to us via Mike Zohn @obscuraantiques whose antique store on the we used to visit on the Lower Eastside before his relocation to points south of here.

Pictorama readers might also remember that I have a soft spot for lamps and have posted about a number of them purchased for the house here and a few for the apartment in New York. (I was thinking about this the other day and remembering that for my father it was clocks and chairs. Man, my father would go way out of his way if he thought an antique clock might be in the offing. When he was a bit younger he was also that way about antique chairs – I grew up with an extraordinary number of chairs in the house – many were Shaker in origin. We could have seated small concerts or film viewing. They were like cat nip to him. Meanwhile, some of those past lamp posts can be found here and here.)

Somewhere in the back of my mind I was thinking that this lamp would look nice and be useful in our bathroom – I am not a huge fan of the overhead light. I was assured that it had been rewired and all I would need is a shade and the hardware for the shade however when it arrived the thingy where the bulb goes looked awfully gnawed away. It took a number of months before I could get it to the hardware store here which is a splendid place to get work done on lamps.

Fair Haven hardware is one of those rare thriving businesses that manages to look (and smell) both contemporary while remaining steeped in its longstanding past. Fair Haven Hardware is 72 years young this year and while it was sold by the son of the original owner to a employee a few years ago, he’s pledged to keep it going for the next 70 years. (I recently got on my elevator in Manhattan and was talking to a neighbor who used to have a home down here, when she talked about selling she said the thing she’d miss most was this great hardware store in Fair Haven!) Their 70th anniversary banner still hangs on the front of the shop.

Kim and I were trying to analyze what the smell is. It is reminiscent of an aging Woolworth’s or ancient five and dime of that variety with perhaps a bit more fertilizer and grass seed thrown in. You might say dust but it isn’t dusty, nor is it dark, quite well lit really.

Anyway, they replaced the bit that holds the bulb and now I just need the hardware for the shade and a shade. While it isn’t exactly light, it is not as heavy as it might look. It’s sort of a dotty design and the ageing patina improves its appearance I think. I continue to think it might have a place in the bathroom. (Although I recently purchased a night light for it and it seems a tad less pressing than it did.)

Buying a shade for a lamp online is a bit difficult and this has prevented me from purchasing one for Popeye as well. You have a desire to see how various shades look. I need to find a local store where I can take them and pop a few on, like trying on hats. Or I can gird my loins, order online and take my chances. I’ll let you know what I decide.

Pussy Cat Portrait

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: This is a bit of a hold the presses Pictorama post. This arrived from Great Britain yesterday as I write and I ADORE it. Now I understand that some of you think I may have really gone dotty at long last. I admit that paintings have been a bit out of my purchasing purview (and buying them online seems really dubious), but I saw this one in an auction preview and was indeed interested. I ended up coming late to the auction and I was sure it had been snatched up however miraculously it had not and it was reasonably price. Mine, mine, mine!

It has taken a few long weeks to arrive at our shores and was dropped off on our doorstep here in NJ while we ate dinner last night. I was showing a friend out and there it was. Oh bliss!

The painting came to me from a new friend who sold me the cat match striker and the lovely green cat face dish. (For those posts with items from @oldstockantiques have a look here and here.) Eventually tariffs on antiques from abroad are going to come for me but I have been purchasing unbidden meanwhile. Or I’ll just go broke!

Anyway, it isn’t too large, about 8″x 8” (unframed) and surprisingly the cat is white rather than my generally preferred black. He (or she) is a little fluffball of a kitty, perhaps just out of kittenhood. There is just something pleasantly insane and maniacal in the cat’s eyes. Between that and the somewhat electrified look of the fur there is, for me, a slightly Louis Wain-ish look of influence about it. It appears to be an oil painting

There are a few bits of damage to the surface (rather charmingly under the circumstances, there is a cat hair or two stuck to it) and it is painted on an inexpensive bit of prepared board with a small hook at the top for hanging. I didn’t see it at first but it says Angela 1977. Whoever Angela was she did a splendid job and I wouldn’t mind finding the thrift store where more of her work is for sale. (That is fantasy worthy.)

I need to go wandering around the house to see where it is going to live, some place where I will get to see it frequently when I am here however!

Holding

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today is white cat rather than black cat day here at Pictorama. This acquisition was made at the Red Bank Antiques Annex (a favorite haunt of our Jersey summer days) earlier this month. He (she?) is a doorstop it would appear. I found him in a display case of Halloween items and originally thought he was a decoration.

Back of doorstop.

He is rather perfectly aged in my opinion. His white faded to a brownish gray but pink mouth, painted whiskers and greenish eyes are still visible. You can make out his tail wrapped around his feet. The paint on the hard surface has cracked and crazed. He’s about nine inches high.

He is heavy but not as heavy as a doorstop would likely be. I think his super power is in that he is composed of some kind of heavy rubber. The barely still visible label on the back reads Kleistone Rubber and I cannot read the rest. Evidently the company operated out of Rhode Island in the first half of the 20th century with cast figures such as this – and for the record it seems this could be a doorstop or bookend which is something I was trying to figure out. Although the few I found online were black and identified as doorstops.

Ship doorstop, not in Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Evidently other options would have included a scotty dog or a pirate ship according to AI. I show the scotty and a black cat below.

Scotty and black version of cat. Not in Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

I paid up for this fellow and had left him for further consideration the first time I saw him. However on a second trip I knew he was going home with me.

He will live here in New Jersey in the House of Cats and already has a nice spot under these geraniums (meant for outside but so happy in the house I have kept them here) poking out from their leaves.

A Sprightly Black Cat

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: For those of you who read yesterday’s post, you know that this little kitty came to me from Great Britain via an Instagram post where I spotted him in a flea market display. It was the first time I purchased something from @woodenhillstoys via Instagram, but I deeply suspect not the last. He caught my eye at the same time as the Louis Wain doily (yesterday’s post), on a shelf on the same table.

This kitty is tiny, only about four inches from his nose to his curled up tail. He is velvet and sports a ratty ribbon, the same yellowish color as the velvet on his tummy. A red nose and mouth are a stitched star between glass ears with rounded ears. Still, it is his sort of splayed leg stance, arched back and curled tail that catch your eye and give him his cat-titude. A tiny hole in the tip of his tail reveals a bit of straw stuffing. He is a prime example of less is more.

A closer look at this little addition.

Meanwhile, in the process of the sale, the seller Steven Phillips (@woodenhilltoys) shared a rather extraordinary piece he recently acquired for his own collection. For those of you who are regular Pictorama readers you may remember several posts devoted to animal imitators – dogs and, of course, cats. (Some of those prior Pictorama posts can be found here, here and here.) While I wouldn’t say that the Brits owned this occupation, they are definitely in competition with the us in this narrow area of expertise and this is a grand example.

Steven Phillips cat impersonator poster.

I just about fell over! Shown here in a glorious poster size in his cat suit with a small image of him, sans suit up in the corner. I pulled this off of Instagram where he direct messaged it to me. I love that he has himself perched on this illustration of a rooftop with neatly tended fields in the distance. The cat costume is notably comical. A note in the corner says, Elite Photo Co., Glasgow, Scotland.

A wowza of weirdness in this close-up.

A Google Image search tells me that this gent in his cat suit was in ads for Black Cat Cigarettes and I have grabbed a few images shown here. (One is a Getty Image with its watermark.) I cannot seem to get the name of the performer in question. Clearly he is a rather inspired imitator and his devotion did not go unrecognized.

Black Cat Cigarettes, it goes almost without saying, had a long and storied series of ad campaigns featuring black cats – both real, drawn and clearly imitated as well. (For a post highlighting a notable item of their advertising in my collection have a read here.)

Black Cat Cigarette ad I found online. I love the two mugs who are driving!

Oddly this came up the first time I put it in Google Images but not subsequently. AI had all sorts of weird answers for me when asked!

So a real hats off to Steven Phillips (and my thanks for allowing me to share the images) for a real hotsy totsy find! I have a feeling this won’t be the last we hear about the lore of this particular cat impersonator and we at Pictorama will be looking.

Hamlet Castle Wain

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: I have opined on my devotion to Instagram. While I understand the downsides for many folks, having programmed my feed to be a fairly delightful walk through antique toys, cats (toy cats of course), antique jewelry, and vintage clothing (a shout out to @katestrasdin who I always enjoy – and I never stop being fascinated to what happened to silhouettes in the 1850’s!) generally makes me happy. I have written about it, intertwined with posts about my purchases. I am a rare 100% fan.

The secret may be that, although I will occasionally pause to look at Isabella Rossellini’s pigs, I generally do not follow celebrities and I do my best to avoid all political discourse. Of course I look at cats and watch cat videos. The biggest problem (or advantage, depending on how you look at it) is that I buy things. I buy jewelry (you can see a post about that here) and disparate bits and bobs. The Midwest and the South of the US tend to feed this habit – and of course England, the spiritual home of the early Felix and, like today’s acquisition, Louis Wain. (Several Wain posts exist! A few are here, here and here.)

It probably won’t surprise many of my readers to know that I am crazy enough that while scrolling through Instagram I will pause and happily look as closely as I can at tables packed with wares at far off flea markets. This is usually on my phone and therefore takes a certain kind of skill, gently expanding the image to see bits better.

This is a photo Steven Phillips sent me after I asked about the doily while still on the table.

This has actually resulted in purchases but the other day was an exception. This gentleman (@woodenhilltoys) in Britain had two items I decided I wanted if they made it through the day at the flea market. Luckily they were not sold and this doily is the first of the two.

It is very interesting as it appears to have been made contemporaneously with Louis Wain (1920’s), in his style, but not him. Although I found one other example at auction they are not common in my experience. In a sense this surprises me – Wain stuff has long been collectible and you’d think a fair number were sold and would survive but evidently not.

As noted in the title of this post, Hamlet Castle is one sign on the wall and Rehearsal of company 12 noon the other. (The auction site lists the doily by this moniker as well.) A Wain inspired cat (Hamlet?) with a club is getting read to pop this other kit (Polonius??) with a properly maniacal look on his mug. Go cat, go!

I’m not exactly sure how or where I will choose to display this tidbit. I tend to think it will come with us to New Jersey (later this morning as you read this!) where I will find a frame for it and hang it somewhere. It is a real treat. Stay tuned for the other acquisition and a story about a rather splendid item the seller shared with me but sadly he does not wish to part with. It’s a real Pictorama piece!