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Kitten Card

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today I have plucked this hand-colored card out of the pile. It was used as a birthday card and it certainly is cheerful enough to make a good one. Kitten pictures are like dopamine hits and during stressful times if I can, I find watching videos of them or looking at pictures of them very soothing. Given the feline nature of Pictorama this is probably not surprising.

Meanwhile, I have seven cats, no shortage here, and yet looking at more cats still appeals to me, although I do recognize that I do not need to acquire any at the moment. (I’m not sure I documented the sudden acquisition of five cats when my mother died, although longstanding readers probably figured it out. For new readers, that is how I went from always having two to having seven more or less overnight. It’s a lot of cats.) All that to say I am cheerfully contributing to your dopamine acquisition online today, a bit of cat fluff to cheer your weekend, (another) rainy one if you are in Manhattan. (Not to mention to help get with the time change – that certainly snuck up on me.)

This young woman might be from the early 1920’s to as late as the 1930’s when we take her clothes and hair (careful marcel wave) into account. She holds two very likely little suspects, a tabby (always a good look on those) with his small paws wrapped around her arm, and fluffy white one with spots, the true color of which is hard to peg.

The kittens are small enough to be easily subdued by the young woman holding them. Her dress has a wild print and has been painted in this interesting orange, red stripe running down the front and a sort of Keith Haring-esque pattern. She sports a bracelet which appears to be silver and has a charm hanging off of it. Her ruffled cuffs and collar have been left a bright white. There are some sort of illegible decorations down the front of her dress and artificial looking ropes of flowers are color sketched in behind her. If she wasn’t such a pretty woman, she would recede behind all this visual noise, however she holds her own.

Inked on the back in neat script is says, Dear Kathie, Wishing you many happy returns of the day. From Lily & John. However, there is no postmark, it must have been handed to her or on gift perhaps.

Given my affection for such antique missives, it probably isn’t surprising that I am still a sender of cards. Although the circle is smaller than it used to be, physical cards still go out for birthdays and for some, Valentines, Easter and for a large group (as you have seen) Christmas. Are the best of my cards being saved to turn up in the future? It’s hard to say, but I believe the folks I send them to seem to appreciate the physical reminder that I am thinking of them and have chosen a card for them. (And who doesn’t love a bit of unexpected mail that isn’t a bill?) However, it is undeniably an anachronism, albeit one I hold dear. So this is a cat card for all of you today – I will say that personally I needed a cat pic today and this one has done just fine.

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.

More Mooning

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: As I write New York City is descending, once again, into a snowy abyss – they are saying a blizzard, but of course that remains to be seen. The weather folks are saying as much as 24 inches – and that Central Park is only set up to measure to 18! We had a blizzard about a decade ago. I believe at the time my parents, still living on the waterfront in New Jersey, were my main concern and they were indeed without power for days. My mom installed a high-end generator at the house in New Jersey when she bought it which has been a blessing there. However, we are weathering this storm in Manhattan, so we are hoping to not lose power.

At the moment, ahead of the schedule we’d been offered, it is a wet hard snow. Kim and I have things we thought we would do this morning – our weekly trip to Orwasher’s for fresh bread for the week, the drugstore – but if so, we will be out in it for a while alas. After several winters with little or no snow we seem to be hitting a bumper crop and since Mother Nature will do what she will, nothing to do for now but make soup (a batch of an easy potato and leek soup was whipped up yesterday – shout if you want the recipe) and hope for the best.

Orwasher’s display last weekend.

All the more reason for delving into this very fun Moon Series (it declares in the lower right) card I bought back in the fall. This cheeky couple seems to want to wake the sleeping moon up and she is about to give him a poke with her umbrella. The man is egging her on – poor Mr. Moon! Let him snooze I say – not to mention how grumpy he already looks. I guess if people are going to poke him, he’s grumpy with good reason. This card was never sent and on the back it is noted that it is Valentine’s Series, Printed in Gt. Britain.

The man and the woman appear to have been applied onto this Moon picture – not a Moon photo set as we often see. They are in turn of the century dress so this may have been some advance photo printing for the day. You can see this from the surface of the card and how it was printed. It makes me wonder what instruction they were given for posing although they have placed the people just right for the umbrella to be posed to give him a poke! A careful look also shows their feet not quite on anything, although a shadow has been applied to help with the illusion. A poem below reads:

One kiss, my love, nor be so shy,
The prying moon is fast asleep;
Slumber seals his watchful eye;
The blinking little starlets peep
Through the curtain of the sky,
Trying each, in vain, to keep
Open wide in its tiny eye,
One kiss, my love, nor be so shy,
The prying moon is fast asleep

So much for the (poor, beleaguered) Moon who, far from prying, is trying to sleep!

A search online only reveals these images below and for sale on Etsy. There were others and some very similar ones that have been used for contemporary reprints although not necessarily from this very series.

Not in Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Looking closely there is an argument for this having been the same photo shoot and that the costumes were retouched with different colors in each – although clearly a different (wide awake and jollier) Moon in these, as well as some nice big fat stars. I am a sucker for these sorts of cards and there were another few in this buy that I have written about recently, one of those was a gift to Kim, and that post can be found here.

It’s perhaps a good day for lollygagging, dreaming and “mooning” about a bit. However, as I write, the prelude precipitation (a heavy, very wet snow) has slowed to a stop, and I think we have a window for our brief interlude outside. Looks like it will be boots, layers under coats and umbrellas all for today and tomorrow. A safe Sunday to all and more from the other side of this storm.

In the Mood for Love?

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I have a Pre-Valentine’s Day post today to get us all in the high mystic mood for next week – when I will have a super great Deitch Valentine reveal this year. I don’t think I am spoiling the surprise when I say it is the height of hotsy totsy this year.

I admit to having accidentally left Kim to open his Valentine’s Day gift which arrived early last week! It was an early hardcover edition of a book called Lefty of the Big League by Burt L. Standish of the Merriwell book fame. I saw it in a Flat Lay Friday group photo of objects for sale on Instagram and grabbed it up on a whim for Valentine’s Day. Kim is a Merriwell fan and miraculously it seems he has not read this other book by Standish. I was performing well until I handed him the package to open! Alas, timing is everything but the love and the thought were there nonetheless.

Not Kim’s copy but this edition.

Meanwhile, today’s card, purchased back in the fall, is wonderful and wild. This woman is a “spider” who has cast her love net and scored this man who is now quite literally her puppet! He looks to be a well-heeled sort of the day, a watch chain stretching across pronounced ample girth, top hat, glasses rather than monocle although they sit atop his head in a jaunty fashion. He wears a print waistcoat, bow tie and jacket with some sort of other print on his fat legs ending in tiny, shiny shoes.

This fellow is smiling and I might point out that he also has a bottle of champagne in one hand and a full glass in the other – if the strings that bind him are obvious, may I say he does not appear to mind in the least.

The hand-colored beauty who is the woman-in-charge sports a green top, trimmed in red hearts (!) and stripes that really make this card for me. (Can I just say, oh to find such an item at a vintage sale and snatch it up!) A slight blush is added to her cheeks, skin and her curly hair which is highlighted brown – all adding to her winsome appeal and, shall we say, allure.

Our manipulating maiden emerges from this spider’s web (tiny tear to her left so maybe it isn’t the first rodeo for this photo set) with fat cloth hearts pinned on in a circle around her. Aside from the green label of his champagne bottle (borrowed from her shirt) and a bit in the top of his champagne glass, our puppet man is left in black and white, aforementioned strings top and bottom quite visible.

I can only really confirm that this card was sent in 1907 – there are three cancellations, two overlapping and European and I cannot verify the month or day although it might be August. This card (which the internet attributes to being Russian maker – again the cancellations make it a bit hard to see) was sent to a Mademoiselle L. Guilloim… on the Avenue de la Gare, Vielsalm, Luxembourg.

Thanks to several readers I now know I can put the image of the note into Google and get a (very) rough translation:

It is a pleasure, my dear,
for the good wishes you sent me. Like a verse, I thank you for it, and I think of it often. For short nights, I will be accused afterwards. I slept very well, a big thank you that the present during your trip? Please reply. Best regards to all your team.

Maria

Sort of interesting to chose such an extraordinary card with no mention of the image, but it seems Maria had other things on her mind.

Whoever Mademoiselle G. was, I am very glad she saw fit to keep this card in fairly pristine condition for me to share with you today and wishing you a romantic week leading up to next Saturday.

Stormy

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Perhaps not surprising as a large swath of the country buckles down to what could be the most substantial snowfall of many years, that this photo (just in the door from my friend @marsh.and.meadow via Instagram) should be top of my pile for today.

Mounted and undated, other than a bit of damage at its edges it is in good shape. It seems it was a treasured photo despite it being overexposed, although somehow it works with the effect of the snow. This little boy is wearing the kind of long coat I think of more for an adult, but I guess he maneuvered on his sled just find nonetheless. (I bought a very long down coat this year to replace one I have been wearing for decades. It has zippers in the side so I can actually walk in it or keep it zipped all around in terrible cold. I can’t image it on a sled though.) He wears a cheery sort of beret and sort of has the look of a race car driver standing next to his beloved vehicle which is why I purchased it.

Early morning view out the window of the apartment this morning.

He has a very elaborate sled. Better is painted on the side but I cannot read the rest and there is more – it is obscured by a sort of jointed wooden handle – perhaps to steer? How would that work? The top of this sled is made of wooden planks – it all looks very heavy for a sled. The runners are the carved bottom. I think you would need some heavy snow to take advantage of this design. Growing up we were the generation that moved from the traditional wood with red metal runners to dishes of metal or plastic which picked up great speed, even in less snow. Growing up near the ocean and a river it was frequently a bit too warm for much snow to hang around.

This card came from the Midwest and they do generally know something about snow out there. I am not sure if that is a house or a barn behind him, behind a fence. Skeletons of denuded winter tress are visible and it is snowing as the photo was taken, white dots on his dark clothes, gathering still all around. (As it is out my window right now – a complete white out here on the 16th floor, looking north.)

Snow at the house in Jersey last weekend.

Last Sunday I was in New Jersey and shoveling some of it in the evening. Monday dawned to an unusually pretty day of snow – everyone was talking about how picture perfect it was. It was a holiday for many including from school and provided ample opportunity for sledding down a very large hill near my house which I drove past. A pretty church, aptly named Tower Hill, sits at the top. I’ve run up that hill and it is steep! Perfect for sledding however. Growing up, it was a bit too far for us to get a ride two towns over, so I think I ever sledded there once or twice and when I was older. It would have seemed like Everest as a little kid. I want to say my folks drove us to a hill near my grandmother in a town called Long Branch, but I don’t remember where really.

Tower Hill Church, the slope continues down about three times as far as what is shown here – unobstructed and perfect for sledding.

Living near the ocean and between twin rivers, it was frequently too warm for snow to stay around long. Snowstorms also often caused flooding which meant water (river water) on the ground rather than snow and certainly not driving anywhere. Therefore, the perfect sledding snow day was a bit rarified. Here in Manhattan we have sledding hills in Central Park and even a small one here near me in Carl Schurz park. I bet the kids are heading over even early this morning although maybe everyone being kept inside while it is coming down so hard.

Weirdly when I watch the Winter Olympics I have a vague yearning to try the luge and skeleton. There is a place in upstate New York for training and the thought always tempts me, no idea why that particular sport speaks to me. My girl cat Cookie likes to watch it with me – television interests her and anything zipping around like that is a bonus. I was born in a blizzard (and as a February baby I also have many snowy birthday memories of plans canceled or adjusted for the celebration) so maybe it was born into me.

Meanwhile, at work we will likely be the only animal hospital open and our vets and techs who come from a broad swath of the tri-state area will have trouble getting in, but of course animals will still need us. Most of the interns and residents are a bit closer – we provide some housing not far from the hospital. It is a bit sad for me that my first thoughts about snow are practical about slippery sidewalks and shoveling at the house, getting to work and losing power – instead of fun and beauty. I will try to repair my sense of wonder, dream about fast sleds and do some cozy cooking and at home projects.

New Brunswick, NJ

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: I grabbed this up as soon as I saw this little collaged beauty. I am not sure that I immediately digested the weirdness of it entirely but being a Jersey girl at heart I thought it was pretty hotsy totsy. Like many recent posts it came from the postcard show last fall and it went into a pile I am only recently digging into.

Born and bred in the Garden State I admit that I may never have so much as driven through New Brunswick. Looking at the map of the state I must have (may have?) as it is nestled in the crook of the state, just above Monmouth County, heading north and a smidge west. This sounds a bit odd but we didn’t drive west all that often growing up. North of course took you to New York but generally we went up the coast. South brought you to Freehold which seemed to be required occasionally; Princeton where my sister went to school, and ultimately Philadelphia on occasion – we had a cousin there. I rarely made it to the bottom corner of the state, probably not until college and after.

For those of you who don’t have the map of the state handy in your head.

The northwest of the state was a rare event. Flemington is up there (I have a friend who moved there recently – hey Hope!), where I can remember going only a few times – it felt exotic. Even our forays into Pennsylvania were usually made by going more south or directly across the state. Years ago I spent some time hiking with a friend along the beautiful Delaware water gap. Christine grew up in that area and knew it well but it was the first time I spent much time there. All this to say that New Brunswick always sat slightly north and west of where I had my formative years and somehow I never much got there or maybe knew if I did. It belongs in a vague category of North Jersey that I would have used when I lived there.

This card is hometown proud indeed. A rendering of a pansy has a collaged-on head and shoulders of a woman in turn-of-the-century finery, wearing a be-ribboned or flower covered hat. She wears the pansy petals like a dress and on each petal is a local building of note shown as actual postcards of significant sites on each petal. They are: Washington public school, Livingstone Avenue High School, St. Peters Parochial School, Carnegie Library, and the Post Office. Clearly they thought highly of their educational institutions.

New Brunswick Carnegie Public Library, in a contemporary but undated photo.

The Carnegie Library, shown above, seems to be the only one that is definitely unaltered. I’m on the fence about the post office, shown below, which could be the same building from another angle and with different things around it obviously. The schools have long been replaced (or in the case of the parochial school possibly disappeared) by newer structures. (My own high school in Rumson still exists intact with its old building but a certain amount of building on has happened. You can still see the bones of it however.)

The Post Office in New Brunswick – I believe it is the one shown in the postcard. The windows are the same.

Someone has written the initials JHB in the lower right, under Greetings from New Brunswick, NJ. On the back, also written in pencil it says Miss Ethel Hardy, 5 John Street, City. However, it was never mailed and it is incomplete. Another version of the card I found online was mailed in 1908 according to a cancellation mark.

The card was published by Hammel Bros., New Brunswick, NJ. It was made (printed) in Austria however. Hammel Brothers, not surprisingly, seemed to special in cards of a local nature in New Brunswick, NJ, although I do wonder how they would have made a business out of that bit of limited fame and for how long. They have not left many tracks and mostly there are references to a brewery of a similar name and time in New Mexico.

As you read this I will be packing up and heading to New Jersey this morning. As per yesterday’s post, there is snow on the ground (more overnight and a fair amount coming down now) and still a bit more throughout the day, hopefully in a desultory sort of way. Anyway, a tip of the hat to my home state and the undiscovered treasure of New Brunswick from a time passed.

Expecting Snow

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Here in New York we are anticipating snow on and off over the next few days. I head back to New Jersey tomorrow and vaguely see a snow shovel in my future. I don’t think we believe it will be especially heavy so my shoveling will, hopefully, remain nominal.

I do think if shoveling becomes a regular part of my future I need to consider my tools a bit better. I have an extremely standard issue snow shovel at the house. Recently I was reading an article in the New York Times Wirecutter section where they recommended the one below and am considering it. (If you want to purchase it, you too can here. It awaits in my Amazon queue for now.)

The possible future of my snow shoveling life.

Seems like a nominal investment and I may try it – Wirecutter rarely if ever steers me wrong. Notably to date I have a space heater (two really, I bought a second) in New Jersey that I love. It kept Kim nice and toasty in our drafty upstairs over the holidays and I keep one in the kitchen for cold mornings. Also after some bad spills and cups that barely keep things warm, I invested in a thermos they recommended which carries my to-the-office cup of coffee daily. It is splendid! It was expensive as these things go but has an excellent lock top and the coffee stays so piping hot that I pour it into a mug to drink it. (If this is of interest you can purchase it on Amazon here. At $35 it is more than the snow shovel!)

Real admiration function of this thermos.

Among the other things Wirecutter has contributed to our lives are: our couch, a magnetic shelf for the side of my fridge, a similar holder for knives and an external battery for my phone. I’m not sure they have ever given me a bum steer. Therefore, a $30 investment of a new ergonomic snow shovel may well be in my future. Meanwhile there was so much snow in our area over the holidays that all the stores were sold out of pet-safe salt substitute for the walk and driveway. I ordered a bucket of it from Amazon finally; it arrived after we left but should be waiting for me.

This is my roundabout way of getting to this nice little photo which came to me as a holiday card from my friend at that excellent antique store down in Dallas, Texas I purchase from, Sandi Outland at Curiosities (aka @curiositiesantique). I’m sure if I ever make it to Dallas I will spend several happy hours searching their shelves and cases, but Sandi does a good job of keeping me abreast of what I might like. (Posts of purchase from Curiosities can be found here and most recently here for starters, but there are many.) I also fantasize that one of these days we’ll meet up for an antique shopping fest at something like Brimfield. I think we’d have a rather superb time. Huge shoutout to her for sending us this photo card this season!

Sandi picked this photo and made the card, adding the tiniest bit of glitter to it – it may not even be visible in the picture I have taken. It does give it just a bit of sparkle which Kim and I liked. Sandi is a collector of grumpy snowman pics – she sent props for this one below I wrote about recently. I suspect that may have been in mind when she chose this one for us.

This picture shows a less than glorious snow fall on the ground, the kind I feel like I largely grew up with. The true, deep, sledding, snowman building snows were few and memorable really. (When I go to New Jersey tomorrow I will look for some snow photos from my childhood – they are quite disorganized there however I am afraid. I know of one where our German Shepard is catching a snowball in her mouth though.) More often you had about two or three inches like this, enough for a few meagre snowballs (as evidenced by this little boy and girl who each hold one), but not much more – enough to sock your sibling once, twice at most. Probably not enough for a snow day from school, definitely not enough for a decent size snowman. Still, as an adult it brings back a sort of visceral memory from childhood.

The big tree and the bare earth create a good composition for this photo. The little boy draws us all the way to the front while the barren trees not quite in focus behind the girl create a sense of depth, little girl front and center in the middle ground. Kids clothes being what they are I’m unsure of when it might have been taken. Really it could be any time from the 40’s into the 50’s would be my guess.

As I type, snow has started to fall here as predicted. I think it may turn to rain before turning back to snow, but we’ll see where temperatures are as the day progresses. Kim and I are scheduled for a stroll down to Orwasher’s for our first weekly purchase of bread since we returned to Manhattan. It isn’t a hard snow, and at most I think we’ll end up with that 2-3 inches on the ground this weekend. I’ll manage with the old shovel just fine.

Snow Person

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Pam’s Pictorama.com Photo Post: Today we woke to several inches of snow and more falling so this card seemed like the logical item for today. Purchased a few weeks ago on eBay, I brought it to New Jersey figuring I might have a big opportunity to post it – and right I was.

No judging my nascent shoveling as shown from upstairs.

First thing this morning had me out for a rare morning of snow shoveling. Ouch! I am perhaps a bit long in the tooth to adopt this as an occupation – today’s snow, shoveled early, was pretty light but already forming and icy layer under it so it was best to get it done early, or at least the first go at it. I don’t have much skill at this shoveling thing although my mom always did it until she grew too old and then she hired someone. I have someone who comes when I am not here or it is too hard, although he is nursing a bad respiratory infection so another reason to give Fitzroy a break.

Snowy backyards from upstairs.

Clearly, we are here in New Jersey, having our holiday break. The New York cats adapted fairly quickly to their surroundings and even Cookie is wandering down the stairs with some curiosity about the house at large. Peaches, the meanest of the Jersey Five, is still hissing at us but allowing me to get every closer before she starts. (Not Kim, he still gets the big hiss early on!) Blackie has made his way upstairs to see his sister, eat her food and give her a hard time. (We separate them here for that reason – we’d never get any rest otherwise. The fighting will continue back in NYC for a bit before it subsides.)

Yesterday, we wandered into Red Bank despite the plummeting temperatures ahead of the snow. I made some interesting acquisitions but more about that to come in future posts.

Kim in his temporary studio earlier today. Snow out the window.

Anyway, this is an odd card. It was sent from Berlin to Monte Video on September 9, 1908. It is too hard to read the full foreign address but it was sent to Herr Christianson with no note on the back and one I am unable to translate on the front. (If someone else can, please share a translation!)

What got me was this strange snowman, slightly strange looking girl (with a bit of a wicked expression on her face) who looks like she is whispering in his ear. She sports a pointed, witch-like hat with a bow. The snowman is complete artifice, is he painted? Perhaps painted on wood and cut out so she can be solidly behind him in her fur trimmed attire. He wears a sort of smushed (top?) hat, has a sort of long pipe and this cheery little broom. I especially like the snow, which I am guessing was a post production addition.

The top of the card, the best I can read it, has Gluckuches and Neujahr printed at the top. The latter seems to bring up German New Year’s cards which is what I think this is. Below is another (very delightful) card that came up when I search Neujahr. Sorry I missed this one on eBay!

Unfortunately not in Pams-Pictorama.com collection and produced by the same company. Champagne! Money falling! Not clear to me what the other woman is dropping – bills? cards?

So on a snowy Saturday in New Jersey less than a week before the New Year, I consider the upcoming one, more than a hundred years since this card was sent. I wonder what secrets of the New Year she whispered into the ear of the snowman and what tales of the year she’d have for the year to come for us today.

Paul Pilz

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I am taking a break from holiday influenced item posts (but evidently still devoted to dogs), to bring you an item I purchased at an odd venue last weekend. An ad on Instagram for an Oddities Flea Market (@odditiesfleamarket) caught my eye and on a whim I paid for tickets for Kim and I to go. I knew most of it would not be of interest to me, but I figured that maybe 25-30% of the vendors might be interesting. The line to enter (even with tickets) went down West 18th Street at the Metropolitan Pavilion and evidently it is an annual affair with a devoted following I have just never heard of previously.

The percentage of Pam’s Pictorama type vendors was perhaps a tad lower than 25%, but black cat items sort of did have a big moment there and I ended up making a not insignificant number of purchases in the end – and could easily have spent even more. One thing that got away at this table was an old orange ceramic cat that lit up. It had already been broken and repaired and I would say the ability to get it to light up seemed dubious, but in the end it just seemed too fragile to come live here at Deitch Studio. Still, I imagine that it must have a great orange glow if you could get it working. Anyway, you will be the beneficiaries of those interesting tidbits I did buy in coming weeks and this is the first of them I am sharing.

This photo postcard came from a vendor who had a nice little cache of black cat and other interesting items. After shelling out for some bigger items I pawed through some excellent (and reasonably priced) boxes of photo postcards. I plucked out two, and Kim one, and today I share the first of them now.

A quick search of Paul Pilz turns up a fairly thorough blog post on him which can be found here. I have nicked this other photo of Pilz from that site. It is a larger shot of him but very similar.

Alternate version of the same publicity photo, seems like this one was used pre-War however – not in Pictorama.com collection.

I won’t endeavor to repeat what that post has to say, but between that site and AI I learned that Pilz was evidently part of a traveling troupe on what is described as very small stages with a dog act, accompanied by him on the trumpet and doing comedy. This popular act ultimately morphed into one where he was a featured performer entertaining the German troops during WWI. (Wanderfheafer Armee Abf. A. on this card – they were already an army headliner. I shudder in horror some indeed at the idea of what traveling with a troop of dogs entertaining troops during WWI might have been like although for the dogs it might have been the best of gigs and options.)

Although I generally collect images of animal imitators (some posts on those can be found here and here for starters) I do have a sub-genre of photos that feature acts (here is one of several) and these seem to belong here too.

There was a recent article in the New York Times about a dog act at the Big Apple Circus (at this time it can be found here, entitled The Show Stealing Dogs of the Big Apple Circus) and so I had a moment recently to contemplate the treat filled world of dog tricks. I like the part where the trainer says if they mess up (balk at jumping through a hoop for example) he just makes it part of the act.

From the NYT article, performing pups.

Years ago Kim took me to a cat circus (Russian) performing downtown here in New York. I even had my photo taken with the ringmaster – for a price of course. I loved it! The photo hangs on an overflowing corkboard near our computer where a drawing of Kim (by Dave Collier’s son who visited about a year ago), something about Carter De Haven and an long ago article on a nascent Ugly Betty cover it. I wanted to pet the kitties which was, understandably, not encouraged. From the perspective of having seen that, I will say, cats or dogs, performing is a treat filled activity and I can only assume it is the rigorous work outs that keep the animals trim.

Under his name it says, roughly translated, with self-written repertoire – I guess a way of saying original gags? It declares Humor at the top, in case the photo didn’t alert you. The sort of masked characters on either side of that are a bit terrifying. Urns of flowers are on either side and a decorative bow tied image of him make up this card.

In the photo he presents a comical character with his trumpet, and his dog in his arms held like a baby. He looks at the dog and the pup looks out at the camera. I’m not sure but this photo may have been artificially put together from two – it doesn’t quite fit as a real image. I’m not sure I can entirely follow the concept of a dog act driven by trumpet playing. It sounds – loud!

This card is a bit tatty but was never mailed, no writing on the back and therefore no date certain, except that it clearly was during the war. I wonder if these were given out to troops when they were performing – and how strange that if so it has survived all these years just to land here in December of New York City of 2025 and find its way to the Pictorama library.

Dog Show

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s card showed up while I was looking for holiday gifts for a few staffers – it was a gift fail so to speak. I never would have found it however, if I had not been searching around in dog photos on eBay, where I generally do not belong.

Some of you more longstanding readers might remember its sister card shown below which I wrote about all the way back in 2016. At the time it was a hotly contested card which I had lost and subsequently won as outlined in that post which you can read here. Obviously that one turned up in my feed because of the cat reference.

Pam’s Pictorama.com Collection. From a previous post.

While these two cards are definitely of a piece, the Dog Show sign is definitely the same, there are some differences. While I am fairly certain this is the same woman and dog (same Dog Show sign) she is wearing a different outfit in each. The Cat Show Next card is entitled Beastly Affairs.

However, most notably the Cat Show Next card has a different, patterned floor, the other one is a plain wood. A very careful look (lower right corner) shows that the copyright for these two cards is a year apart with the cat version being earlier by a year, 1907 although my copy of that card was mailed in 1909. So did it prove so popular they brought out this variation the next year? I wonder if there are more.

Today’s card is called Going to the Dogs. Unlike the earlier card, this one has writing on the back although no stamp or evidence of mailing so I don’t know when the writing, in pencil, was added. To the best of my ability to read it, it says, Bascom this is Ednice Jain. Look good & she has gone to the Dogs good – Ha Ha Ha. She is a Dog catcher & not 1/2 as good as one. An odd note, no name signing it.

I prefer the earlier card somewhat and it is more than the cat show reference. The composition with the additional sign is a bit better and somehow holding the dog, and even the patterned floor, make it more dynamic. She has a bit of a smile in the first shot and a hat full of flowers – the hat in today’s card notably appears to have a whole bird on it. She wears a different fur trimmed jacket in both.

Unidentified card online with a Pitbull and similar woman but not the same series.

The card was made here in New York City by the Rotograph Company but printed in England, oddly enough. A quick search online does not turn up more cards in the series, but neither does it tie these two cards out to each other. I don’t even find more copies of either of them online, however above I have shared one that turns up that could almost be in the series.

My colleague will now get a card from 1908 with a big footed puppy, vaguely reminiscent of his own recently acquired little fellow. I will dig out my copy of the other card and a find a place to install them side by side, either here or in New Jersey. They make too a good story together to break apart.