memoir

Ring Tale

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: So once in a while I drift a bit and devote a post to another of my passions, antique jewelry. (Sorry, cat folks – more and more on those to come.) I recently devoted a post to an amazing ring I purchased of Cupid chasing Psyche in the form of a butterfly. (That post can be found here.) Today I need to start by saying Kim purchased this for me, knowing I had a serious hankering for it, and of course that makes it a bit more special. Thank you! I love it!

Although I admittedly have a sort of insane fondness for opals (a post or two about them can be found here and one on a very beloved boulder opal ring here, if you are somewhat new to jewelry posts), and their constantly shifting shafts of light. My other passion, highlighted today, is a bit of a story or symbol I find motivating. I like my collections where I can see them (photos lining the walls here at Deitch Studio and increasingly in New Jersey.)

Antique bone skull set in a ring that is another favorite of mine. Ring designed by Muriel Chastanet of LA. Pams-Pictorama.com collection. They recently turned a slightly larger skull into a necklace for me.

Rings. Yes, I do wear several on each hand most days, and they are a constant morale boost for me. To have them either winking light at me or motivating me with their stories and symbolism can inspire me all day. The ring I am sharing today was on the site of a British vendor (@heart_and_serpent on IG or their website here) for several months before I caved and grabbed it up. I saw it once on Instagram and it caught my eye and then tugged at my brain. I just kept visiting it on her site – hoping it would not have sold. Luckily it had not and I realized that I really needed it. Somehow this one was meant for me I think and I wear it pretty much daily.

I am not sure the world at large currently shares my interest in a certain kind of cameo or intaglio rings. (Yes, I have bought another cameo ring, this one depicting Hercules, coming soon. I was deeply interested in the symbolism of his endurance and perseverance. Seems like a good message for me right now.) Their loss! Luckier for me as they don’t just fly out of the store and I have the sort of pause I tend to need before making a significant purchase I plan to wear frequently like I do these.

I must say, I can just get lost in the little story depicted on this ring. A woman in a long dress and her large dog (dog really sold it for me) are walking in front of what I think of as her house. The cottage is made of bricks and there is also a brick wall next to it – this creates great textures and there is incredible depth to the image. There manages to also be a sort of a bit of fence and bushes. Another house, with trees behind it, is in the distance and there are even clouds in the sky. There are sort of four layers to the space in the image.

This was unusual for me but something I found when clearing out stuff of mom’s in New Jersey. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

According to the seller, the ring is circa 1890 and the rose gold setting is 9k, which is a karat I think of as more frequently used in Britain than the US. Although in reality while I assume the ring is British (as it came from there and the 9k setting) I don’t actually know. The Victorian nature of the ring, the depiction and enjoyment of the natural world, is a bit of a giveaway though. I will add that the rose gold plays off very nicely with the shell cameo color. Meanwhile, let’s just say it is just as well I don’t live in Britain because I purchase a lot of jewelry (not to mention toys and photos) from there and can only imagine how much worse it would be if I could actually visit these folks and not pay shipping and now tariffs!

There is a mark where the ring was made a bit bigger and me, even with my somewhat arthritis swollen hands, can and do wear this on my index finger. (Index finger is somewhat new territory – I expect to get to my thumb one of these days. I have seen women wear old, chunky gold men’s rings on their thumbs and love the look. I have my eye out. Poor thumbs should not be jealously unadorned!) The majority of my cameo rings are actually quite small and I wear them on my pinky.

Lauren over at Heart and Serpent has many stunning mourning pieces in her generously stocked online store. (She just put a photo of herself up on her IG account today as it happens, sitting in front of some gorgeous early tiles, at a historic site I think.) I have a smattering of mourning objects (I wrote about one in a post here several years ago with a very moving story), although have not worn many of the pins lately as I wear fewer jackets to sport pins on, and I found the necklace I wrote about a bit fragile to wear frequently – no scarves to tug at it but even without that. (My jackets are also the display area for my collection of gold, school merit medals, also with encouraging messages like Improvement or Excellence. Those are credited with helping get me through some rough days as I found my footing at a new job. Posts about those can be found here and here.)

Antique horse cameo ring designed by the incomparable Muriel Chastanet Jewelry of Los Angeles. Probably the first big jewelry investment I made. Still a favorite. Pams-Pictorama.com.

I think my current job (raising money for an emergency animal hospital) has peaked my interest in dog imagery. I meet many more dogs these days and am giving them their psychic due. The large dog here definitely caught my eye and just between us, there is a very beautiful dog stick pin which has landed at Pictorama which may eventually find its way to becoming a ring or even fitted for a necklace. Cats watchout! The dogs are on the move.

Hanging the Moon

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: We are mooning around today here at Pictorama and of course Deitch Studio is a good place for it as no one does it better than Kim in my opinion. That old man on the moon – Kim makes him toothy and gives him carbuncles and craters for an extra moon-y surface to his bald head. There was a time when I might have said that the Man on the Moon best defined Kim’s work – along with the time clock with a face standing over him for starters. And I generally ask Kim for a moon face (and snow) in our holiday cards.

A good ‘ole Kim Deitch moon in this eye popping pic of a cartoon mural!

Postcards, photography, cartoons – all in love with the man on the moon and hanging with him. My collection has a few choice photo postcards of people sitting on the moon (I’d have more if they weren’t so expensive!) and of course even just a few posts back there were kittens in a balloon flying toward the moon. A few images from my collection are below. (The post about the photo of Kim and Simon shown below can be found here.)

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

(The card above was from a previous postcard sale and was in a January post which can be found here.)

As much as we crave sunlight there is something about being out under the rays of a bright full or roaring orange harvest moon that makes us kick up our heels in a totally different way – not to mention the romantic interludes it inspires. I remember reading a passage in a novel about roaming through backyards and streets in the suburbs late at night under a bright full moon. Having grown up in suburbia it brought such a specific image to my mind that stayed with me. And where I grew up it would have also been the moon on the water too, always reflected on the river in our backyard. Stephen Millhauser writes very compellingly about having a different life by night – I may be thinking of him. (His novella, Enchanted Night is a good place to start with his books.)

Available in paperback in a number of places online.

I fell hard for this postcard immediately. I found it last weekend at the postcard show and the dealer told me it is a part of a series. Although I found another copy of this card in a collection online, I was unable to find others from a series. I will be keeping a sharp eye out however.

An early Deitch Studio holiday card production with moon, stars instead of snow. I like those too.

It would appear that these youngsters are constructing this natty moon fellow, placing his hat, glasses (those are a nice touch!), giving him a pipe, and one doing something with his mustache – applying it? There is a tiny paint can next to him. Obviously a ladder is necessary to do this work. The boys are all wearing overalls in different colors and reach sports red shoes.

The thing about this image is this amazing flying contraption the boys are in. When you look carefully it is a flying boat – something akin to a rowboat with wings, a kite-tail and strange wheels – for use on land? Another look and you realize that there is something coming off the flying machine to the back of the moon – it appears it is actually propping it up in the softly star studded sky. The painting boy, tucked in the seat of this machine, has a tiny ship’s wheel in front of him to steer. How all three would fit is also a further question for our imagination.

Kim and Simon posing for a moon seat photo as tiny tots!

Lastly this machine hangs over the endless sea – like it is taking place somewhere at the ends of the world, which is likely is. Waves appear to gently lap but of course space and scale are left entirely to our imagination. I must say the artist had a wonderful vision and got to run with it on this one.

This card was never mailed although the back has indications that it was pasted into something. The maker’s mark is postcard druik u. Verlag von B. Dondort, G m.b.H. Frankfurt a/m which doesn’t seem to lead to much of anything.

It is seldom that an image makes me as dreamy as this one does. It gives a new visual to the idea of thinking that your loved one has indeed hung the moon for you. A cheerful thought on a rainy Sunday here in New York City and at Deitch Studio.

Easter Egg

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: This year it is a foggy, rainy Easter morning here in New York City. Hardly the harbinger of spring that you want it to be, however I am celebrating with this somewhat whacky card. I bought many months ago at the postcard sale and I bought it for the sheer, delightful, oddness of it.

Just noting that I have an odd fondness for these chocolate Easter eggs from childhood and still grab one or two annually.

The card is heavily embossed with thick looking gold highlights. A careful look tells that it appears to take place in a dark forest, if you peer behind the large egg house the trees almost bend around it. Easter Greetings is engraved with gold highlights, nestled among the trees. Meanwhile, a pretty little decorative, curtained window on the second floor of this egg house reveals a rooster portrayed in dignified profile. Below him is a sweet little green door complete with a mail slot and a red portico (you want to get into the house in the rain comfortably, after all), and even a little pull chain for a doorbell. There are a few front steps to complete the image.

Below, running wildly are two little chicks – I say little although somehow they are much larger than the rooster – who I grant you is at a bit of a distance up in his window, but still! They are in a race with each other on a grassy turf; the light one has a worm the one with brown feathers wants to share. Is there a cryptic and symbolic meaning in this? The artist was very conscious of shadow, bottom of the egg, under the chicks, under even the tiny window ledge, giving the card a three dimensional appeal.

The border of the card is a colorful riot of flowers, leaves and (pink!) eggs on a gold background. The eggs are dispersed in odd groupings of single, three and two, again not sure if there is some symbolism I am missing.

Back of card.

Like many lately, I find that this card was addressed on the back but never stamped and postmarked so therefore not mailed and no date for us. I show the back above, the sloping child’s hand going off the card and barely crams in the address. It appears to read, Miss Eleanor Bigwood, 928 Helamont Avenue, Schenectady, NY. Upside down on the other half, in the same hand but very hard to read is, Myra and Victor – presumably the senders. I will assume that this precious missive was ultimately put directly in Miss Bigwood’s hands.

With today’s weather we can only cheer ourselves with the old adage, April showers bring May flowers. And it is true! The pansies, tulips, magnolias and cherry trees are in bloom after a long winter’s nap. New York City is shaking off its long-held mantle of winter at last this year and it is all we can do from burying our heads in the flower filled tree wells lining the blocks here.

Meanwhile, we had a gorgeous spring day yesterday. Kim and I endeavored to undertake his first long walk since his surgery, about a mile round trip to Orwashers bakery and back. This weekly walk to get a nice loaf of bread for the week has become somewhat of a ritual and during the hospital stay and the MoCCA convention last weekend, it has been interrupted. However, the walk was much longer than anything he has done since the surgery, although still using a walker now and for the coming month. He did it like a champ though which makes us feel he is well on the way on the, albeit long, road of recovery from his back surgery.

Homemade matzoh making a holiday appearance at Orwashers this weekend.

Although Orwasher’s was all sold out of their as advertised, yummy-looking hot cross buns when we got there (oh my!) a small amount of homemade matzohs were still available. Although not our mission for the day (we stuck to our loaf of sourdough and a bonus olive stick), it was a reminder of the dual holidays, Passover and Easter, which signify this season of renewal and regeneration.

Pictorama readers may remember that with a Jewish father and a mother who was raised in a Catholic/Episcopalian household, I grew up recognizing both holidays, admittedly in a secular and food related way. I can remember Easter weekends with matzoh brie (my mom had mastered that) followed by an Easter Sunday family brunch at my maternal grandmother’s of ham and homemade Easter bread. We dyed Easter eggs but also, at least roughly, knew the rituals of a Passover seder. It all means the return of spring to me now – tied to the blooming of the magnolia in my front yard in New Jersey and streets filled with masses of blooming cherry trees.

A day or so in the ER and even a short stay in the hospital will always remind you of your blessings – other people’s problems are indeed frequently worse than your own, and we have seen that recently. For now, I remain grateful to say spring is arriving, Kim’s recovery and walking improving apace, and there are many signs for a significant growth and blooming in the next part of this year.

MoCCA Fest

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: This is an interesting year for me to focus on MoCCA, the annual comic con manisfestation of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art) now it its 24th year. I think Kim and I have been going to this comics fest since its early days at the Puck Building downtown. From there it bounced a bit and had homes at various locations including the Armory, Chelsea and now the Metropolitan Pavilion on West 18th Street. Sponsored by The Society of Illustrators (which probably deserves its own post covering its august history), MoCCA is an annual March event by which we tell the comics calendar here in New York City. Over time it has grown like topsy and there was a moment yesterday afternoon when I literally couldn’t move in the gathered crowd!

This year was a bit special for Deitch Studio because Kim’s new book, How I Make Comics, is being previewed there with advanced copies, a talk and signings. We are so excited to see the book at long last! So we had a bit more of a purpose there than our more usual ramblings.

Kim and Bill kicking off the talk and Bill’s copy of Kim’s new book here.

However, the road to it was complicated this year and in part I write because I think you’ve had some hurried Pictorama posts on recent weekends. To start at the beginning, as snow buried New York repeatedly in March Kim and I weren’t doing our morning walk to work – not surprisingly, it was lousy walking. (I wrote about those walks not long ago here.) He’d had some pain and walking seemed to aliviate it, however without it, about a month ago we realized that he was having increased pain – and, alarmingly, trouble walking at all. A trip to the ER followed three Saturdays ago, and it turns out he had a severely herniated disc.

It was clear that surgery was in the offing – eschewing actual emergency surgery, we started on the bumpy road which led us to an operation last Thursday (micro surgery – I’d only considered this on animals via work oddly enough), although some issues kept him in the jug until a week ago today. (I liked the hospital okay enough although I think our animal hospital is much nicer – I’d much rather go there!)

This was one of those rarified items that turned up – never saw this before!

In general surgery seems to have been a great success. He’s walking much better, improving daily, although he needs to develop some muscle for any distance again. No bending, lifting or twisting – we seem to be good about the lifting but the bending and twisting, well…he tries. Most importantly for all involved, he was back in his work chair for pretty much full days starting on Monday – he’s made his halfway through the next book already and has a full head of steam.

Kim’s messier (even) than usual work table and area shown here – as shown at the slide show yesterday.

All this to say, it’s been a busy time on the ground here at Deitch Studio and we were on a deadline with MoCCA kicking off the book yesterday. I’m pleased to say it was a great day and really much fun. John Kelly of Dummyzine fame (@dummyzine) invited Kim to sit at his table for part of the day, joining Bob Camp of Ren and Stimpy fame. John is working on a long interview with Kim for Dummy which we look forward to coming out later this year.

Mark Newgarden, John and Kim looking over some of John’s rare Deitch items.

At lunchtime our friend and comics historian Bill Kartalopoulos (@kartalopoulos) did a great interview with Kim which covered process (what fun to see one of Kim’s pages go from rough pencils to a tight lay out and then to an inked page through the miracle of Powerpoint), but also delved into some family history which plays out in How I Make Comics. He spent some time on my favorite story in the collection, The Two Maries, about Kim’s mom and grandmother hitchhiking from Denver to LA in 1939.

A young and very pretty Marie Deitch (nee Billingsley) shown here. I knew her in later years and was very fond of her.

Yours truly and Pam’s Pictorama got a shout out as well – thank you Bill! And we were so pleased to see how many folks showed up for the talk – a thank you to those of you who made it.

Then it was over to the Fantagraphics table (Kim’s longstanding publisher and a big presence at the con) to sign advanced copies of the book and meeting folks which is always fun. I get to see some early, rare appearances of Kim’s work in volumes people have collected and want him to sign. Amazing! This fan girl is thrilled!

We’re back today for more – if you are around say hello! Kim is signing from 1-2:00 today and otherwise we will spend some time back with John and his other guests. I will man the box of original art for sale so come on by – and back to more traditional Pictorama next week!

Ringing

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: I guess like most people, sometimes I see something and it sticks with me and nags at me until I do something. This ring was one of those things. I don’t know why but I kept imagining it on my hand and it just seemed to belong there and to me. However, it was way at the top end for what I spend on jewelry, and never from someone online and from whom I have never purchased before. Nonetheless, I kept checking and I was relieved it never showed up with a big sold on it when I looked. (A few other jewelry posts can be found here and here.) Pictorama readers know I do love jewelry!

Another utterly favorite ring. This is an antique cameo set in a contemporary gold setting. Saw this in LA on a business trip and had to contact the store a week later and have it sent! Clearly I have a thing for cameo rings.

Their description of the ring from their website is as follows: This exquisite cameo ring dates from the Victorian era, the latter half of the 19th century, circa 1880. Cupid (or Eros) is depicted as a chubby little cherub, reaching up to catch Psyche who, in butterfly form, flutters above him. The pair are carved from white hardstone agate over a vivid deep apple green background. The panel as bordered by glistening rose cut diamonds and raised up on a wonderfully intricate pseudo-claw openworked gallery. Ornate shoulders and a reeded band complete the elegant aesthetic. Crafted in 18 carat gold throughout. Era: Victorian, circa 1880. The photo I am using today is from their website.

In addition to already being expensive, it was also in Great Britain so there would be a fee for the conversion to pounds, and the tariffs had already gone into place so even more expensive. Not only that but it seemed complicated to figure out which discouraged me. However, I was having a hard time over the holidays this year and I decided to make this gift to myself.

Sadly though it became an almost three month saga of international UPS madness. Pictorama readers know that I purchase many things from Britain. Although they are generally not at this price point I have rarely had a significant issue (one Felix photo postcard was lost in the mail and not refunded as Royal Mail had proof it had made it “here”) with items being delivered. Even during this same time a cat painting showed up unscathed.

So it either caught their attention because it was more expensive or it was just the time for it to happen, but this ring got stuck in Customs and absolutely nothing I did could spring it. The fees had been paid and that didn’t even seem to be the issue. Online tracking just indicated that it was stuck in Customs. Every phone call to International UPS is an automatic wait of 50 minutes or more. It became like a part-time job trying to liberate it. The ring made it all the way to Newark, only to be returned to England, virtually while I argued with them on the phone. Utterly maddening!

Fortunately the couple I was purchasing this from in Britain were utterly lovely. The proprietors of Lost Owl jewelry, they give the impression of leading a somewhat idyllic life in with their small chldren in the British countryside – wandering from one end to the other buying up treasures to share with the likes of me. (Find them in Instagram @lostowl.jewelry or their website here. Engage at your own risk and peril to your bank account.)

While I am sure their life is hectic and fraught like all of ours, nevertheless the illusion is lovely and somewhat enchanting. They do live sales sometimes on Sunday night which are cozy and wonderful looks at jewelry I really cannot afford – a very pleasant hour or so of looking however. If I lived anywhere near them I would just simply spend all my money on jewelry from them and be ruined. The hand wrought gold chains alone are enough to break me! (Although I am determined to have one eventually.)

Meanwhile, they had an agent on their end working on it too as obviously they sell to the US frequently. They remained determined and endlessly encouraging as my heart sank. I began to wonder if I would be able to love the ring despite its arduous history finding its way to our shores.

After the return to England, we doubled down and as it returned I made daily calls to different agents in India who represented UPS. (Some maddeningly insisted that there was no record of any prior calls.) I submitted personal information via email on demand, like an idiot. What can I say – I was losing all reason dealing with a system which is evidently quite broken. Who knew?

At last it arrived safely at my building, handed to me rather nonchalantly by my doorman one evening upon my return home from work in early March. I will say that I really love it and wear it almost daily, fighting for my right hand attention with my hither till now favorite boulder opal. (See a post about that ring here and my love of opals in general here.)

I wonder what it is about the ring that so attracts me, about the symbolism of Cupid and Psyche, as represented by the butterfly. Although Cupid of course represents romance, the combination of the two also seems to represent transformation, also of love and pleasure. I will say it is like having a little story on my hand which I love.

Other than to tell the cautionary tale, I bear no grudges against it at all and the ring only brings me joy. It seems to generate its own light on my hand. In the end it is everything I would hope it would be. When asked about how many rings can I wear I remind folks that I have ten fingers and 365 days a year.

Family Pics

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: A short post today and an unusual one as I don’t think I very often feature photos of my own childhood. However these two have been hovering on my desk for a bit and I have decided to share them. Admittedly it is a bit indulgent; they are largely photos only a family member could love, and not necessarily aesthetically special.

The black and white photo is my mom and dad and sister Loren. I am the babe in arms and according to the date on this, November 1964, I am 9 months old. It was taken in front of my maternal grandmother’s home, with the camera facing away from the house. (I wrote a long early post about my grandmother’s house and it is here.) My apologies to my brother Edward but these were take several years before he was born.

It is a bit rare really to have all of us in a photo as my father, the camera man, usually took the photo. He is wearing a trench coat (I still have one of his Burberry trench coats – they were a constand over the years like his very long Eddie Bauer down coats in the winter.) Dad is not wearing a hat which is very unusual. It would have been a wool cap.

Mom seems to be wearing a long trench coat as well and this was unusual – Dad must have bought it for her. I can’t really see her hair in this but it would have been some kind of longish at that time. Loren is two here, her life long curly hair already in evidence – she’d fight that through her teen years but I, of the straight hair, always liked it. I like this little double breasted plaid coat she is sporting.

Mom holds a chubby me in a fluffy top and be-pom pommed hat. I like this long fall shadow outlining use to the left. No idea who took this picture but I would make a guess it may have been my mother’s brother and this is probably Thanksgiving. I do not believe that wildly finned, white car behind us is ours. I think we may have been sporting a woody station wagon in the day – my family never went in for sporty cars.

My sister Loren on the left and me in a profusion of posies on the right. I don’t think these dresses inhibited some wild running around as soon as a few minutes after this – Loren already looks like she is leaping off!

The other photo (they were sort of stuffed together in a bit of plastic when I found them) is early color and is Easter Sunday 1966, two years later. My sister, in the pink, and I are clad in unlikely dresses for the holiday. I suspect they were gifts from my grandmother – I almost wonder if she made them but probably not. Our normal attire ran to the indestructible but were were clearly meant to be memorialized on this occasion as properly dressed little girls.

We would have had an Easter egg hunt either out in the yard or, if the weather didn’t cooperate, in the house. The ones in the yard, which I believe were courtesy of my uncle, are glorious in my memory. My (Jewish) father always had Easter baskets for us (usually Russell Stover ones) which were also wonderful. (I can remember a fascination with a soft, lifelike, tiny toy chick someone gave me one year and I was very sad when it got lost in the hustle and bustle of things.)

Loren is looking a bit angelic here although I knew her well enough to say she was probably like she was shot out of a canon two minutes later – and hadn’t even started on a sugar high. These dresses are really wearing us! The fabric comes back as unforgiving even now as I look at it. Oh the bows and flowers! I feel like my hair is a bit of a babu mullet here.

We are seated on a couch that lives in memory as an itchy green sort of flocked fabric. That small bit of flowered wallpaper brings back memories of my grandmother’s living room – and the blinds on the windows behind us were often closed, probably so the furniture wouldn’t fade. It was therefore usually a somewhat dark but not unpleasant room which I spent many hours happily in. A television ultimately found its way into that room in a giant wooden console that included a very fancy radio and record player.

The family would have headed into the kitchen where we would sit around an expanded table (or if the guest list was really big it would have reached through the living room) and as it was Easter there would have been a wonderful cakey homemade bread, fried dough (these were Italians doing this cooking!), ham, sausage and depending maybe my grandmother’s rather incredible meatballs. (I didn’t become a vegetarian for many years yet to come. I have attempted to make a fakemeat version of her meatballs!)

At that time Loren and I were the very first grandchildren of our generation – it would proliferate with the addition of my brother and several cousins over time. Sadly now several of those, including my sister, died very young and are already no longer with us. However, here we are, at the beginning of it all – a twinkle in everyone’s eye for the spring holiday.

Red Hot

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I believe in my last post I opined a bit on the advent of more coming snow – here on the East Coast it has been a winter of record snow delivery. As promised 19 more inches of the stuff was delivered in a twelve-hour period. Blackie, ever the card, decided to begin projectile vomiting at 4am that morning, which continued into the afternoon. I have a theory that the boy wants me to have every possible experience as a client at the animal hospital where I work and thereby aide my fundraising prowess a notch.

Pretty good snowman this week, in front of a diner on First Avenue.

I watched him carefully and luckily by afternoon (the mounting snow had not stopped or even slowed) he rallied and held food down and continued to. However, he did make a visit to the local vet as a result later in the week for his trouble. As a diabetic cat we need to keep an eye on swings in his fructose levels. Shown below, he is enduring having his blood checked. Poor little man! His sugar, while a bit high, is now stable and his insulin remains the same.

Poor Blackie, in the temporary cone of shame at the vet so he doesn’t nip during the blood draw.

However, this weekend has dawned sunny, some fog burning off after a nice (comparatively) warm front moved in. Our snow has been reduced to manageable piles – although I just saw that we need to expect a bit more tomorrow. Meanwhile, I have chosen this odd but compelling postcard above to help plant my mental seeds for spring as I am ready for it this year.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. (Although admittedly MIA!)

I am deeply fond of cyanotypes and I own a few. One post covers a several of mine but also mentions a lovely book of cyanotypes from a collection called Ipswich Days. (You can read the post here.) In the process of writing this, I forgot that I had the one shown above (which I wrote briefly about here back in 2014 although the post is more about the odd toy shown). It seems I thought I may have given it away which helps to explain my memory loss concerning it.

I looked into the process a bit this morning and frankly have not come up with a better definition than pink or red cyanotype – although again, this is a mass produced card, not a real single photo image. I did find this startlingly beautiful pink and blue cyanotype card, for sale on eBay for $35 at the time of writing. I also found the other pink card which seems to be the same process as mine and is also French, a New Year’s card. (It is a different postcard publisher however.)

A wowza, but not in Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

My card has a slightly iridescent and surreal look through a flower to the image of a woman holding a similar flower, a Gerber daisy comes to mind. She’s an early 20th century beauty from what we can see of her and it is a trippy spring she seems to foretell. Some sort of a dark leafy branch is in the foreground of the image giving it more depth, as do the shadows under the “flower”.

Looks like the same process but a different French company produced it. Not in Pams-Pictorama.com Collection either.

As mentioned above, the marking on my card (front and back) is PC Paris, however the company is WS Diamant G.E.F. which is a German company, the initials probably referring to a process copyright. PC Paris (probably short for Photo-Ciné Paris in this case) was a major distributor of real photo postcards in the 1910’s-’30’s. I gather from my research that some of their line were the more risqué postcards of French fame. Ooo-la-la as they say!

Not surprisingly, our 2026 groundhog forecaster warned of a late spring. (I worry he was subsequently buried under snow here in the tri-state area. I hope he is napping) The farmer’s almanac tells us it will be a very warm one once it gets here – weather whiplash once again. Orwasher’s, our bread and baked goods purveyor of old New York fame, has begun a Purim push of treats (a previous post devoted to homemade hamantaschen can be found here) so I guess Easter isn’t too far off either. I saw (bright pink!) hydrangea for sale at the deli yesterday and I know my dahlias await planting in late April. The magnolia, cherry trees and peonies will be the first out however and I can’t wait to see them this year.

Boxed

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Pictorama readers may already know I have a hard time resisting a good box or cabinet – decorative storage tends to make me feel like I will, at long last, be able to organize my life and wayward possessions into some beautiful state of organization. And although time and experience show that I continue to fall short, I remain quite drawn to beautiful boxes.

I purchased this box for myself for my birthday this year. Around my birthday I received a Valentine’s Day invitation for a two-day sale at a location I have been curious about and never had a chance to visit, Maxim Dimitry. It originally appeared in my Instagram feed a while back and I signed up for emails, but the holidays were busy and I was out of town for part of December, so I had not been yet. However, a few weeks back I stopped by on my way home on the first evening of a two-day sale. At first the address, 75 East 93rd Street, confused me and I wandered the corner of 93rd and Park for more than a few minutes. There was even a folding sign for the sale, so I knew I was in the right place. However, the building is a Russian Orthodox Church and therein the confusion until I found the appropriate side entrance.

Other side of the Orthodox Church enclave I was in? Found this online.

The interior of the building was architecturally interesting on its own as I went up a worn staircase (having noted faux Russian icons for sale at the front desk), however the room I was shown to was small but quite exquisite, paneled in lovely old dark wood with a beautiful marble fireplace. Large windows look south and provide beautiful light for looking at things, although it was winter and the light started to fail early. There are a few jewelry cases and other items line the windowsills and shelves. Along one wall was antique jewelry (what I was really there for), and the held other lovely designs by the young man proprietor, Maxim Schidlovsky.

Maxim and I chatted while I looked and ultimately compared notes a bit on our Russian heritage – dad’s family for me. Although I did purchase something from the jewelry showcase (spoiler – an opal, no surprise, right?) which I will show in a future post, I was also very attracted to the display of antique boxes along the window shelf. (Please note that his own designs can be found on his website here.)

From the Maxim Dimitry website. I didn’t think to take a photo.

As I have already opined, boxes are like catnip to me and there is something about the heft, feel and look of this small bronze box that is very reminiscent of my paternal grandmother, and I picked it up immediately. (I have written about Tootsie, aka Gertrude, Butler before and one of those posts can be found here.) Although I do not have such a box from her, nor do I have a specific memory of one, the very tactile experience of something similar comes to mind when I hold it. I’m quite sure in the endless poking around in her things I did as a small child there must have been something similar tucked away in my brain. With her love of stuff, purchased endlessly at auction, it is fitting of the esthetic I would conjure for her as well.

Box is about not quite 3.5 inches by 4 inches.

Although I believe I will keep my (admittedly many) rings in it I believe it started life as a cigarette box. Its markings inform us that it was made for RH Macy Department stores, probably around 1912. It is lined with cedar wood (which I gather was used for cigars and cigarettes to keep them fresh), and the bronze finish was one the company called verde. It is the deep green color and the intact silver trim which really sell this little beauty. The company which produced it, Heintz Art Metal Shop, would have only just patented this process (it seems to be about applying the silver decoration smoothly without soldering it?) when Otto Heintz began selling these to Macy’s whose empire was still in its ascension.

At that time Macy’s would have been in more or less its sixth decade since its founding originally on 14th Street here in New York and would of course continue to grow through the early decades of the 20th century. It also would be about to embark on a collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art for a project to bring modern design to the public that last from 1914-1928.

Cedar wood lining
Maker’s mark

Otto died unexpectedly young and Heintz Art Metals, a family business he inherited and reimagined, ends up being a relatively short-lived venture with him at the helm after his top person left for a competitor. However, I do see evidence of these boxes and related desk item for sale online although this one is in fairly pristine condition. Frequently either the silver or the bronze has been poorly cleaned and damaged driving the price down or lovely examples like this one going for more.

Although there were other very beautiful boxes which might have suited my intentions (still that vague idea of a jewelry box for the house in New Jersey – I may ultimately have to go back for another), this one reminded me so of Gertie that it was hard to let go. It has been like having a little visit with her. Mr. Schidlovsky, saw my dilemma and stepped in with an offer I could not refuse and remain very grateful for. My only dilemma is that I like it so much I am not all inclined to take it to New Jersey where I will see it less often and I think I need a spot for it here on my dresser where it can pick up some of the small jewelry overflow. I will happily keep a weather eye out for his next sale.

Birthday Bits

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: I know I did a sort of a birthday tease yesterday and I promise I will get to a birthday gift review soon, but first I have a few other birthday bits I acquired and tales of a day downtown as Manhattans mountains of snow finally started to melt around us. Luckily, despite temperatures hitting almost 40 degrees, the melt remained slow and rivers did not actually form in the streets, at corners here the way they will. My feet are so tired of wearing and walking long distances in boots! I had sneakers on and luckily we weren’t washed away. It was Valentine’s Day and the warmest day in months so all of Manhattan was out and about.

Perhaps a dubious purchase of the day, see below.

We started at Forbidden Planet. Kim has been looking for reprints of classic DC comics and wanted to see if they had anything to feed the kitty on this score. He’s been buying them in NJ at Jay & Bob’s Secret Stash in Red Bank but has pretty much come to the end of the line of their stock. Can’t seem to find them online – in case folks have suggestions.

Inside Forbidden Planet – I’ve never been in this location before.

As we headed east we discovered a tiny new store on East 9th Street called Pillow Cat Books (328 East 9th Street, or online here). It is tiny and was quite crowded when we got there, almost so much I debated if we could go in. With a name like that I had to try however. Finally, it thinned out though and so we did and eventually it emptied to the point where we could see things and eventually buy something.

Several shelves of vintage books of all sorts are along one wall but maddeningly high and virtually out of reach. A few attempts did show them to be extremely pricey so we gave up on much trying. Algonquin Cat with illustrations by Hilary Knight of Eloise fame piqued my interest although it was in a locked cabinet, so I didn’t get to have a look. I do see that recent reprints of it are very affordable. I suspect this was an earlier edition. I may take a flyer on it out of curiosity, even not having seen it. I do not need a first edition.

The old books were on the top shelves!

While there, I did however buy a Kit-Cat Klock (aka Felix) clock. Now you might be surprised that I don’t have one and I have had a few in the past, all have suffered one fate or another. The Kit Cat Klock was introduced in 1932 by the Allied Clock Company, created by Earl Arnault and designed by Clifford Stone. These clocks have in some ways come a long way from their 1930’s roots when they were made of metal rather than plastic, minus the later addition of whiskers and bowtie. Still, they are remarkably similar to the original.

My clock purchase.

I find them very cheerful and the new design has the advantage of functioning while sitting on a shelf without the tail, if you are so inclined. (In my experience the tail is the weak part of the operation, and I believe in the older design the clock didn’t work without it swinging.) I always had it on a wall in the kitchen and I may return to that location – I like a clock in the kitchen although now there’s the microwave. Anyway, I purchased the classic black option – as interesting as the other colors were. My former brother in-law was scared of Felix clocks in the way some people are afraid of clowns. I never understood it but was concerned back in the day when I thought he might come to the apartment.

House puss by the front door at Pillow Cat Books.

Meanwhile, a pleasantly plump tabby cat of the establishment sat by the front door, enduring a certain amount of attention. I think there was sign on the front door which warned of his mercurial temperament. He deigned to receive a few head scritches on our way out.

The back area at the Rare Book Room – it is tantalizingly close, but we may not paw through it. Sigh. Always sure great treasures are hidden there!

After swinging further east and discovering that nothing we wanted to poke into was open, we hit Alabaster Books on Fourth Avenue. We’ve purchased books there although not recently. Years ago and for many years they had a lovely calico cat I liked to visit. While there I did note and contemplate an illustrated children’s book by Rumor Godden (who wrote Black Narcissus), but curious as I was about the writing, I didn’t care for the illustrations.

The view from my perch at the Rare Book Room.

Next up and always a favorite was the Rare Book Room at the Strand. They tend to move their small selection of random fiction around and I had to go looking for it again. Luckily they now have it perched next to some comfy chairs which allowed for better looking while seated low. Last year that shelf revealed Maisie’s Sister by Rosa Mulholland which set off a year of tracking down and reading those books. (Posts about them can be found here and here.) I brought home two books, one more promising than the other, The Wild Ruthvens by Curtis Yorke, and (the less promising Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall by Charles Major. Curtis Yorke is evidently the nom de plume for a prolific Scottish writer, Susan Rowley Richmond Lee. Perhaps more to come on her in future posts.

Valentine view of the bar at Old Town yesterday.
Pulled this off the internet – nice to admire their neon sign!

We rounded off the afternoon with lunch at the Old Town Bar on 18th Street. Kim had a veggie burger and I had a rather notable grilled cheese with mushrooms on pumpernickel – which they noted was a personal favorite of former governor Pataki. That notwithstanding, it was a memorable grilled cheese and plate of fries. While many stores were jam-packed, we were pleasantly surprised to find the bar a quiet and half-filled interlude by two in the afternoon.

Whisper and I Shall Hear.

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: This is a very odd card and while I rarely purchase things on the basis of that, I somehow just needed to see this card and what it was in person. It appears to be a photograph of a painting, and I would guess that it is actually done by painting over a photograph which gives it the almost photo quality it has. Not just a photo but some sort of a mash up of photos I would think. It is on glossy cardstock which is unusual for a card in 1909 in my (let’s face it not insignificant) experience.

I assume given the title of the image that the cat is whispering in the ear of this strange doll. It looks as if it is illustrating a fairy tale none of us are familiar with. If you look at that cat’s expression I would say, cat lover though I am, he’s up to no good. The doll looks inert but there is a frightening bit of a lifelike glimmer in its eyes – he shall hear alright! Very strange and more than a little creepy. They are perched on a rooftop, some snow in evidence, with a night sky and cloud obscuring a full moon behind them. Cats seem to be depicted on rooftops a lot although my personal experience of them does not bear this out. I can’t think of the last time I saw a cat on a roof. You?

The card was printed by the Shamrock Co. Photographic Printers & Publishers London, E.C. According to internet intel, Shamrock was a card printer active in the 1890’s – 1910’s. It was particularly known for producing high-quality religious devotional cards, postcards, and sentimental photographic prints. I could not find any compelling further evidence of their product online to share.

The handwritten message at the top says, Writing Wednesday if at all possible. I was just writing to someone else (hey Wayne!) saying that it seems postcards were frequently used to say that a letter was coming, buying time. Funny that after all these years it is the postcard that has been saved and the letter likely lost. (People do still write letters folks – as I type this out, Kim is at his desk across from me handwriting a letter right now. That lucky recipient is getting a preview of the color sketch of my Valentine – hopefully that reveal next weekend. Kim often writes using xeroxed sketches and other bits for his letters. Lucky recipients! He is a frequent and thoughtful correspondent. I on the other hand, send cards – birthday, condolence and with this job, sadly, frequent condolences for the loss of a beloved pet.)

The postcard is dated by hand, 30.10.09 (a European style of writing the date) but the postmark is obscured so I don’t know where it was sent from. It is simply addressed to Mrs. Herbert, Millertown. Millertown, New York in Dutchess County is the likely destination – even today Wikipedia only puts it at 900 occupants so I can imagine that in 1909 you could address something this way and it might get there. Odds are much better than a fully addressed postcard today I dare say.

Back of the card which seemed legible at first but actually a bit challenging to decipher.

The (also unusual) note reads, Mr. E.S. away till afternoon. Case will go next week with (illegible) from attic. Mrs. M. unable to meet – (something) two weeks. Had a splendid trip around, but sat up at Junction on acct it coming from Typhoid region, but only got 5, a-on (?) Had nearly all five day (?) here. Enjoying everything very much. Love (name unclear). It was sent from P. Isld. Not clear where that is – Pennsylvania was suggested by the internet but I do wonder about the reference to Typhoid – yikes! Also, this is sent in October and most of the P. Island’s I can find are summer locales. It was mailed with a penny stamp so I assume this was mailed domestically.

These days I am having my own travails both with US Postal Service and with UPS the company – finding both of them falling down massively on the job. As I worked to (finally) try to close my mother’s estate there are papers that company swear to have sent that never arrive, a Christmas card from North Carolina I fear I will never see and more. Kim had two letters show to their destinations empty – one torn in transit and the other just…empty. Meanwhile, at the building that houses my office they have informed us that mail will no longer be picked up on a regular schedule. We’d long discovered that the mailboxes on the street are an iffy proposition so now it is either the one in our apartment building or all the way to the post office to mail things.

As for UPS I can only vouch for a long series of phone calls to outpost calling centers in India where no one seemed to be able to help me with my package (sitting in Newark) and who kept urging me to go online where an AI assistant could only answer the most routine questions. I will spare you the details, the package eventually returned to sender despite my ongoing efforts, but I do think these issues will start to impact my collecting, much of which has always come from abroad.