Way Up!

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today is Metropolitan Postcard Club Show Day! Yay for new postcards for Pictorama! We herald that event with a postcard from the last show, purchased for it’s kitten collage-ness.

Photos of kittens floating in balloons is a sort of sub-genre of early 20th century photography and this is a late example – almost a tribute to those. This card was mailed from Kingston, New York on July 27, 1944. (As an aside, I had cousins who lived near Kingston, New York and was probably visiting them thirty years later.) So it is later than most of my collection but is reminiscent of those earlier cards. (You can check out some of those posts here and here.)

In the Kills refers to the upstate area full of small water bodies (kille is Dutch for waterway) and those areas such as Fishkill, Peekskill and Catakill (the last being where those cousins resided) named thusly.

These cats are a further play on words with the broader Catskill area. The postcard play on words was popular and I have future posts devoted to more of these as of course cat cards are like nip to me. We have two fluffy kits in a basket with a “balloon” that looks like maybe it is a fishnet stocking or real fish netting around a ball, which is probably then held by a string of fishline we cannot see. An ever so slightly cross-eyed moon face looks on – the yellow is a nice contrast in this otherwise almost dark and stormy card. I gather these kits are making their journey at night.

*Pams-Pictorama.com collection – very similar!*

The back of this card is printed in an unusually legible hand. It says, Dear Very Dear Elinor Hello; Sweetness. How be you, and the partner – O.K. I hope – the same here – in this grand restful place – I am getting along famously – take a walk most every day – and am receiving excellent care – in the intervals – lots of love from your old man – brother. AL. It is addressed to, Mrs. R.H. Robinson, 155 Clymer Street, Brooklyn, 11, New York.

The ingenuity of cards like this interest me. I am always looking at them and thinking about which two of the seven I could convince to sit in a basket (none) and tie a little ball to it, etc. I am sure it was a day’s work that was harder than it may look. Meanwhile, this one has these collage elements of the moon and background layered in. It is though, remarkably similar to the earlier one I show here.

Meanwhile, Kim and I are off to the West Village soon to see what irresistible cat cards are in store for me today. Wish me happy collecting! It is bright and sunny here in New York and having a spring swing back toward warm today. Kim is braving downtown for the first time since his back surgery – getting a bit of cabin fever I think doing nothing these days really but working on hard his next book. We’ll get him some air and a change of scenery. More to come!

Postal Kit

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today is a return to feline real photo postcard territory with this recent acquisition off of eBay. This nice looking tabby in-charge is puss as stern postmistress. (This brings to mind a behind-the-scenes tour at work this week which for some reason revealed an unusual number of tabbies submitting to various treatments. Tough week for tabbies I say.)

This post office scene caught my attention, in part I think, because I thought it was a clever collage of images. The cat, seated sternly and evidently staring the small child, could be another photo that was neatly trimmed and inserted into the image. I have revised my thinking after close examination and now I believe it is really just a mirror behind the cat revealing a wall papered wall across from him or her on the other side of the room.

Neat and numbered tidy cubbies await their mail and small packages. It reminds me a bit of the post office at my college years ago of similar vintage. Although it was less trusting and there were little doors with combination locks. I always loved those and have seen them for sale and been tempted although Pictorama readers know I don’t really live a life that can accommodate a wall of mailboxes, however endearing.

*Smythe Park, Mansfield, PA. Photographed by W.A. Bates.*

You can’t see it easily in the photo, but in pencil in the lower left corner someone has written the date, July 21, 1907 and initials, which may be L.E.T. It is nice that our sender did this because the postmark is obscured. The location may read as Kent – Connecticut I speculated at first, but a quick search shows more likely Nelson Lakes near Kent, New York. On the back in a fairly painstaking script is says, I had a nice time at Nelson. This is the P.O. at Nelson. Lyle E. Tubbs. It was mailed to, Miss Grace Corselius, Claremont, VA.

*Smythe Park, Mansfield, PA, W.A. Bates.*

The card maker is W.A. Bates, Postcard Manufacturer, Mansfield, PA. AI made me laugh when I search this as it informed me that W.A. Bates was known as Bert. And evidently, he was known foremost as a local photographer who got into producing his popular photos as real photo postcards. It also notes that a John Bates who owned a pharmacy, Bates Drugstore, also published these postcards – I can’t imagine exactly where AI may have dug those tidbits up, but it does paint a sort of cheerful picture of him and his life, a brother, father or other family member investing in his business.

*Bates Studio, Mansfield, PA. More or less contemporaneous to our postcard.*

Bert recorded largely local history in this fashion from 1905 until 1938. So mine is a rather early effort on his part. I will note that Kent, NY and Mansfield, PA are about three hours away from each other so if the locale is correct Bates was a bit far afield from his usual local bailiwick, although this was clearly a commercial gig.

Despite evidence of a long career, I have shared two from a small sampling of photo images I could find online, remains of his likely prodigious output. It is interesting that one is of what I assume is his studio. I note that on the back of that card, which is for sale on eBay right now on a card that was not used postally, it looks as if it may have been written by the man himself. I wonder. It is a really sort of lovely building and one can imagine all those interesting porticoes and fun nooks from the inside. The other photo is of a local park I guess he was known to photograph. I hope Bert and John and their families had a lovely life in Mansfield, PA at the dawn of the 20th century. From here it looks like they did.

Family

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s is a recently acquired photo postcard – it showed up in the mail last night as a matter of fact. I bought it off eBay on a whim and am more charmed by it in person. This photo today would probably be photo shopped or fully AI generated which makes its skill – and its imperfect bits – that much more endearing.

Seven cats are lined up here – several are looking at a spot in front of them and we assume the person behind the camera has something to capture their gaze that way. Almost all of them are very fluffy indeed, and the dark haired one on the left could almost make another cat with that enormous tail. It says a family group and I wonder if it is mom and dad on either end and this variety of kits betweenn. There is one tabby, third from the right who doesn’t fit the family fur, short-haired or so it would appear.

If we assume that mom and dad are on either end, there is a dead ringer for each of them in the pile – the white kit all the way left and the one next to it. The others are a bit more of a wild mix and I really like the one who wouldn’t sit and has his or her back up a bit. Dad just has an insane amount of fluff and both are well brushed and maintained.

Everyone is seated on a garden bench with painted some sort of boxes acting as end tables. There is a nice cushion on the bench being enjoyed by the cats – no idea how they got the cats on the end to pose so perfectly. There are cushions on the ground in front of the bench, covered in a sort of oriental rug pattern. I wonder if those cushions are for the back of the bench but didn’t work for the photo. We can’t see much of a garden behind them, but we get glimpse of the flowering shrubs behind them.

This card is undated and was never sent. It appears to be American made but there is no maker credit on the back.

As the mom of seven cats myself (the Jersey Five and NY kitties) I have to admit that I do not have a single photo of all of them in one frame. I actually only seem to have four of the Jersey Five together, let alone along with Cookie and Blackie. So hats off to this ambitious photographer and cat parents somewhere and back in time.

Easter Greetings, 1908

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: As we head toward the Easter season, this is one of a few seasonally appropriate items I have. The odd image doesn’t necessarily scream Easter, but there it is at the bottom of the card, Easter Greetings 1908 and the photographer’s name front and center although barely legible, G. Butney. It also says, Novato.

It would seem that Mr. Butney was a well-known (in the day) photographer in the early days of the 20th century, evidently headquartered in Novato, California. In July 1908, presumably several months after this card was created, he took a series of photos of a train wreck in Novato and turned them into photo postcards which he became best known for. (If, like me, you aren’t familiar with Novato, it is north of San Francisco.) It seems somewhat odd that photo postcards of a train wreck would be so popular.

For all of his sort of ten minutes of fame with this series of photos, there isn’t much left about Mr. Butney – no biography available, nor is his first name even evident.

*Wreck on N.W.P. at Novato July 3 ’08.* *From the train wreck series that brought G. Butney brief local fame.* *Image via University of California.*

It is a bit hard to see the connection between the train wreck photo and mine, but there you are. I assume mine was made as some sort of advertisement for his services and distributed earlier that same year. As an advertisement the difficulty reading his name at the bottom probably did not work in his favor – however, this very clever and eye-catching photo probably did. There is nothing on the back and it was never sent.

On close examination, it appears that each of these children really did pose with their head poking through this large homemade flower sort of collar. At first I thought it was photos collaged into the flowers, but I think not. It would appear that each flower is a separate photo or more likely negative, printed together into this image. It is quite a funny design and had to be more than a little work to execute. A careful examination shows some slight differences in exposure and printing – further contributing to my idea that they were each shot and printed individually.

There is an array of boys and girls, some smiling, others not – especially among the boys, although really, frowning might be evenly distributed. There is a range of age as well from toddler to a woman just to the right of Novato who appears to be an adult – his wife I wonder? Did he have a studio where he collected these over time as he took photos (Oh and just one more thing before you and Junior go…) or was there just a day or two of madness when he had a pile of kids come in? There are 26 (I think) separate images.

My other Easter treats are a bit less unique however I thought I’d share this one today, a tribute to the Ides of March and the spring season to come.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.