cat collectible

Boo Kitty

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: It’s another rainy weekend here in New York City. After last week’s flood’s we are looking at the rain and puddles with a jaundiced, and perhaps even worried, eye. Blackie, our beautiful black cat, is snoozing on the couch, but he needed some extra breakfast this morning (Beau, the impressive black cat of New Jersey is also reported to be having a second square meal) which makes me think the animals are already turning their thoughts to fall and winter. Mom would have been saying that they need their winter weight – I don’t know if that is a scientific thing or just Butler family lore.

Beauregard Butler, the beautiful black cat of New Jersey.

Meanwhile, October is a great time for black cat proliferation and therefore a perennial favorite here at Pictorama – and I like to think I try to do it justice. This little wooden find is yet another kit that wandered into the house via Miss Molly (@missmollystlantieques) on Instagram earlier this month. I should just have her on retainer – she gets around to parts of the country I rarely if ever do and she has a very good eye. Another package is winging its way to us as I write.

This Miss Kitty is far more cheerful than scary. I assume it was in some sense handmade, although she doesn’t actually seem to be homemade. I am aware that there were patterns one could use for such things. (I continue to wonder about this however – so how did one purchase such patterns? I have never run across the original thing – magazines? Did people send away for them? What induced you to get out the jigsaw and make one?)

Cookie and Blackie in a recent photo – a rare occasion of sleeping together on our bed.

Kitty has a nice red mouth and stands on a bit of red painted wood. Over time her edges are a bit worn white. The little toe claws are a bit expressionistic and her expression (cheerful surprise) is just short of smiley, but jolly – someone took some time here. She’s not large, only 10 inches with her tail. Somehow she looks like she is arching her back because she’s glad to see you (give with some pets!) rather than trying to scare you, but I am of course reading into it.

What purpose could that serve?

There is a mysterious hole in the tip of her tail (you can see it is squared off) which may mean she had a form of utility that is lost on me. Any ideas folks? A pencil doesn’t really fit – not that it would make much sense either. I feel like there is something obvious I am missing. With the way I have photographed her I can almost imagine her wired to be a small lamp, but the hole is fairly shallow and she is not.

I could change my mind, but this little kitty may head to New Jersey with me as I begin the migration of new cat items there and the feline-a-fication of that house. Five real kitties however, makes vintage stuffed toys a bit of a risk – just the other day here Cookie decided she needed to try to nibble the nose of an Aesop’s Fable doll! I’m sure there’s something irresistible about the smell of those old toys for cats. I sometimes imagine that their finely tuned noses are giving them wild flashbacks to a past they didn’t know but the objects did. Just days of yore that only the toy really knows.

Cheerio!

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: First let us here in New York give thanks to the sun which has come out at long last! We intend to dry out today and those of you who follow my runs on Instagram will (hopefully) be treated to some views of the UES in a bit. I haven’t run outside in a week due largely to rain – which eventually even flooded our basement and gym! But now onward to an odd little piece (only 2.5″x 3.5″) that I bought on a whim one night on Instagram.

I purchased it from one of my secret buying weapons, @missmollystlantiques, who lives here in the Midwest. So exactly how this very British little item, a datebook hailing from the year 1940, came to our shores is a bit of a mystery. Whether it traveled here back in ’40 or after is of course also unknown, but interests me.

Inscription on back of book.

On the back of this tiny missive is an inscription, From Claudia to Gloria Wishing You a Merry Xmas. Gloria liked her gift enough to keep it and pass it on, but never attempted to write in it. In all fairness, it is very small and while perhaps handy to keep on you, has very limited real estate for scribbling within.

Limited real estate for notes within. It is unused.

It’s a nifty item. On the front, in addition to this great, classic grinning beribboned kitty, there is written at the top what is inscribed as an Eastern Proverb, Has thou a friend, visit him often, for thorns & brushwood obstruct the path whereon no one treads. I can’t vouch for the origin, but I like the sentiment. And of course there is the bright orange Cheerio, cut out to reveal a gold page behind for emphasis at the bottom.

The cat sits on a slice of moon and has stars around him, highlighted in gold with a cut out on the cover. Although the British consider black cats lucky, you’ll note that this fellow has a white chest making him a sort of tuxie instead. (Although our Blackie is all black save a white daub there too and we consider him a black cat – go figure.)

For a tidy little book it actually contains a lot of information, some of it very British in nature. The first pages are devoted to a reminder of the difference in time across the world, using noon Greenwich time as the basis. (It also reminds the reader that the longitude affects time, every degree East of Greenwich is four minutes later and every degree West four minutes earlier – I guess in case we wish to do the calculation ourselves?)

Then a page devoted (strangely) to the weight of the four largest church bells in Britain, Great Paul (St. Pauls), Big Ben (Palace of Westminster), Great Peter (York Minster) and Little John (Nottingham) – 10.5 – 17.5 tons in reverse order of above. Below that is a chart of Conscience Money which frankly I don’t understand but appears to be some sort of tax?

The calendar pages follow uninterrupted until the centerfold which provides a list of Bank Holidays (they include summer’s commencement and end) as well as Saint Days, St. Patrick’s being the only one familiar to this author. There’s something called Whit Monday which I was also unfamiliar with and below it just Monday which is confusing – another Whit Monday?

The opposite page gives a reference for postal weights and regulations and at the bottom the charge for a telegram – the email of the day. Nine words for 6d (6 cents, I think) and an additional 1d a word! Names and addresses were an additional charge.

Two pages at the back of the book are taken up with the phases of the moon and the last page (and this is so British) are the Close Times for Game, referring to the hunting season of various game – black game (a category of grouse?), grouse, partridge, pheasant and ptarmigan – which appears to be another, white, grouse. Then a long paragraph on non-fowl hunting with rule for everything from snipe to moor game and widgeon. Hmmm, I can see why you might need to carry that around with you?

There is no maker’s imprint for this and I have not run across anything quite like it before, although I assume most people didn’t keep them – let alone in such pristine condition. I went through a long datebook stage starting with the small and decorative and moving to the strictly utilitarian as my burgeoning work life demanded, this in the years before our lives were kept electronically of course.

My first electronic device was one that kept my calendar and contacts only – sans phone which was the great innovation. I adored it and I have to admit it was like magic. Still, there was an intimacy of keeping a book with a handwritten record of your year. (I still keep paper calendars – I need to be able to see how a month lays out when planning.)

I would hang onto the books for a period of time after for reference and they formed a sort of unconscious diary – friends visited and those rescheduled, even the meetings which sometimes became work landmark events when launching a new initiative. The convenience of our electronic lives is without question, but as always, a tiny something is lost to the shifting times.

Sportex: Felix Meets His Match

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Yesterday I shared a rather wonderful wind-up bear which came as part of a buy from a British auction in July. I alluded to a small but rather magnificent box of Felix items which I have been lovingly posting about over the last few months. (See yesterday’s post which rounds up the earlier ones too here.) This is the final goodie disgorged from that buy and arguably the most interesting, a Felix special comic as advertising for Sportex Fabric.

Sportex was evidently a miracle sports clothes fabric invented in Scotland in 1923 and it would appear that they are still making men’s sportswear today. Even in its earliest incarnation it was said to be a durable, creaseproof fabric for sportswear. As the cover of the comic hails, Even the cat can’t scratch it! For those of us who groan over the pulls in our sweaters and the holes in our trousers made lovingly by our kits, this holds some real appeal and you know this advertising campaign was spearheaded by someone who had cats. Evidently they even made suits out of it so not just sport shirts or athletic wear.

The comic book story goes something like this:

A tailor is tormented by very cheeky mice in his house which eat his dinner and annoy him, dancing around and mocking him while he tries to sleep. The next day he runs into Felix, who is on hard times and for the price of a meal agrees to come to the tailor’s house and rid him of the mice. However, he is so redolent with food after the meal that he falls into a sound sleep and is subsequently tied up Gulliver style by the mice (these are the most entertaining pictures for me) who, after making fun of Felix resume their tormenting of the tailor. The tailor kicks Felix out unceremoniously upon which Felix forswears revenge on him. This revenge takes the form of inviting other cats in to shred the wares of the tailor. Alas, the fabric is Sportex and the cats are unable to shred it! They fall in exhausted heaps (another especially good picture) and the tailor sweeps them out the door.

Interesting how the paper embossed when printed. You can see it clearly here.

Along the bottom of each page you can see some Sportex facts such as Sportex was awarded the Grand Prix, Paris 1924. (Were the drivers wearing Sportex? Sponsored by them? I couldn’t find out.) On the back of the book, above a forlorn looking Felix in verse it states, Sportex defies the toughest stains – No cloth on earth can match it/A pin drawn sharply over its face/Will simply bend and leave no trace/And “Felix” and his feline race/Can neither tear nor scratch it.

Copyright is printed on the back but without a date. It was Designed, Engraved and Printer by Henry Stone & Son. Ltd. London and Banbury, England. On the front flyleaf there is a spot for Presented by and presumably this is where a salesman would put his name when he left the book. In this case it is blank.

The Felix drawings appear are credited to Pat Sullivan (see the cover) and are in the earliest blocky Felix design style with squared off feet and a toothy grin. The mice are consistent with the way they were portrayed in the earliest cartoons too.

Felix was of course no stranger to his sideline as ad man. One of my favorite shills is an entire cartoon done for Mazda car lamps which I featured in a post here. Meanwhile, his slightly off-model dopple ganger was featured in a bit of low rent Spanish advertising for girdles in a prior post here and a children’s laxative here. Obviously he did a lot of advertising for his own films and I’m sure a lot more will show up here at Pictorama.

I tried but I couldn’t find any tracks on the internet for this item, nor had I seen it before. I’m glad I could bring it to my Pictorama readers in all its glory!

I Love Her and She Loves Me

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Back in May of ’20 I purchased a card in this series for Kim. I had never seen the work of the artist Clivette and I wrote a post on him and the card which can be found here, and another shortly after which can be found here. I understand from a reader that Mr. Clivette was a much bigger deal than I had figured out so I am not sure I have given him his full due. A few weeks ago I was making a purchase on Instagram and threw this card onto the order at the last minute.

Although unstamped the back does have childish writing in pencil. It says, Miss Ina S Chilling, Wray, Colo.

Back of the card.

Unlike the Butler Deitch kits, whom we will discuss in a minute, these are white cats instead of black ones and if you are like me you might subscribe to the theory that different color cats have different natures. White cats are a bit more prim than black ones in my opinion. Years ago my mom had one named Kittsy. She was extremely timid, pinkish eyes and never grew much beyond kitten-sized.

We are two little kitties
As kind as can be
I love her and she loves me

Although this card professes the affection between these felines they don’t look especially fond of each other frankly.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

For those of you following the tale of our summer decamp to New Jersey you already know that Cookie and Blackie have taken the move hard and have gone on a hunger strike of sorts. Although Cookie is showing signs of starting to eat on her own after a week of hand feeding, Blackie will not take the plunge. In addition, they appear to take no comfort in each other and in fact I just had to break up a growling, hissing fiesta. Brother and sister they have always been together, but sibling affection evidently only goes so far in Catland.

Turns out that Beau is Blackie’s doppleganger! Here they are having a moment. Beau has been very welcoming.

I have known cats who evidenced real affection for each other. Growing up we had a long skinny orange chap named Squash and he had an extreme fondness for another cat of the house. I am having trouble remembering which cat he used to curl up with. They would sleep with their arms around each other.

As I write this, late on Friday night, at long last I hear the gentle crunch, crunch, crunch of Blackie eating some dry food from the dish!

Felix’s Fancy

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Pams-Pictorama.com Post: If all goes as planned, while this is winging its way into your inbox I will be sweating profusely at an estate near Poughkeepsie with the denizens of a teen music camp affiliated with my work. Our summer academy is a wonderful competitive program and I have not visited since the summer of ’19. (We didn’t hold one in ’20 or ’21.) The kids perform at the Caramoor Festival near there on Saturday.

Held on a college campus, air conditioning is at a minimum so as I write this from East 86th Street I anticipate a hot few days up there. I will have been in residence since Friday, but I saw no reason for you all to do without your weekly Pictorama posts and penned today’s and yesterday’s in advance.

Spanish Courtyard at sunset, Caramoor Festival yesterday – gorgeous day for it. The kids did us proud.

Putting my work woes aside, let’s consider Felix as portrayed in these postcards. While I do not own many of this sizable series of postcards (the one I own, the especially jolly one below, and the post about it can be found here), these came along with the items in the mighty auction box I have been disgorging in recent weeks. (Thus far posts for the ones written thus far can be found here, here and here.)

Pams-Pictororama.com Collection.

These, like the other Felix finds featured thus far, are a product of the industrious Pathé Film Company which was tireless in its production of Felix premiums and memorabilia. At the top each of them reads, Felix The Film Cat, which appears exclusively in Pathé’s Eve-and Everybody’s Film Review. There aren’t dates on any of these cards.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

These cards have all been used, sent by and to different people, although only one bears a postal mark. I have put them in a loose, possible story order, but one could probably put these in any (or no particular) order. Felix has loved and lost, crying a puddle, his orange striped kitty girlfriend walks off with a blue fellow who may be gesturing back at our friend Felix. Alas, poor Felix! Will he find love again? (And this one on the back is simply to Billy from Grandma.)

Verso of the card above.

In this card Felix, a nice squared off early Felix with pointy ears and blocky feet, meets come hither Miss White Kitty. In this incarnation she is rendered realistically – there is a bit of visual disconnect as a result. In later life she sometimes too has more of a comic book appearance. They each wear a nice bow, his purple and hers red.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Verso of the card above it.

It reads, you can give one to Winnie if you don’t want 2 when you get home. its a very nice song about Felix just now I wonder if you know it. I do wonder what song she is referring to – there are many options.

A more updated Miss White Kitty, from 1964.

Up last is Felix, looking out toward the viewer, with one of his mischievous looks. As above, she is his perennial girlfriend, a fickle feline although Felix does his share of coming and going as well, especially when a large bunch of kittens are concerned. They have a bumpy relationship.

Pams-Pictorama.com

This card is the only one that was mailed although the stamp has been torn off. It reads, Dear Biddy, I hope you will like this P.C. of Felix. I sent Jack & Rodney one, not quite like this & Raymond one too. I am so pleased to hear you are having such a nice time, lucky little girl. Lots of love & kisses…[illegible]. It was addressed as follows, Miss Biddy Pyle,Blackheath, Powderham, Nr. Execter, Devon.

Wish me luck on my humid quest this weekend (photos on IG and FB for those of you who follow) and more to come next week – hopefully from an air conditioned perch.

PS – Yes, the Airbnb was was nice and indeed air conditioned. Right on a fresh water pond as shown below.

View from our Airbnb in Livingston, NY. We’re aways from the campus, but a lovely place.

Felix Finds Continued

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today is fourth in a line of posts happily reviewing the contents disgorged from auction box purchased in a British sale a few weeks ago. This handkerchief helped seal the deal as I have never seen the likes of it before. It is small, only a 9.5″ square – a pocket square of sorts. It has faded and grayed with time and is of a very inexpensive fabric. I have not attempted to further clean it.

There do not seem to be comparables of any kind online. In the 1990’s a line of nicely done Felix hankies and scarves were produced and those come up on a search. There are a wonderful line of embroidered ones and I featured one of those I was lucky enough to get in a post here.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Like the tiny enamel pins (that post can be found here) this is credited to the Pathé Film Company in the lower left corner and appears to be some sort of premium. (I do wonder – you got to go to the theater and see Felix cartoons and they gave you nifty premiums? Pins and hankies!) It is hard to see, but it seems to be a special Felix logo with a pointy Felix with Pathé written across him. Around it appears to read, Pathe Presents in Full Everybody’s Film Review. Below that there is REG* which I assume is like a copyright notice.

These Felix-es are a wonderful morph between the blockiest or squarest way he was drawn and an early rounded version. He romps and torments an outsized mouse in each quarter of the hanky. (The way proportions between cat and mouse are made to work in cartoons has always fascinated me. By necessity the mouse has to be quite large and we generally just accept it as a visual trope.)

After some study, it could starting in the lower left corner where this Felix who I thought was sporting a nice bow (but maybe that is something else?) smiles mischievously – oh Felix! What are you planning? In the next quarter he has tied the oversized Mouse onto a string – Mouse looks mildly accepting and Felix has his slightly hunched over walk in a squared-off design profile.

Felix one and Mouse make eye contact! (I have always found it fascinating that the trope of the utterly huge mouse, necessary when animating cat and mouse, is one that our mind’s eye has come to accept.) Mouse seems mildly accepting. He appears to wear a tiny mouse harness which is not evident in the other images of him.

The upper left has Felix holding a kite – weirdly I thought it was a paddle toy at first with the mouse as the ball – do you remember those from being a kid? I finally realized that there was a tail on the kite. In part, I figured this out because Felix in the top right is holding kite string. Is the thing over his shoulder a bow like the Felix on the bottom? Mouse is looking a bit less entertained! However, Mouse does romp in the middle as well, first with a ball and then dancing with a horn so at the end of the day we will assume all’s well that end’s well here.

Felix in Contemplation

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today’s plaster figure is the second entry about and part of the recent auction haul from Britain. This is the second little statue of this kind to enter the Pictorama collection. (I wrote about it and my love of auctions in a post that can be found here.) Today’s is a little beat up and seems a little fragile for the relative rough and tumult of Deitch Studio, home to Kim, Pam and cats. As I penned last week, a box of Felix related items was purchased and expelled all sorts of bits and pieces and while I am not disappointed that this was among them, but I may not have otherwise sought it out.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. The design of this Felix was enough to convince me to add it to my collection a few years ago.

Felix lovers know his famous walk, hands clasped behind back pose quite well, although it is usually accompanied by a furrowed brow instead of this genial smile. He is not the most squared-off earliest model of Felix, but is an early rendering nonetheless. I do like his somewhat blocky body, a good version of the Felix design. He is a tad grimy and some of his white bits are chipped, but his expression is there and he sports a big black button of a nose. He is about five inches high and bears no markings at all.

Variations on these early statuettes are abundant which makes me wonder if there was a time in Great Britain in the late twenties when you could barely see a desk without one or another, or perhaps an ashtray. Maybe he will join me at the office. The Felix representation is fairly low there these days.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

In considering Felix’s contemplative walk, somehow he, an early animated cartoon of course, was always in motion and that even seems to bleed into the early toys, which walk, toddle, jump or use variations on this pose. Or maybe that is just true of all toys and I am over thinking it.

As for me, I do like to work things through in my mind while walking, not to mention running which is especially good for it. There is something about being in motion which helps my brain untangle its knotty thinking. I used to set aside time at the office, not quite weekly, to spend a half hour or so just thinking which I generally did sitting in my chair contemplating the ceiling or the view, always a bit nominal, out the window. It was always good to take myself out of the weeds some and just try to adjust to the broader picture and be strategic. I have fallen out of the practice but maybe it is just the thing for returning to the office this fall.

Felix Finds: Edition 1

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Yesterday, the first day of my vacation, started quite poorly with a migraine. I am an occasional sufferer and although certain food (good-bye red wine!) will trigger them unfailingly, otherwise they arrive largely unannounced several times a year. For a period of time they manifested as vertigo which was really nasty business. I don’t take anything for them although I try to remember one doc’s advice that they would dog me during times when I wasn’t eating and sleeping sufficiently.

If I had to guess, yesterday’s migraine fiesta can be attributed to a long winter and spring of stress with mom’s illness and work. Regardless of cause, yesterday saw not one but a rare two rounds with it. Bright lights in one eye which melt into sort of fascinating, undulating psychedelic patterns. (Think caterpillars examined on acid.) Interesting though, in tandem is the feeling that someone has poured crushed glass behind your eyes, followed by a dullness and a sort of well, sore head. I gave in after round two and slept through the afternoon.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

When I woke later in the day, generally revived, I had a rare and unusual treat awaiting me. An entire box of Felix items had arrived from an auction in England! As a general rule, I do not purchase blocks of items as my limited space does not invite duplicating items, nor storing them against future resale. (Although now that I own a house too, watch out I say!) However, this is the second auction where I did purchase a lot and I have been quite pleased both times. The first time was a few months back and it was in order to purchase this rare Felix bottle, shown below. (The full post can be read here.) It was paired with a pencil sharpener. All in all, a satisfying experience.

This time I went a bit further out on a limb for a multi-faceted package and those of you who are willing and interested can be along for the ride as I examine this odd lot of booty. I will start with some of the small items which I did not buy the box for, but are in their own way, a wealth of stuff.

Back of pin with information as below.

Starting with some of the smallest items, I offer two pins which came my way. The one is is very poor shape, however I am not sure I have ever seen this exact version before and in its day he was a jolly little bar pin. (A prior Pin Post of Felix specimens can be found here.) A barely visible Felix shrugs his shoulders in a familiar pose with a sad face. While well beyond wearing, I think it is fair that he should come to rest in the Pictorama collection.

Pins from Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

The other is one in a series of pins that are somewhat available and my examples were among some of my earliest Felix purchases in a London flea market many years ago. I own two others in the series, but this third is the first time I am seeing one on the original card.

Some (most?) of these are marked with some variation on the back along the lines of, Pathe Presents Felix The Cat In Eve & Everybody’s Film Review. (I have grabbed that off an old Hake’s listing for this pin so I don’t have to take it off it’s aged card. Under any circumstances, it is a lot of text for the back of a pin which is only about 1.5″ long.) These are generally also marked sterling, which is additionally a bit surprising although silver was much more commonly used for costume pieces back at the beginning of the 20th century. Some were also produced on brass, copper or some other non-ferris metal.

Not in Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Having said all of that, I have seen this mold, pattern or whatever, used in a vast array and variety of pins. I was only able to grab one other design off the internet, but over the years I have seen many variations on the pins, as necklace charms and otherwise utilized in a variety of ways. They are fairly available and one in good condition seems to run about $50 these days.

Bracelet by Charles Horner which I have seen for sale and occasionally been tempted to buy.

One interesting clue I ran into while researching these today is that they were designed by a man named Charles Horner who is best known for his Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau pin designs. Horner’s company, Charles Horner of Halifax, (23 Northgate Halifax), was founded on a design for a new and improved thimble. The Dorcas thimble sported a reinforced top to reduce needle pricking. (In my mind this does raise the question of what the heck good were they before that.) It was patented in 1884 and remained in production until the 1940’s.

Horner Mickey Mouse pin, sterling, sold by Liberty of London according to one source. A bit more rarified than the Felix pins, these will cost you a bit more.

Mr. Horner did a similar turn for Mickey Mouse in a series of pins, but I don’t know if they were also a premium tie-out or if Felix proved so remunerative he struck a deal with Disney. (From what I can find there is only a Disney copyright and the Horner hallmark on the back of these.) One of Charles Horner’s hat pins is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art according to their online catalogue – it does not bear Felix’s image. After his death in the 1890’s his sons took over the company and expanded to watches and tableware and continued production until the 1980’s.

A reel of Pathe Felix film.

What I cannot find is specifically how Pathe films distributed these pins, although I assume that it was they who were the origin of them, and that Horner just kept using the designs in the other pins and bits of jewelry that one finds which do not all appear to tie out to the Pathe name. Pathe did not limit themselves to pins as premiums and they also produced an odd line of largely useless pieces of decorative china – ashtrays, pin trays and the like. I wonder if the premiums were give aways in theaters or with the purchase of their line of home movies, a Baby Pathe Felix film is shown below. To my knowledge (which is limited) these premiums seem to have been entirely the purvey of the alternate universe that was Felix the Cat promotion in Great Britain.

Another Pathe premium, not in Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
The odd marking on the bottom of one of the china premium pieces.

And this folks, is merely the tip of the iceberg for the wonders that wandered into the house yesterday. Stay tuned Felix friends! It promises to be a very Felix summer ahead for Pictorama.

The Fish Eater

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: While I was trotting back and forth to New Jersey on an odd schedule with mom’s final illness, I kept a couple of potential Pictorama Post items in my computer bag in case I was caught out of town and wanted to write a post. While I also would put photos on my phone for this purpose, I had this and another item (an odd and seasonal one, which I will now likely save for a more appropriate time of year).

I barely remember, but I think I scooped this up in a bunch buy on Instagram. (It may have been that midwest maven @MissMollysantiques again – she and I have done a lot of business in the past few years.) It’s a strange item, thin cardboard, lightly embossed. It is smallish, only about five inches across.

While cute images of cats going after a goldfish abound as a trope both in pictures and three dimensional trinkets, this one hardly qualifies for cute and makes an odd decoration. Our tabby spotted kit appears to have been served up a bowl of small (live?) fish and has one hanging from his or her mouth, right before chomping it merrily down.

This cat has no shame and stares out defiantly. He or she is perched on a bit of defined grassy turf with some other sticks and bits about. More fish are indicated in the shallow dish. While there is a bit of paper loss to the tip of kitty’s nose the rest is in excellent shape, right down to the fish and a bit of fluffy jowl hanging off one side below his whiskers.

What on earth was it? I cannot imagine it was advertising and hardly seems like a decorative image. A bit of a mystery I think.

Currier and Ives print of kitty and goldfish.

I have written before about my childhood adventures of keeping cats away from our fish-keeping experiments. (Some of this territory was covered in a post that can be found here if you wish to delve a bit further in the subject!) We started with small fishbowls of a gold fish or two. (I don’t remember if these were acquired at fairs or at pet stores – in retrospect our acquisition of them seems so unlike my mother who had strong feelings about animals in captivity I can’t quite add it up and my dad was not the pet guy when we were little. I can only assume that my sister or I were insistent about their acquisition and she acquiesced.)

Zebra fish also seemed to be denizens of our tank.

It seems to me that this was a doomed premise, the goldfish bowl. We started with a pair I remember quite distinctly (and because of this clear and somewhat possessive memory, it is likely that I considered myself in charge of these fish) from when I was about four years old. We were moving from a town, Engelwood, in Northern Jersey, down to Rumson where I would spend the rest of my childhood years.

The fish were being transferred in a large soup pot, one had nice black spots on him and I liked him best. The pot, a light blue enamel one, seems like an especially bad idea (Mom – what were you thinking?) and also in the car with the swaying pot of fish and water was our cat Snoopy. I do think Snoopy was too distracted by his own drama (oddly he also just seemed to be free range in the car – no cat carriers at that time in our lives) to bother the fish however. The fish must have made it through the hour or so journey because I do not remember this being the cause of their demise, although that said I do not remember under what circumstances they ultimately left us.

Cat and goldfish teapot for sale on eBay, not in Pictorama.com collection.

It was, however, the beginning of a line of fish which at first, lived atop of our refrigerator because for some reason mom thought the cat (which became cats shortly) wouldn’t notice them. Generally they didn’t, however eventually a single fish disappeared overnight. No sign of him or her. Just an empty bowl come morning.

I think Betty realized at this point that we were committing an ongoing act of fish cruelty and, having raised complex tanks of fish in her youth, she set up a proper fish tank for us. We purchased a handful of brightly colored neon tetras (I remember them best), a few angel fish and a gourami or two. There were some tiny shark-y looking things and something we just referred to as the algae eater.

In retrospect, this tank was a lot of work. I remember the periodic water changes and tank cleaning it required, the plastic plants to be scrubbed and the real ones replaced. Again, I amaze a bit at mom taking it on with everything else she had on her hands with three small kids, two cats and a large dog. (Dad would allow himself to only be marginally roped into fish care activities and would at best follow mom’s direction if he was around for a fish care fiesta day.)

Neon Tetra

I loved the fish however and I would often ask my mother to tell me about the exotic sounding saltwater tanks she had kept as a teenager. Mom was a resourceful teen it seems and also made it all the way into the upper ranks of the Girl Scouts. These tales created an image of teenage Betty as a pillar of resourceful early DIY-type industry and ingenuity which really was probably a fair analysis. (It is making me tear up that I can’t call her up and talk to her about it however. She would have enjoyed reliving it with me.)

I liked to sit and watch them and have some very specific memories of sitting with our cat Zipper and watching the fish together. The air filter would bubble away, rising behind a faux treasure chest nestled in the gravel creating a world unto itself. Meanwhile, Zipper was a feral tabby who came to live with us about that time and unlike Snoopy he had no compunction about his thieving desires where the fish were concerned. He would sit with me and gently pat the surface of the tank somewhat mischievously, looking at us with his huge green eyes full of deceptive faux innocence. After an early incident the tank had something heavy placed on top of it after one of his more adventurous attempts.

The algae eater more or less as I remember him. Usually we saw his tummy as he stuck himself to the glass to munch on the available algae.

Sadly over time it became clear we were just not destined to be good fish caretakers. Eventually the gourami grew huge from eating the other smaller fish – alarmingly we’d find remains in the morning. He was sent to a new home in a larger tank (where perhaps someone ate him dad would darkly speculate), but somehow after that the tank seems to have petered out. Our investment in stray cats and dogs increased over time, tales for the future, but the Butlers left the world of the aquatic behind.

Token Lucky Fat Cat

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Sometimes even I wonder about the vast amount of cat detritus I tend to accumulate, but I continue to find all these cat related bits and bobs that interest me and here we are.

Recently in an attempt to plan a tidying up of my jewelry (currently heaped on my dresser) during my summer vacation, I reached out to a dealer in Great Britain who sold me one a year or so back. Mia has sold me a wide ranging number of objects and jewelry as well, and several of those have found their way to being posted here over time. Among those many items and posts is the cat door knocker shown below (post here), and a truly curious item also shown below with a post here. (A post about the other jewelry box can be found here.)

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. (I wonder how he’d look on the door in Jersey?)

I found Mia on Instagram during the pandemic. In addition to her meandering stock of goodies, she lives in the British countryside and treats followers to stunning photos of her walks and long distance runs (she was among those who inspired my nascent running) in the lush green area around her home. There are outings on the water with her son and husband and a running photo diary of her multiple cats, dogs as well as a bevy of foxes and hedgehogs who come for respite and repast at her home. (Her moniker on IG is @therubyfoxes in fact and her night photos and videos of the aforementioned are always fun to see.)

A wonderful curi-oddity! Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Mia dug around in her stock and produced a dandy vintage box, if slightly larger than I was looking for, and offered it at a price I could not resist. The deal was forged! However, less than 24 hours later she had a clutch of these listed on Instagram and of course I had her pop one onto the order. Both arrived last week to great satisfaction.

This token is a product of the Samson Novelty Company which, although it was an American company, was the dominant producer of arcade machines and games in Britain in the late 20’s and 30’s. These were used to play their machines and perhaps also sold as novelties as well.

Lucky Pams-Pictorama.com

The fat cat on one side is the main event for me, promising no less than Good Luck Always and reassuring us that I Bring You Luck on the back. I would have been tempted to pocket one of these back in the day if they weren’t available for sale and I think it would have enhanced my day at let’s say Brighton, where eventually I would have had my photo taken with Felix as well. It is perfectly satisfying with its bright gold appearance and just enough heft. I would recommend making legal tender of them and minting them in gold myself.

A machine of chance, shown for sale at the time of publication, originally distributed in England by Samson. Presumably our token or one like it would give you a lucky roll.

The internet offers dribs and drabs about Samson Novelty, most interesting was that the founder Jack Holloway was a Mason and the Samson company name somehow came from that affiliation. The company was founded in 1925 and although evidence of its machines (one armed bandits and the like) and tokens abound on the internet, the history of the company and its fate are not easily found. Jack brought his brother Charlie and three nephews into the business which seemed to thrive at least into the 40’s where information trails off.

I have great hopes for the promised luck (which I can always use) and this little item will continue to live safely (emanating good luck) in the jewelry box it was shipped with. Over time I am sure I will report back on what other items are added to the Pictorama archive and housed there.