Pam’s Pictorama Post: I did consider saving this item for a back-to-school post after Labor Day, but here we are, in need of a post and here it is. For those of you heading back to school in a few weeks, you can consider it a shot over the bow in advance of that event.
I have looked at Felix pencil boxes for years – it almost seems like no two are alike so many variations on the theme turn up. I have bid on numerous ones and never won one to call my own. I guess I had an idea in my head about how much I was willing to pay and I just kept being outbid.
Finally this one, a rather superior one I might add, appeared online for sale with a flat price I was willing to pay and I jumped on it. Then I did something with a bit of foresight which was I had it sent to the house in New Jersey. Then, in all honesty, I utterly forgot that I had purchased it! It was tucked in a box with another purchase and I was very excited to discover it.
Back of the pencil case – Felix as artiste!
Condition is often a major issue in these as kids used them hard and they are after all meant to be somewhat disposable. Often they have crayon or pencil marks or they have been opened and closed so often that they are tattered and torn. By comparison this one is in virtually pristine condition aside from a bit of wear in the lower right corner.
Felix and two junior Felix-es march across the front with some sort of towers in the background. Felix the Cat is penned across the top quite nicely and while these are the rounded off version of Felix the bodies have a nice blockiness. The image and writing is somewhat etched into the cardboard which, in addition to this rich green color, has an interesting texture.
The back has more towers (castles?) and Felix perches while painting or drawing a picture held up by a friendly mouse. The cat and mouse depictions on the tiny top side of this are perhaps less friendly and Felix is bizarrely stretched – chasing a mouse but also held back by one. The bottom side has, instead three mice holding his tail which is stretched, as opposed to his entire body. The short sides have a great sort of Deco pattern.
Lovely mostly intact inside of the case.
For Felix fun we aren’t going to beat the outside, but the inside was a surprising treat! Tiny ruler, an eraser (which is as hard as a rock now) and a darling little series of watercolor pans, one broken and one missing but four still perfectly in place. Three pencils remain – two unsharpened and that wonderful Deco pattern paper continues inside.
This lovely item appears to come to us from the American Pencil Company, New York, U.S.A. The American Pencil Company appears in a marking on the front under the flap and also bears the number 1964. Pat Sullivan also gets a copyright mention across from it.
There is the same figured paper on the flap but in a simple golden beige. The whole thing snaps open and closed and that closure is still in good shape.
All in all, as a kid I would have returned to school with great confidence if given this dandy case, an excellent start to the school year.
Some of my peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers by special request yesterday!
Pam’s Pictorama Post: I am running late today for this post, my second from New Jersey this summer. The neglected garden needed my attention while it was still cool enough to work out here. It was a small start, but I am also tired from my first week as a commuter and getting over a bad head cold last weekend. However, it should also be noted that today is the first day of six since we got here where it has not been a torrential downpour either. Let the garden enjoyment (and work) begin!
Nevertheless, I have this little treasure which arrived at Deitch Studio shortly before our departure last weekend. While the aged quality of this photo makes it less than perfect, it was an irresistible image to add to the Pictorama collection.
Recent acquisition and post as below.
The concept of the perfect Felix costume has long stoked my imagination and I believe informed Kim’s Alias the Cat. (That book – one of the best ever! – for purchase can be found here.) While I search to acquire the perfect mask photos of Felix costumes can also satisfy. I just posted about another and it is unusual because I don’t really have that many in my collection. (A post about that recent acquisition, shown above, can be found here.)
Opening of Kim’s Alias the Cat.
Early in my collecting I found an interesting clutch of early photos of folks donning Felix costumes. Tiny snapshots of people in masks or full costume. Oddly, I didn’t acquire them together either which is sort of fascinating. That post from the early days of Pictorama can be found here.
Today’s photo is a tintype and as to be expected that means the writing on Felix’s chest is reversed. Hard to know if Felix was an adult with these two small bunny attired kids. More likely an older child. While it is definitely an off-model mask it was commercially made, as were the bunny outfits the other children sport.
One from a series of photos from the post mentioned above.
I have no explanation for the staff or cane held, but the older of the two rabbit kids. If I had to guess (and it would be a guess) I would say the older of those two is a girl. I have no idea at all about the younger. They are outside and a careful look shows a woman behind them and some buildings, or more likely pictures of buildings, behind her. There are other indistinct people and things, however the picture grows wavy there and they are unreadable.
I was surprised to be reminded that this photo actually came from Louisiana, not Great Britain. The holder strikes me as oh so British and of course it’s most recent home before mine was not necessarily its place of origin. I believe that virtually all of the Felix tintypes I have of this sort have come from either England or Australia. Having said that, most of them are people posing with large Felix dolls and this is just kids in costume.
Wall decor at Deitch Studio.
I have yet to decide how the Pictorma library will stretch in the Jersey digs and have yet to start to hang things, although some of the yard long photos are on display. I mostly leave the items here that have ended up here, but I hope for the leisure to make some determinations about decoration. More to come when I figure that out. For now it has gotten too hot for the garden and there are numerous cats requesting pets.
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Portland, Oregon! Although the seller of today’s find was in California, this photo obviously appears to hail from Portland originally. Rogue homemade Felix seems to have proliferated in Portland back in the day and I would love to know why that city seems to have had a special relationship with him.
It’s been quite a while since I have purchased a Pacific Northwest Felix, but I had a spate of them early in my collecting career which gave me the idea that they had a specific yen for him. Parade floats and costumes – there’s was homegrown Felix fun in that part of the country and I am sorry to have missed it. (These location specific Felixes form a sub-genre of my collection. Posts for these pics can be found here, here, here, here and here!)
One of a clutch of photos of the same batch from an early post. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
This natty fellow and his slightly off-model Felix-y wheel cover fits well in the group. While Felix looks slightly more like his identical cousin than himself, it is a pretty good likeness. the gentleman posing is so clearly pleased to show this off I’d say. Bow tie, vest and jacket, he’s dressed and posing for the photo.
An early Portland parade post. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.
It’s a small photo. Only a little more than 3″ x 2″. Like the other photos I have mentioned above, there isn’t a lot of information in the image. There is a nice cottage in view behind him, trees and telephone poles. There’s no back license plate which might have supplied a year, and nothing is written on the back. However, Oregon (and our assumed place of origin) is supplied over Felix.
Another Portland parade post (although a not Felix), pic from 1909. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.
I do not own a car and don’t really drive, although I assume with the house in Jersey this is something I will need to fix over time. Oh to be able to do it in style like this however.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today’s item was one of those now you see it now you don’t – and back again items on eBay. I was surprised and disappointed when it was pulled from sale and equally delighted when mysteriously it was relisted. Evidently it was from an estate sale of tiles. It was listed as from the 1930’s and it is in very good condition so it is hard to say.
I immediately had a vision of a fireplace in an Arts and Crafts style cottage somewhere lost in time, decorated with cheerful Felix tiles! Clearly I would buy the house just for that. (I have a friend whose father heard of a house being torn down with great fireplace tiles and he got permission to go and take them out. They are at the Met Museum now.)
Felix appears to be going somewhere and pointing in that direction, and he has an umbrella which seriously makes me wonder about what the other ones in a series might have looked like. Were they all weather related? Felix in the sun and snow? There are a few minor imperfections in the tile, a small chip or two where the glaze bubbled. It is a very good likeness of the cat though, I must say.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
In all my years of looking at vast amounts of Felix items I have never seen another. I have, in my years of collecting, seen an odd thing where sometimes you find something you never saw before and then you start seeing a few more. That happened with the these Felix holiday cards below which I wrote about here.
One other cartoon tile was being sold and I am sorry I didn’t try to snatch it up, but I got so confused by this one being pulled off I lost my focus. It is below and sold for about the same price. This one (is it Betty Boop’s sidekick Bimbo?) was identified as being from Mission Art Tile California. I can’t really find tracks on that either however. It appears to be in similar mint condition.
Not in the Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
I grew up in a house with two massive brick fireplaces. My parents purchased old bricks before that was popular in building and they also bought an enormous beam from a barn which was halved and used as mantels for both. The ancient wood fascinated me, full of worm holes!
We used the downstairs fireplace constantly in the winter months and I do really love sitting by an open fire. My mom later converted it to gas which was somewhat disappointing, but we still used it a lot. The house she left me in NJ has a small brick fireplace, but to reline the chimney (it seems they would pour a ceramic liner into it?) and make it truly safe would cost a bundle so I doubt we will have fires there. I have purchased and set a small fire pit in the backyard to make up for this loss and I hope to be able to engage in using it in the coming warming months.
It makes me happy to imagine a world where fireplaces might have been decorated with jolly cartoon characters. Now that I know about these I will look for more – you never know, I might be able to remodel mine one day!
Pam’s Pictorama Post: It’s a rare, I don’t own ’em but wish I did post here at Pictorama today. To the extent that I have set ground rules here, one general one is that if I feature it I own it. (Some readers will remember that I broke it recently to bring you a wonderful cat chair photo. It was a family photo which a reader shared with me and the post can be found here.)
However, to some degree rules exist to be broken and this image came to me both via Mel Birnkrant (his endlessly fascinating FB page can be found here – it is a rabbit hole to go down and possibly never emerge from) and some folks sent it to me via both the Old London FB page and also via X (that we used to call Twitter). The caption reads, Felix the Cat dolls leaving their Acton factory, 100 years ago.
Allow me to start by saying this image just floors me altogether. Admittedly, Felix lust immediately filled my soul! Oh the riches of the past! Truckloads of precious, giant Felix dolls making their way from Acton, out into the 1924 world of of extremely fortunate children and itinerant photographers.
It is also of interest to me to learn that at least one factory making these dolls was in Acton. Unlike the bit of history I uncovered previously (in a post from 2015 I very much favor and can be found here) which indicated that unemployed women were given jobs making smaller ones in a factory on the East End of London. Acton is a suburban area to the west so now I know Felix was being made all over London.
Collection of Pams-Pictorama.com
These are truly splendid huge Felix toys. Are they large enough to be the ones people posed with? Could be, but hard to say. If for kids, very luxe indeed. I certainly have photos of people posing with this size Felix although it isn’t the very largest size which I judge to be about the size of a midget. However, over time my collection has come to include period photos from British beach resorts with Felix dolls smaller than these. (A post on the one above can be found here.) None of the dolls in my collection (yet!) reach these size of the ones in the truck. Hope springs eternal however.
An admittedly soft grab off the film, but a nice close up of the Felixes.
While chatting with Mel and researching this earlier today, I realized that this is actually a British Pathé newsreel short. It can be seen in its entirety here. (I was unable to place the video here – I am experiencing mechanical stupidity today.) Note the unruly little fellow who looks like he wants to make a break for it by falling off the cart.
Of interest that most of these Felix toys were sensibly wrapped in brown paper, precious little parcels being piled up. However, someone must have realized that some should fill the back unpacked in order to get this wonderful image.
I think what I have here is actually a frame grab rather than a still, although hopefully stills do exist so I have a chance at one some day in the future.
Bookplate not in Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
While we are having a posting moment focused on things shared but not owned, I am adding this Felix-y bookplate which came to me via J. J. Sedelmaier a few weeks ago. It would appear that Mr. Lowell and our cartoon friend shared a moniker. I assume he had these made – very pro job though. A nicely squared off, early looking Felix here. Something sort of smart about how his hand rests on the edge of the “shelf” and the lettering. Oh for the days of book ownership pride which would result in special bookplates like this!
Pam’s Pictorama Post: It’s the great Valentine reveal. It’s a post-Valentine’s Day bounty today with this glorious page Kim made for me! For any new readers who aren’t familiar with our ritual, every year since we first started dating, Kim has made me a Valentine which is a sort of combined birthday and Valentine’s Day gift. (Some prior year posts can be found here, here and here.) These have grown in complexity over time.
This year is a bit different and really is like a full page story. I love that the way we are celebrating 30 years together is to ride a magic pink elephant! Yes! It has really been exactly like this.
My 2017 Valentine! Pams-Pictorama.com collection.
I’m pleased that Waldo even makes a rare Valentine’s appearance. I won’t say he hasn’t shown up before, but spending Valentine’s Day with us isn’t his usual beat. Of course he’s evidently responsible for inciting the elephant to charge while we cling to our perch – which is secured by a belt of hearts. Despite the gravity of our situation hearts bubble up all around as well – perhaps a dream? No way – I assure you, this is life at Deitch Studio.
Despite the fact that I spend the whole page wearing a nightgown, I am here as in life, the more practical of the two of us. Although Kim does maintain extraordinary calm in times of duress as illustrated – Don’t worry he always gets away.
2020 was a very Felix-y year for my Valentine! Pams-Pictorama.com collection.
Sort of funny that he has depicted me with my eyeglasses on in bed and even when we kiss in profile at the bottom. (I generally only wear them in bed to watch tv as I am a no eyeglass book reader person, at least for now. Talk to me again in a few years.) The page culminates at the bottom with us in bed reflecting on the adventure.
This box Kim decorated for me many years ago (and I posted about in 2015) inspired this year’s color scheme.
The word always plays throughout the page. It starts at the top with Kim, then I say it – and Kim does again and the whole page culminates with it in red. It brings us to the tune of the Irving Berlin hit Always. In 1925 Berlin wrote it for his wife (and gave her the royalties which certainly did not turn out to be insignificant) as a wedding gift. The lyrics are:
Everything went wrong, And the whole day long I'd feel so blue. For the longest while I'd forget to smile, Then I met you. Now that my blue days have passed, Now that I've found you at last -
I'll be loving you Always With a love that's true Always. When the things you've planned Need a helping hand, I will understand Always. Always.
Days may not be fair Always, That's when I'll be there Always. Not for just an hour, Not for just a day, Not for just a year, But Always.
Or if you prefer, the Bing Crosby version can be found below.
Or a less brisk version by Deanna Durbin can be found here.
Cookie and Blackie make an appearance having zoomies through the bottom – perhaps racing for the best spot at the foot of the bed, or more likely getting out of the way of our gooey human kissing as cats will.
Life here at Deitch Studio is a wild ride, but always my only very favorite place to be. Thank you sweetheart and here’s to the next 30!
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: While I always find a Felix photo postcard day a rare treat here at Pictorama, I am never sure you all quite share my enthusiasm! Today’s addition to my ever growing collection of these cards is the result of a tip by one of my Instagram pals, Baileigh Faucz Hermann (@baileighfaucz.h) who I have purchased photos from in the past (a few of the posts about those photos can be found here and here) and I couldn’t be more grateful.
As is usually the case with these, this card was never mailed and there is nothing written on the back.
Pams-Pictorama.com collection – an addition to the collection back in ’22.
While it appears that this postcard could have benefitted from less tired developer back in the day, it is still a prize for this roving eyed Felix who exhibits a sort of overbite and who stands quite chummy with this small child who is only barely contained in his chair. It probably isn’t an utter reach to say that the child is in swim shoes and perhaps a beach costume of sorts.
Behind the kids and Felix is a wooden table with an attractive pot, some stairs. The grounds seems to be sandy so likely a beachside resort. The child’s chair is just his size an Felix is the right size for him too.
****
As I write this, I am on a NJ transit train on a Friday night, heading to Fair Haven after a long week at work. This is the first time I am going to New Jersey since the time we were all here over the holidays and since I started at the new job. So much has happened it seems like more than a few weeks!
Geraniums which have died back and now are getting ready to go back out in the spring!
The new job is starting to take root. I am finding my way around better – although yesterday I went in an out door and I must remember that hospitals are like restaurants that way! Still, people are getting used to me and I am getting used to them too. I don’t yet have a place to pick up breakfast, but I have laid in supplies for lunches for the week via Trader Joe’s down the street.
Meanwhile, the train is crowded and it is already dark out as it is early in winter, although it seems the official word of the groundhog this morning is that spring is on the way,
Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today is the annual Christmas card reveal. clearly this year we celebrate the whole Butler crew, all eight kitties, including Hobo.
We are ensconced here at Oxford Avenue for the holiday duration this year. I have inaugurated the holidays by acquiring a violent stomach virus so this may be a bit brief. It’s an odd year, my first without my mom and I am feeling it even more keenly than I thought I would. I am usually pro-Christmas and manage holiday cheer even under duress. This year is tough, although I am curled up here in New Jersey with Kim and all the kitties which helps. Drinking fluids! No baking while this is going on.
Last year’s card – Blackie and Cookie solo in front of our apartment window.
The card has a double meaning this year as I leave Jazz at Lincoln Center for the very different world of fundraising for the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center. Animal lover and rescuer of animals as she was, all of us think Mom would find that an appropriate switch; she was always concerned that my job at Jazz was too exhausting for the long haul, with its travel and many nights.
AMC will be unlike anything I have done before and I don’t dismiss the difference and the adjustment – all fundraising is not the same. Still, my brain itches to engage with new challenges and I think building a full fundraising operation for them is the next best chapter.
Blackie is stalking around the New Jersey house; Cookie has returned to her safe spot under a chair in the bedroom. Beau and Blackie had a hissy hello last night. I think the other New Jersey cats remain largely unaware. There is always an adjustment period.
Kim has taken over my office for the duration and, after a few false starts for a new dip pen holder and something for his ink, he is inking away upstairs.
The original Pam Butler pencil drawing.
This year’s card was conceived of and drawn by me as a tribute to my new cat family and job – I include my original pencil for the first time. Kim inked it and added the logo which is properly Deitchien. Each cat gets a proper portrait. Kim added a little maniacal twist to Cookie who is chasing her tail (as she still does almost daily at 10 years of age) and Beau and Blackie are facing off a bit.
So our best wishes for the holidays and the New Year from us at Deitch Studio and Pictorama. Hope you enjoy it!
Pam’s Pictorama Post: This Felix bag was new old stock and offered with several other identical ones. The Felix is a jolly round slightly off-model version and, with oversized mitts for hands, he holds a sign bearing tidings from Felix’s Viroqua, Wis. He stands in what appears to be a puddle and the black mid-century token design is reminiscent of my 1960’s era childhood.
It is the sort of small flat bag that cards, a bit of stationary or bauble might have gone into when purchased. These ubiquitous paper bags eventually gave way to a plastic version. Now that we live in a bag eliminating society perhaps they will disappear altogether although, as a frequent buyer of cards I am still often offered one at the point of sale. It is perhaps too small to have converted to a lunch bag. (In a sea of precisely purchased lunch bags, my mother was an early adopter of the random bag for our lunches as children. I speculate that the waste of purchasing lunch bags once we grew out of lunch boxes must have annoyed her.)
Much to my surprise, when I ran the name on Google this morning the story of Felix’s poured out of the computer. It turns out that Viroqua, Wisconsin is a small town of perhaps declining fortune which is home to about 4,500. (I checked and the small town in NJ we call second home clocks in at a population of about 2,000 more.)
And they had a great neon sign!
Felix’s closed its doors in 2007 after 101 years of being a local mainstay. The eponymous enterprise was founded by Max Felix who arrived in Wisconsin in 1905 and joined a wave of Jewish immigrants, like my own grandfather, who carved out a mercantile living with what was called dry goods or general store, in this case across the midwest. These stores sold everything from stationary to socks and catered broadly to the needs of their community.
Over the decades Felix’s was evidently handed from Max to his brothers, then to their children and to a final generation. The general store model morphed into a clothing store over time and that is what it is remembered for in the community.
The story of its closure seems to be inevitably wrapped in the broader tale of a town with a shrinking local economy, big box stores pushing out the long-standing, smaller and privately owned retail. There are articles and online posts about the demise of numerous other local retail establishments at the same time and concern for the future of the town.
Viroqua is described online as sparsely suburban which could certainly be viewed as damning with faint praise in several different ways. However, the schools are noted to be above average and the community heavily populated with retirees; it runs conservative politically. The town was founded with the name Bad Axe (certainly evocative) and did a stint as Farwell before the settled on Viroqua.
Beautiful indeed!
Viroqua appears to be known for something called the Driftless Region. For a description of what that seems to be, I share directly from the internet and close with this topological tidbit: The area is one of the only parts of America consistently missed by advancing glaciers over the millennia, hence the name “Driftless or Unglaciated Region”. This has preserved the unique topography of the region. The famous bluffs, coulees and small winding streams are mesmerizing. Fascinating!
Pam’s Pictorama Post: Yes, it appears to be a lamp post today! I have been on what might best be called a lamp acquisition binge. In part, it has been to fill a need for lighting in New Jersey at the house where we pretty much only had overhead lights and needed additional standing lamps and table lights. Here in New York we have an on-going need for lamps in the living room where we have two contemporary standing lamps which seem to both take very expensive bulbs and die after a few years.
As a result of the lamp death rate I have begun purchasing lamps, mostly old ones. They end up being rewired so I don’t really understand why they last better but they do. It started with a desk lamp for myself here in New York while working at home. After some frustration I bought an old one on Instagram which, while a bit tatty and odd looking, seems to be dedicated to staying on the job. It came from Washington State.
Odd little desk lamp from Washington State, among the detritus of wires and stuff on my home desk.
Before I go on I should add that I came from a family that seemed to be unable to pass up a good antique chair, lamp or clock. The lamps collected by my family have sadly mostly passed out of our hands, and those that remain are somewhat unsuited to my current needs although one graces Kim’s desk at the moment – Pictorama readers see it often in desk shots. (See below.) It may have started life as a vase, vaguely Asian in design and covered in flowers, which was converted into a lamp. Nonetheless, it did hatch forth from the Butler holdings many years ago, before Kim and Deitch Studio arrived on the scene.
A brief digression about clocks. The Butler clocks, mostly antique, are very much gone I’m afraid. As a kid I learned to sleep through a constant chiming throughout the day and night, although it was hard to readjust visiting as an adult. If there’s one I miss it is a ship’s clock with those bells. I am tempted to find one, but am afraid it could result in divorce. Dad was dedicated to winding those that needed winding every Sunday in his retirement. (There was also a cuckoo clock at my grandmother’s I loved as a child, but I knew we couldn’t absorb that into Deitch Studio when it became available. It was both large and noisy.) At one point my mom had one that made bird noises on the hour – that was a rare modern one – and it drove me nuts. However, I will say I saw a good antique wall clock for sale the other day and unbidden my father rose up in me and I twitched with the urge to buy it. Evidently it is in the blood.
Desk lamp purchased for my New Jerseydesk, but shown here in the eBay photo I purchased it from.
For New Jersey I acquired a lovely old standing lamp from a friend, rewired it and popped a shade on after some negotiation on the internet – who knew there would be so many variations of standard lamp shade sizes. I am tempted to buy another if I see it and am constantly prowling. A good number, strangely, seem to come in pairs which doesn’t really work for me – or appear at a time when figuring out shipping seems beyond me.
After the acquisition of the standing lamp I purchased a gooseneck desk lamp on eBay to replace a lamp on my desk in Fair Haven which has a tendency to randomly turn itself off. (Seems like a bad sign, right?) That lamp was never designed as a desk light anyway and I will either have it rewired and move it elsewhere or let it loose back into the world. Frankly it is not an especially compelling item.
Inexpensive blue and white lamp which I have hooked up to a smart plug to do my Alexa bidding.
I also purchased an inexpensive, pretty, new blue and white lamp for the living room there. More notably I installed an Alexa and set this living room lamp to light morning and evening. It took me and Alexa (I call her Miss A. when I don’t want her listening; she does listen) awhile to come to an agreement, but she seems able to fulfill her simple task. I find myself saying please and thank you to her which I can’t seem to discontinue. She, additionally, supplies me with NPR news while I make coffee and feed the cats in the morning and will also turn the light on if asked, as I pad through the room in the middle of the night in search of water in the kitchen or to investigate and moderate a cat disagreement. I may try the headlines of the New York Times next, but I usually switch to classical music after NPR. (I recently also purchased a Wink video doorbell and cameras and I’m sure more to come once I have that installed. I am slowly turning the Fair Haven house into a smart house – at least sorta smart.)
Our current status in NYC is one floor lamp down and has been for awhile. It ate one of its expensive bulbs aways back and we seem unable to make a decision to offer up another bulb or get rid of said light. I decided to work around that and while upstate for work in July (see a post about that weekend of work adventure here) I purchased a very pretty little lamp in an antique store. It is a variation on what is called slag glass, but instead of it being all about the glass design it has a wonderful lacy metal shade over it.
Lacy metal side table lamp which is waiting for a place to be plugged in! Pluto seems to like it…
I will take a moment to opine that many years ago there was someone doing wonderful reproduction lamps with painted scenes on glass shades. I didn’t have the cash to invest in one then and have always regretted it. I have never been able to find the really nice ones subsequently now that I have a chance to invest. Alas. I also have an appetite for a heat motion activated lamp – these lamps from the 1950’s have brightly colored scenes and the heat of the bulb activates them to slowly turn the scene. Unfortunately many of the scenes are sort of pedantic – a lot of fires and trains – but I am waiting for the right one to cross my path.
Lastly and truly in no way least, perhaps more best of all – on a true whim I purchased a painted metal Popeye lamp in an auction recently. I was leafing through I think a Milestone online catalogue and Popeye caught my eye. I put a nominal bid in on him almost without thinking and really did forget about it until an email showed up telling me I had purchased him. While his paint is in bad shape I do love him. I am currently deciding if he will reside here in New York or go to New Jersey which is easily still absorbing lighting fixtures.
Another shot of Popeye, but this time showing Kim’s lamp more or less in its full glory.
Meanwhile, I am trying to decide what kind of a shade goes on Popeye and how best to purchase it. I saw some online but the shade lamp calculus would be better in person. Another option might be a bare Edison bulb – any thoughts? I am taking all comers and suggestions on this.
Kim twitches with the desire to repaint him someday and I would say he could be a good candidate for it. Other more pressing projects await however. For now though, I say, let there be lots of light.
Pam's Pictorama 