Pam’s Pictorama Post: I did consider saving this item for a back-to-school post after Labor Day, but here we are, in need of a post and here it is. For those of you heading back to school in a few weeks, you can consider it a shot over the bow in advance of that event.
I have looked at Felix pencil boxes for years – it almost seems like no two are alike so many variations on the theme turn up. I have bid on numerous ones and never won one to call my own. I guess I had an idea in my head about how much I was willing to pay and I just kept being outbid.
Finally this one, a rather superior one I might add, appeared online for sale with a flat price I was willing to pay and I jumped on it. Then I did something with a bit of foresight which was I had it sent to the house in New Jersey. Then, in all honesty, I utterly forgot that I had purchased it! It was tucked in a box with another purchase and I was very excited to discover it.
Back of the pencil case – Felix as artiste!
Condition is often a major issue in these as kids used them hard and they are after all meant to be somewhat disposable. Often they have crayon or pencil marks or they have been opened and closed so often that they are tattered and torn. By comparison this one is in virtually pristine condition aside from a bit of wear in the lower right corner.
Felix and two junior Felix-es march across the front with some sort of towers in the background. Felix the Cat is penned across the top quite nicely and while these are the rounded off version of Felix the bodies have a nice blockiness. The image and writing is somewhat etched into the cardboard which, in addition to this rich green color, has an interesting texture.
The back has more towers (castles?) and Felix perches while painting or drawing a picture held up by a friendly mouse. The cat and mouse depictions on the tiny top side of this are perhaps less friendly and Felix is bizarrely stretched – chasing a mouse but also held back by one. The bottom side has, instead three mice holding his tail which is stretched, as opposed to his entire body. The short sides have a great sort of Deco pattern.
Lovely mostly intact inside of the case.
For Felix fun we aren’t going to beat the outside, but the inside was a surprising treat! Tiny ruler, an eraser (which is as hard as a rock now) and a darling little series of watercolor pans, one broken and one missing but four still perfectly in place. Three pencils remain – two unsharpened and that wonderful Deco pattern paper continues inside.
This lovely item appears to come to us from the American Pencil Company, New York, U.S.A. The American Pencil Company appears in a marking on the front under the flap and also bears the number 1964. Pat Sullivan also gets a copyright mention across from it.
There is the same figured paper on the flap but in a simple golden beige. The whole thing snaps open and closed and that closure is still in good shape.
All in all, as a kid I would have returned to school with great confidence if given this dandy case, an excellent start to the school year.
Some of my peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers by special request yesterday!
Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today’s Pictorama tidbit comes via our good friend Bruce Simon. Bruce and his wife Jackie live on the other side of the country. My job used to bring me to their doorstep periodically and they have family this way and therefore not-quite-annual meet ups were possible. The Covid years resulted in several years where we were deprived of visits. This year we somehow managed a visit on each coast and we saw them earlier this summer and then a bonus round with Bruce a mere weeks later in San Diego when we flew in for Comic Con.
Kim and Bruce go way back to Kim’s west coast youth, but Bruce won my heart early on with splendid collections of early cartoons he sent. Krazy Kats, Aesop Fable cartoons – he has made a serious contribution to my cultural education. So it is a hats off to Bruce Simon for this post!
Much to my surprise Bruce brought me this splendid Felix tidbit found in his ramblings for the books he produces. (Some of those can be found on Amazon here and here.) This bit of a classified ad hails from The Muskogee Daily Phoenix and the Muskogee Times-Democrat. A quick look online reviews that this is an Oklahoma daily publication still in existence today. It was founded in 1888 so its had quite a run thus far.
This ad would appear to be an ad for the Classified Ad pages of the paper at the bottom while boasting this Kit Kat Klub Revue with the Krazy Kats of Rhythm. A nice swipe of Felix is chuckling in the lower left corner under On the Screen A Woman Rebels starring Katherine Hepburn. You could only see the Krazy Kats on Wednesdays and there is a balloon which informs us that this is A Wliburn Cushman Circuit Unit.
A replay of this pic of Bruce and Kim in San Diego where we had a lunch of waffles one day.
A snippet of another newspaper available online informs that this was a five piece band and Mr. Cholet was the singer and front man for the band. They played sweet hot and swing music. This was back in 1937 and 150 people had the opportunity to see it on a given Wednesday at the Ritz. If you read the fine print at the bottom it seems that putting an ad in the Classified Want Ad would get you one free ticket for the show.
Someone asked me recently how it felt to no longer work for an arts organization and I had to admit, I am missing the many hours of live music I have enjoyed in recent years. Radio Dismuke (I wrote about this rather wonderful online radio station as resource in a post here) helps fill the gap, but it is a big change, as was leaving the Met after many years of enjoying it – more or less like having all that art in your own living room.
Admittedly this ad puts me in the mood. However, it is an itch which is unlikely to get scratched soon as tomorrow I pack Kim and cats up and we head to the New Jersey camp for the remainder of the summer. So more on that annual bivouac tomorrow, stay tuned.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: In yesterday’s postal post I went on a long tangent about my recent interactions with the post office. Today, I will focus a bit more on the advertising aspect of the other letter opener I purchased, one for Oneeda Biscuit.
I tend to think this one will be designated to go to the office although I am realizing that on my messy desk at home (as opposed to my messy desk at work) I might more easily located this one in order to use it, rather than the smaller Red Lodge Montana souvenir one I wrote about in my prior post. I used this one yesterday for the first time. I’ll have to give that some thought.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
This letter opener only has the image on one side which I find disappointing although I guess the trouble to create art for the back of this little boy in his raincoat seemed unnecessary for a give away item like this. (I am pausing for a moment to reflect on the idea that this sort of give away doesn’t really exist any longer, does it? Sad for the future collectors of the universe.) Nonetheless, it was a tad disappointing.
Artwork from an undated Uneeda ad.
Having said that, The art on this is sort of splendid and although slightly chipped in places, in good condition overall. A quick look for these online shows everything from pristine to really ratty. If this makes your pulse quicken and you set your heart on owning one you have ample opportunity.
Uneeda Boy items proliferate with online.
Oneeda Biscuit, as many Pictorama readers may already know, was the forerunner to today’s enormous corporation Nabisco. Founded at the dawn of the 20th century, it played the food field with the likes of nascent Heinz, Kellogg, Hershey, Campbell Soup and Wrigley.
The early days Uneeda produced hard tack, crackers for seamen and soldiers that had a more or less infinite shelf life having figured out a way to ship and store crackers in something other than a barrel. However these folks ultimately brought us beloved snacks such as Oreos, Saltines, Ritz Crackers and Nilla wafers. Theirs is a fast paced history through the early growth of a US company through competition, war and peace. (The full history can be found on a site devoted to its history as touched on here.)
Animal Crackers packaged the way I remember, with the string for handy carrying and the animals in the cages – they have subsequently been “uncaged” evidently.
Enterprising rival companies tried to trade on the early version of the name and efforts to stamp out the likes of Uwanna Biscuit and Iwanna Biscuit were tracked down and eradicated. Uneeda cadets were sent out to ensure cracker freshness in the field as well as these copyright infringers.
As indicated above, Uneeda figured out the moisture proof packaging needed to deliver crackers in individual packages to consumers. The wax paper wrapper was the industrial breakthrough and this little fellow in his slicker is meant to illustrate the moisture proof nature of the packaging. (It took me a bit of research to figure that part out and I would say, at least in this day and age, it isn’t entirely self evident.)
From a popular 2021 post – this cracker tin sits on my home office desk.
This little fellow, Biscuit Boy, becomes the center of their national advertising campaign in 1901, two years after its founding. (Arguably the very first national advertising campaign ever.) Its forerunner was the slogan, Lest you forget, we say it yet, Uneeda Biscuit, but they decided they needed something more.
In addition to the treats already mentioned, they were the early creators of Animal Crackers – always a personal favorite. Later in the tale, Triscuits, a Deitch Studio favorite, were also created and added to the long-lived line up.
Is it possible that the name is meant to invoke the baked by electricity process?
Meanwhile, the Biscuit Boy himself was the nephew of the ad exec who created the campaign. His name was Gordon Stille and he was five in 1900 when he was photographed in a slicker and boots for this campaign. He was paid the princely sum of $100 for his services, but given the popularity of the image he ultimately felt he was undercompensated and sued, but died an elderly man without resolution. (All of this and more entertaining information about the history of the company can be found on this blog site devoted to food history here.)
From an eBay offering, the Morton Salt Girl in one of her numerous guises.
Kim and I both immediately began to wonder about how this Uneeda boy advertising might relate to the Morton Salt girl of our youth. She makes her debut a few years later in 1914 with the brilliant slogan of When it rains it pours, and one can’t help but wonder if they weren’t somewhat inspired by the trench coat kid when they designed her. (I remember studying this salt container as a child!) I can find no evidence of this however online, only statements that images like Morton Salt, Aunt Jemima, Fisk Tires, etc. became very much in vogue for advertising in the period. However, the idea that this jolly little girl (significantly less dour and damp looking than our friend from Uneeda) is also out in the rain to prove that Morton Salt would still pour in the rain – another triumph over humidity and the nature of food storage.
My hat’s off to my friend at Red’s Antiques (@reds_antiques or www.ebay.com/usr/reds_antiques) for supplying these two items which will be used daily as mail is still received here at Deitch Studio as well as, hopefully increasingly, at my office.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: Not often, but occasionally my purchases are essentially practical and today’s purchase was one, although certainly some style here. Somehow in the most recent office move from my last job I failed to pack my letter opener which was of the most utilitarian variety although I had some fondness for it because of the sheer number of years (decades) it had been in my possession, however there was nothing notable about it.
I have been in the work force long enough to have gone through a period with a lot more physical mail than I currently receive. Early in my career I have distinct memories of opening piles of mail every day at the Met. In fact sometimes I worry that the mail at work has failed because we go so long with absolutely none. Physical mail is so seldom now that I had a staffer who didn’t seem to know where to place the stamp on a letter he was sending for me.
Meanwhile, as a fundraiser I was surprised that my current office had never used a business reply envelope. For those not in the know, that’s what those envelopes which allow you to respond for free are called. (There is a permit number on the return address and sometimes it says, A stamp here will save XYZ money.) The postage for each envelope received back is paid by the organization, but hey, if you are sending me money I’ll pay a dollar for your envelope back to me. It’s a good return on investment and removes at least one impediment from making a gift – having to find a stamp.
When I discovered this a few months ago I went down the specifically postal rabbit hole of applying for a permit. I never worked any place without a permit so this was all new to me, nor could I find anyone else who had to apply for one within my circle. After getting an old account out of the way (a ghost account which seemed rather romantic but, not surprisingly, didn’t seem to actually do anything) I spent a lot of time on the USPS website and on the phone with their service people. I, in fact on some bad advice, went to the Main (Farley) Post Office here in NYC. As some might know, the building was purchased by the city and space recently carved out under this grand building to create a new home for Penn Station.
The interior of the post office, the James A. Farley building, is beautiful and I couldn’t resist a few shots despite my disappointment.
It was my first (and likely my last) visit to this post office as they do absolutely nothing there. (Does this mean there is no main post office in NYC?) Yes, you can mail things and yes, you can evidently apply for a passport there, but even an attempt to buy stamps will send you online. As you can imagine, I was told that the administrative office I was seeking was now long gone. They did, to their credit, supply me with the number to phone for help.
I am here to report that, once you get through the red tape of an annoying phone system and get to the folks (all women in this case and I spoke to several) to help you they are a great, smart and helpful group. My hat goes off to Ana, Sabriya, and Arkeda. They know their stuff and they were dogged in their efforts to help me. They coached me through filling out arduous forms, filing them and then shepherding them through the various routing. They even told me when they would be on vacation and who I could work with during that time. I praised them unstintingly in a series of final surveys and thanked them profusely. Frankly, I would hire any of them in a heartbeat if I could.
But come on, they don’t even sell stamps?
It has left me with mixed feelings about the post office. At their instruction I went to the local post office to my job to file the forms with a check to cover the annual fee and open the account. The staff was rude and at one point stood around in a group talking about me in the third person and told me to shut up when I tried to speak. What’s more, I probably shouldn’t need someone to coach me through a labyrinth site and series of mystical forms. So although I give the women above the highest grades, I give the USPS a failing grade in general. My experience as it relates to this interaction is that these women are an island of competent help in a morass of sub par service. (With apologies to others at the USPS who are hard working and doing their job!)
This was the Plain Jane variety opener I had been using for decades.
Anyway, all this to say, if I have my way more mail will come to my office shortly, hopefully in the form of contribution checks. And, to bring us back to my recent purchase, I actually like to open envelopes neatly with a letter opener. When you are handling money coming into an office for various reasons the envelope can be important (proof of mailing date, return address) so better if you don’t end up tearing it to shreds to get it open. I have keenly felt the lost of my letter opener, but did decide that rather than purchase another ubiquitous one from Staples that I would look for something a bit more interesting.
Of course my mind turned first to cats and if I had been willing to invest some real money in a vintage letter opener I found on eBay I could have had a honey. For a variety of reasons this wasn’t a moment I was inclined to do that.
Top of a very nice cat letter opener I deemed to expensive to buy. Tempting though…
A week or so ago one of the dealers I purchase from on Instagram (@Reds_Antiques or via eBay at www.ebay.com/usr/reds_antiques) had a bunch of smalls he was selling and I picked out two advertising letter openers he had listed. I’ve bought some lamps, photos and other bits from Reds, he’s a dealer on the west coast and he lists some cabinets and tables I drool over but can’t see getting across the country to us. The vibe of his stock is a little masculine for me overall (think gas and oil signs, vintage tools and car related ephemera), but we align on certain things and he has a good eye.
Anyway, I figured one opener goes to the office and one stays here or goes to Jersey. That still leaves room in my life for a good cat one should I come across it.
Detail of the top of the letter opener.
As is clearly stated on the back it is solid copper and it is from Red Lodge Montana. The top boasts a somewhat cheesy scene of a teepee and two figures, one on a horse. A tiny banner declares Festival of Nations.
Back markings.
First of all, Red Lodge (for the ignorant like myself) is a town, not a lodge as such, found at the entrance to Yellowstone national park. The area, full of skiing and hiking, looks stunningly beautiful with a downtown full of period buildings that have been preserved. (For a post on the adventure Kim and I had at a whorehouse museum in Butte, Montana, go here.)
Starting in the 1950’s the Festival of Nations was launched as an annual festival to celebrate the various (European) cultures of the area which had never much mixed beyond some tentative cultural experiments such as a unified local band, all this according to a local historical society website. It seems to still run in August of each year.
I think this one is likely to stay in the apartment. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post and the other one I purchased which will head to the office, reporting for envelope duty, next week. Could be a cat one in my future as well.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: This sheet music actually wandered into Deitch Studio several weeks ago but other things pushed forward on the Pictorama agenda until today. Longstanding readers know that I have a smallish, but pointed collection of sheet music which I have written about before – many devoted to Felix although there is cat sheet music in general. When I worked at Jazz at Lincoln Center my walls were decorated with bits of old cat centric music. (Previous posts of musical interludes, Felix-y and otherwise, can be found here, here and here for starters – there are more if you look too!)
Page one of two.
The British produced a lot of these Felix novelty songs and to my pleasure they continue to turn up. While the lyrics certainly reference Felix they are somewhat less Felix-centric than you might expect, however this is considered part of the musical Felix the Cat canon. This music was printed in 1925, as it states under the Pat Sullivan signature. (Another website puts the composition as created in 1923 so perhaps it had another issue with a different cover?)
Page two of two of lyrics.
None of the folks credited here seem to have any break out hits of note. It would appear that Horace Shepherd was the lyricist although I gather he composed as well and the other two wrote the music. (Frankly three people seems like a crowd to have produced this item, but what do I know?) It is a fox trot with ukulele accompaniment, which I like the idea of – arrangement for “Banjuele” Banjo and Ukulele by Kel Keech. I feel like four people is a lot to have produced this scant bit of music, but again, what do I know? There is an advertisement on the top and back for Roland’s pianoforte tutor the best in the world. English and foreign fingering.
Advertisement on the back of the music.
And of course most notably a very regulation Felix of the day is walking uphill across the front, concerned expression, hands in thoughtful behind his back position. He is a round Felix, not the more squared off, blocky early one such as on the more common sheet music below. It is of note that this sheet music isn’t hugely available. I snatched it up because, although I may have seen it online, I have never seen it offered before. (I found a Hake’s lot from 2011 where it was sold with two other somewhat more commonly available ones.)
Much more popular and available Felix sheet music. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
The most Felix-y part of these lyrics goes like this: Let’s all follow Felix. We can’t do better than that.When he’s been up to mischief he licks every other crazy cat. He’s bound to make us hold our sides and Laughuntil we grow fat. So let’s all follow Felix that dog-gone crazy cat. I am unable to find a recording of this song so this is not a listening post as such, but if anyone can supply one I would love to know.
It was a pleasantly Felix crazed world in the mid-twenties, exactly 100 years ago. I was just reading that Lindbergh took a Felix doll on his flight across the Atlantic and for some of us Felix continues to frolic (if not actually fox trot) today.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: I have used the term little gem before, but I can’t think of an item it fits better than this one. Within days of purchasing the Neatness award (featured in a post from last week here) the folks at Curiosities Antiques in Texas (@Curiositiesantiques or via their website here) inquired if I would be interested in this little book – and would I!
I have one or two similar period volumes in my collection, at least from the same period and sort of litho images. The one that immediately comes to mind is one I hunted for an ultimately purchased on eBay I think. It is The Cat’s Concert and a 2018 post about it can be found here.
Today’s post is going to attempt to give you the chance to really see this book so many images coming up. I hope I do it justice. Obviously I had to be careful about how I propped the book open in order to take the photos so they are less than perfect, but I would not have been able to scan them which would have required flattening the book.
Inside front cover which peeks through. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
To start, the peek-a-boo cut-out cover which has kitty peering between the cat tails is the most fragile part of this book, folded almost to pieces from opening; the entire book held together with a ribbon. Kitty is a nice tortie and sports a bow in the same shades and shapes as the reeds decorating the front, very elegant and I assume that the gold and silver of the reeds were shiny in their day. These elements on the cover are embossed, the decorative plants and the cat on the inside page too, the whiskers especially stand out. This little volume was lovingly printed and produced.
Title page. No copyright information but a printing number in the lower left?
Inside it is inscribed on the inside cover, A Merry Christmas , Dec. 25th 1893. To: Miss Lola Ritter, With Best Wishes, Lizzie. This decorating the cat part of the inner cover.
The contents are poems, cat verse. They are original works by Edward Oxenford. This little book was printed in Germany and published and printed by the Art Lithographic Publishing Company, Munich, German and New York, USA. Edward Oxenford has a few other available titles to his credit I could find, one book called Sports and Play which is a similarly litho edition to Cat Tales, but cut out in the shape of a saddle. (Apologies for not providing an image but there’s only one online and it wasn’t willing to be grabbed. An odd looking volume though.) As for the publisher, this sort of novelty book seems to have been their meat and potatoes, although I did not find any real history about it. Seems like they may have produced postcards as well.
The other book of his is called Holy Gladness and it also sports beautiful lithographs but unlike the other two books, it is a larger bound edition. Neither of the other books are widely available and Cat Tales seems somewhat rare as well. Edward shares a name with a much earlier writer who also went under the name of Edward de Vere and has much more writing and controversy to his credit.
This illustrator gets a credit at least! Not in the Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
I’m a bit surprised (and sad) that the artist of these illustrations isn’t identified and get credit. These are wonderful illustrations beyond having been beautifully printed. There is no copyright date, only the inscription on the front identifies the year.
I’d like to point out that there is a Miss Blackie’s Yarn below. My Mr. Blackie is decidedly unimpressed by these so called Christmas verses at the close of this book. Oddly all three of these poems seem to end badly for the cats in question. Not at all sure I approve either. A jolly volume, these last few verses notwithstanding.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: Some Pictorama readers will remember previous posts on a small (but now clearly growing) collection of medals I have acquired. These award pins I assume were given out (at school?) to encourage various virtues.
I found one for Improvement and purchased it for my birthday in the winter of 2020. It was meant to commemorate how well I felt I had grown into my job over the first few rough years there. I had spotted it while getting some jewelry repaired – probably one of the watches, they seem to need to go frequently. Anyway, I fell in love with the idea. I do like encouragement.
That one and the one that came after for Excellence, purchased on eBay, were both made of 10k gold. This too amazed me. There was a time when real gold medals were given as awards to children at school. Man, I was happy when someone put a sticker with a star on my paper! (A post on the prior prizes can be found here.) I would have been over the moon for one of these pins – as I am sure the youthful recipients were.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
I believe I only got to boast Improvement on the lapel of a jacket a few times before the world shut down for the pandemic. A few years later Excellence joined on the same jacket and people would frequently remark on them. (One of my staffers surprised me as he had read the post here.)
In many ways Neatness is another whole kettle of fish. Unlike my others, this one is made of silver. The other two date from 1910 and 1945 respectively. This one dates back to 1881! (This was clearly a longstanding tradition. It should be noted that my Excellence came from Canada, so we know that it was popular there too.)
I wonder how far back does the tradition go? Of course many of these were considered special and therefore saved over the years. Once I got the hang of the right search numerous ones seem to pass through the portals of eBay and Etsy. I am highly selective however about the message and have to have some sort of kinship to it.
This one is so special though. I love how it has a star shape and hangs off a banner – both declaring Neatness and the date above. It is a little like being the sheriff of neatness. In the center of the star shaped charm it also says 85 and I have no idea what that refers to since the date is so clearly marked as ’81. Twice on the back, top and bottom, it has the recipients initials and this gave me a giggle too. They are N.P.B. so it was in a sense clearly meant for me.
Back of pin. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Alas, I’m afraid however that an award for neatness is indeed only aspirational in my case. I may strive for it, but neatness is more of a goal than a given. It is unlikely I would have earned it. As I look around our treasure filled single room abode, let’s just say neatness is not a concept it was built around. Our books and my toys and photos grow like topsy and cat hair and New York sooty dust is to be kept at bay. Luckily we now have the house in New Jersey for some of our booty.
Still, when it came up for sale via my Texas team on Instagram @Curiositiesantiques (or via their website here) I knew it should be mine. While Jason and Sandi thoughtfully keep a weather eye out for things that might interest me, resulting in a mounting number of cat related items of various kinds, they may not know that these are a developing passion.
I am told this pin belonged to Terry, Jason’s mom – thank you Terry! (A few prior purchase posts from this Dallas duo can be found here and here, for starters.) Sandi as a regular reader knew I might find it of interest. Here’s to hoping I find myself in Dallas and can meet them one of these days – or perhaps a meet up at Brimfield. Hmmmm. A girl can dream.
I need to find the right jacket to pin this to, although maybe a black sundress will do for summer. I always think that it’s good to have ideals and I will indeed strive to exhibit and embody all these desirable qualities.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: Just when you least expect it, a collecting opportunity appears which you have not considered previously appears. Pictorama readers probably know that just last week I was opining on my buying jags for everything from antique jewelry boxes to bowls. Somehow during that same time, these two bisque nodders crossed my path and here I am, let loose on another trail of things to look for.
These Our Gang figures came to me via my Midwest supplier of goodies, Miss Molly (@missmollystlantiques) on Instagram. She wasn’t even having a sale when she shared these and I asked about them on a whim. These weren’t keepers for Molly and so a deal was struck and here we are. As it happens, coincidence or synchronicity, Kim has been working on reproducing the Little Rascals on a page he is working on and as a result the opening tune has been playing in the apartment (always taking me back to weekend television of my childhood), and I have been treated to the glimpses of what he is working from and on – and now you are as below. (For a prior Our Gang post, a publicity still I got for a steal years ago, go here.)
Detail from Kim’s unfinished page which includes the Our Gang kids.
I acknowledge that the very law of averages to fill in around this entirely without a lot of repeats are slim, but we’ll see how I do over time. Not surprisingly there are a lot of variations on these out there and one of the things I need to be careful about is that I match the same set as these. There is at least one other period one that is fairly similar, but not nodders, and not the same. (The whole concept of nodders and their ongoing appeal is one for further Pictorama consideration I think. Weird, right?)
A different, partial period set. Less finely done – not sure I would have been as tempted by these.
Also not a shock to see how much merchandising there has been, evolving over the decades, but quite a rabbit hole to go down. An entire, decidedly less finely executed, set of china figures was done as late as the 1980’s. To look for information is to be immediately swept into a windfall of collectibles over many decades. Among the participatory options, is this Jean Darling sewing kit with bisque doll you sew an outfit for, shown below – back in a time when the expectation was that a child would be able to execute that simple level of sewing.
Being sold on Etsy at the time of writing. Not in Pams-Pictorama.com collection, but oddly tempting.
Mine are made by a German company called Hertwig. They produced well known bisque figure from 1864 to 1958. They were best known for their snow babies which were based on holiday confections of the same, but meant for decoration rather than consumption.
I’m not sure how this would work as a comestible. Hertwig Snow Baby bisque.
Hertwig was immersed in reproducing the popular culture world of the US in the 1920’s as well however. In addition to the Our Gang figures, Gaseoline Alley ones turn up as routinely as well as Little Orphan Annie.
In reading descriptions these are described as cold painted and I think the other set, shown above, may have been ones you painted yourself as a kit. Mine are too precisely executed, especially the faces, to have been done by amateurs.
I’m amazed actually at how nice these are. They are a tad smaller than I imagined they would be. There is some chipping to the cold paint process on these – the downside to this method I would think. Still, with the many decades of wear they have held up well.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
As above, the name of each character is embossed on the back, Wheezer and Mary Ann Jackson in this case. It also says, Germany. The company name is not on them; I found that when I started to research them. They are hollow with holes in the bottom and their nodding heads are held on by bits of tied string. The figures appear for sale individually certainly, but seem to largely be sold in groupings. Pete is the most likely to be missing it seems and you have to wonder if those prized ones were just scooped up individually over time.
Mel Brirnkrant’s (perfect!) full collection from his website. Roughly what I am shooting for.
I’m eyeing a little cabinet I have in New Jersey for these as a finished group. (A post about that gift from Kim can be found here.) Meanwhile though, these will stay here in New York as we hopefully fill in the remaining four.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today’s is perhaps a odd post. Although Pictorama readers know of my passion for all things vintage cat, there are numerous other well worn paths of buying and collecting here at Deitch Studio. Sometimes these wax and wain, but many have long legs. There are the clothing equivalents, black cotton t-shirts and undershirts to wear under jackets, sweaters and sometimes even dresses. Then there are running socks which despite my best efforts lose their mates over time so it always seems like a good idea to buy more or resign myself to being mismatched.
Tin box that holds my collection of cards (get well, sympathy and birthday) here at home.
Among my more interesting ongoing buying interests are boxes. It is as if by supplying myself with enough boxes some day I will actually be organized. (An extremely popular post about the antique tin box that helped organized my home office during the pandemic can be found here.) The boxes, in all sizes, continue to come, but the organization a bit less so.
Just yesterday I wrote about a sardine box I will use for odds and ends (I think I have decided it is heading for the bathroom in New Jersey for hair ties and whatnot which the cats steal otherwise) and today I sit surrounded by a group buy of early jewelry boxes that just came from Britain.
A ring that was a gift and is in its original box.
I think the largest of these will also go to New Jersey to store a few things there, away from prying cat paws which twitch to grab and play with them while I sleep. I may share one with a friend as well. Ring boxes are a great luxury but do require that I remember which one lives where so there isn’t a scramble in the morning – nor do I want to forget about anyone and have them go unworn. Most if not all are lined with old, worn velvet and many bear an inscription from a jeweler of another time and place. (Of course it is always very special to find an antique bit of jewelry in its original box, that which it has lived in from its very beginning.)
Popeye lamp acquisition which now resides in New Jersey.
Another purchase itch which is a bit more unusual is lamps. I seem to exist in a world with little or poor overhead lighting and as a result for both homes and office it seems an ongoing need. I have written about some of those acquisitions here and here. I will confess though that I have my eye on two more – a rather comical dog lamp which I have bid on in an auction and another attractive desk lamp.
Dog lamp under consideration.
At the office right now I have a lamp made of antique dice which has followed me since I purchased it for my return to the Met back in 2001. However, the light in my current office is dreadful even and I am considering another desk lamp. What I really need is a standing lamp, but those are especially hard to source and given the ceiling leaks I would have to be very judicious about where I located it.
This lamp below crossed my path on eBay and I am tempted although I would say this is more a NJ lamp than an office one. I think it would be a lovely light either on a desk or even on a bedside table. Thoughts?
A maybe purchase on eBay.
Part of me understands that there will be a point at which I have enough lamps, but I don’t quite seem to be there yet.
On an even more practical side of things there are bowls. If I was in New Jersey I could share a large number of bowls purchased for that house which seems oddly bereft of them. Soup bowls and serving bowls. For that kitchen they are all new. Here in New York I try to fill in with vintage ones that match my blue and white ware china (the Blue Plate Special dishes inherited from my grandmother and a post on those can be found here) such as these which were purchased on a day in Cold Spring, New York last fall.
One of two blue and white bowls from a buy in Cold Spring.
So for now, these “practical” collections seem to amass until one day I am tripping over too many of whichever. Stay tuned for updates on those pending above however as that time has not come yet.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: This unusual item crossed my path while strolling through the online shop for Ghost Era Antiques (@ghost_era or ghostera.com) recently. There was something compelling about it, but it wasn’t until it nagged at my brain for several days that I went back and purchased it. Before doing so, I did a quick bit of research and was surprised to find that sardine boxes were indeed a Victorian thing and that once you start to look there are many in a variety of sizes and with many levels of decoration, ranging from plainer than this one to ones of majolica greatness.
Majolica beauty, not in my collection.
As one site states, the Victorians couldn’t resist a specific dish for a special food and back in that day sardines fell into that category. There is something wholly satisfying and pleasing about this plump fellow acting as the handle on this be-flowered container. I would have thought it a tad small for sardines, but I guess not because all the sardine boxes I have viewed online seem to fall into this range. (Perhaps I am thinking of those rather extra large Italian ones?) I can’t help but wonder if there was a sardine fork or device for removing them for consumption.
I imagine that in its day the gold was a bit brighter and less worn which would have given it more sparkle. It has a few well hidden, fine cracks in it and I don’t know that it would be entirely leak proof if challenged.
Peering inside! Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
While I am generally a contented consumer of fish and sea beasts, sardines and anchovies have long left me cold – too salty and oily. (Having said that I do religiously keep anchovy paste in the pantry which does a nice job of enriching soups and stews without having to contend with consuming the entire fish. I highly recommend this particular cooking hack.)
Sardines consumed as a delicacy seem to come on the scene in the late 15th century, kept in brine. Canning came along in the 19th century and one site says that canned sardines were served as an elegant and exotic course for fine dining as late as the 1860’s. (This same site assures me that yes, special tongs and forks were a part of the show.) And those tins were still laboriously made by hand. However, by the early 1900’s their veneer of exoticism fades and they become fare for the working class blue plate special. How far in prestige they did fall!
The traditional can.
Turns out that there are a myriad of fish covered under the canned rubric of sardine including, but clearly not limited to pilchards, silds or sprats, and at one time even herring, although I guess someone put an end to that with some truth in advertising. At first we in the US seemed to get them largely from France (they had the good sense to fry them before canning), although those herring were being canned in Maine where these canned treats became a major boom, and of course ultimately bust business. The East coast sardine biz was referred to as Sardineland and the West coast had the more familiar sounding, Cannery Row. The fish themselves ultimately largely disappeared from these locales as I gather is also their pattern.
Another majolica one to lust after!
Evidently sardines tucked away in olive oil are also aged by some, like fine wine, in cool cellars, largely in Europe. 10, 15 and even 30 years marinating is mentioned. I am not sure this increases their potential appeal in my estimation.
My box will likely reside either in my office or in New Jersey to serve as a pin box of sorts for odds and ends. I must say, I wouldn’t hesitate to invest in one of these other beauties, should ones like them ever cross my path – perhaps a whole new avenue of collecting here at Pictorama.
Pam's Pictorama 