cat

Write Soon

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Saturday is dawning very bright and hot again today, although it promises to be a bit better than the last few days which have felt much July than June. We shall see. There could be ice cream in my future.

We here at Deitch Studio are regrouping after a long week of work including some promotion for Kim’s, How I Make Comics. Kim taped a podcast yesterday with Harry Siegel (I even got to chime in), and that will be showing up on Lit NYC in about a week we are told. (Kim has done two others, one with Amusing Jews which can be found here and another with Robin McConnell on Inkstuds, which has not come out yet.) Next week we head to Philadelphia for Kim to do a talk at Partners and Sons bookshop and then things seem to calm down a bit as we drift to New Jersey for the summer in about a month. We will have the summer to recoup.

I try to take my part-time job as the in-house promoter for Deitch Studio seriously. Yesterday the interviewer asked if I was going to pursue doing a podcast with Kim. (I ventured some speculation on that in a post here.) I answered honestly that maybe after all the initial promotion for the book is over. Right now we are pretty deep in it without starting anything new – yikes!

Artwork advertising for the gig next week. I love seeing a selection of my toys in this one!

As I sit here, Kim is writing a letter to his friend Zach Sally about Zach’s book, Folrath, which he sent to Kim via a friend at MoCCA recently. Cookie is enjoying the approximately 30 minutes of sun she gets on a certain chair each morning this time of year. Blackie though is having an off morning not eating his food and I am eyeing some meds I might need to put in him to help.

The coffee is on, the smell wafting into the living room, (the end of a loaf of Orwashers excellent sourdough bread awaits us as toast) and I realize I truly digress, but it has been on one those weeks and Saturday morning finds us a bit exhausted. Fresh Direct will be dropping off some groceries soon, however other than maybe making a quick soup I would say this weekend is all about collapsing a bit and resting up.

Orwashers last weekend. It is always so cheerful and jolly that I find myself taking pics while waiting in the line that generally goes out the door.

Meanwhile, for the main event today (if a bit belatedly and far down in this post) I share an embossed, die-cut style cat card purchased last weekend. A scaredy cat threatens I’ll get my back up if you don’t write soon! The cat has a deep 3-D quality and highlights (you can see he even casts a small shadow), which make him stand out further on this paper which has a faux linen quality and tooth to it. He is a true miniature version of a German embossed Halloween decoration. There is no copyright or publisher’s information on the card.

On the back there is a postmark of Janesville, Wisconsin, with a June or July date I cannot read, 1908. Rather plaintively it says, Why don’t you ever write to – Lucy. And it is addressed to Mrs. M. C. Vosburg, Ft. Atkinson, Wis. R.F. D. No. 3. Poor Lucy. So I guess this card was chosen to the point here. I do hope Mrs. Vosburg wrote to Lucy eventually.

Dr. Thomas’ Electric Oil

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: For those of you who have actually entered the doors of Deitch Studio, aka the home of Pictorama, you know that things are squirreled away in everything from flat files, cabinets and bookcases, portfolios which bulge and let’s not get started about under the bed storage! (We went searching for something last week which required taking the mattress of the bed.)

Kim was in the flat files (on the same day) when this surfaced. I have no real memory of where I purchased it although I vaguely think it might have been in France or England. Since this is an American company, I may be wrong although I don’t find many items matted this way for sale in the venues I frequent here. I keep a weather eye for early advertising and some other Victorian advertising posts can be read here and here.

Evidently the antique bottles are highly prized.

It is a sort of great but mystifying image. A small, pert cat (it’s a cat, right?), whose bowler hat has presumably been knocked aside by this enormous, angry windbag of a toothless kitty, waves an overdue Rats Bill at him. He says, Come settle up Mr. Howler. His yellow receipt book is on the ground next to him and his shadow leads us down the page. Mr. Howler looks like a giant wrestler, looming over the tiny bill collector. His gaping maw is open to display a mere two teeth! He’s a bit cross-eyed and his ears are flat. His mouth is all red tongue and his fur is a bit frowzy. Above him it simply says, What!

Somehow this is all an advertisement for a patented medicine, Dr. Thomas’ Eclectric Oil. Perhaps the buyer whose eye was caught by this image was one who should have been beware! Our friends over on the internet give an overview of the rather shady history of the product. A sort of cure-all, it was sold all over Canada and the United States, which originated in the 1850’s and managed to stick around until the mid-20th century. (Is that really possible? 1940’s?) Although created initially by a doctor it, despite many promises, evidently had no healing ability.

This appears to be a popular version.

In fact, it sounds a bit dangerous. Almost half was turpentine and the remaining half was made up of mostly camphor and pine tar or oil of thyme. Evidently the earliest version of the formula did contain some narcotics (opium!) but also hemlock and chloroform. Among the ailments it was marketed to resolve were: coughs, colds, lameness, rheumatism, tooth and earaches, cuts, burns, frostbite and even deafness after only two days of use!

Not in the Pictoram.com collection unfortunately.

While I could not find a through line of consistency in their advertising the methodology seemed to be just to get your attention as it does here. The mash-up made-up word Eclectric refers both to electric (a buzz word of the 19th century) and eclectic while saving themselves from any technical misrepresentations. (It is a bit unclear to me if it was originally Electric and was changed at a later date or not. I think yes.) Cats seem to be something of a theme but not a particular cat again and again.

This item, now surfaced here, seems to rate hanging up somewhere. I think maybe my office where for some reason I haven’t hung anything up. For now however, enjoy this advertising tidbit. Kim and I are off soon to the June edition of the Metropolitan Postcard show and you know that means lots more postcards to come.

The Corticelli Kitten

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Continuing on a bit with our classic cat theme here at Pictorama, this wonderful bit of early advertising came in the door this week. A former IG seller messaged me and asked if I was interested, remembering my feline predilections. I paid up a bit for it, but I think it is a great piece of advertising which I have never seen before.

Go cats, go! Early print advertising for Corticelli using kittens.

Evidently the Corticelli kitten began his (or her) advertising career all the way back in 1900, making it in the earlier era of emerging cat advertising. A kitten was stamped as a logo on each spool and advertisements showed a kitten or kittens playing with and chewing on the thread to show how strong it was – also that as superior thread that it was unlikely to tangle. Anyone with cats and threads knows pretty much what is likely to happen when the two are together and, strong or not, I would not want to put any thread to the test.

On the back it reads:

I am the Corticelli Kitten. As Corticelli silk costs you no more than poor silk you are saving your own time and money when you ask the cleark especially for Corticelli silk, because while you may pay as much you are sure of getting more silk, better silk, purer silk, brighter silk, longer silk and stronger silks every time you as for “Corticelli.”

When I Tell You that for over 70 years Corticelli silk has held the World’s Record for Superiority, having won 40 Highest Awards at Expositions at home and abroad,

You Will Know it was not the Corticelli Kitten that first made Corticelli silk famous – it was the remarkable smoothness, length and strength of the Silk itself.

The next time you buy silk for any purpose (sewing, stiching, crocheting or art needlework) JUST THINK of the Corticelli Kitten and the superiority of my silk and tell the clerk you just must have Corticelli or you will go to some other store.

FUN FOR THE CHILDREN. A Cortecelli Kitten given free by any dealer selling Corticelli silk in exchange for 2 empty Corticelli spools or send to us for one. As your mother to save all the Corticelli Spools for you.

Corticelli Silk Mills, Florence, Mass.

Back of the card. You can see where the bit folds out so it can stand.

The company, its roots go back to the 1830’s, has an interesting history which includes a period as part of a Utopian commune from 1842-46. It was purchased and in 1852 had a revolutionary development when the company figured out spool silk thread strong enough for sewing machines. The Northampton town where the factory called home was renamed Florence to capitalize on a desire for European millinery.

Meanwhile, the company had a vast expansion in the early years of the 20th century and their products included a line of hosiery. Their apex of their advertising is said to have been a neon sign in Times Square. I share the only image of it I could find. The company folds in the post WW1 years for a variety of reasons, around 1932.

Corticelli Kitten neon sign in Times Square, undated photo.

I think it is hard for us to imagine what a major role spools of thread played in the world of 1900. Ready-made-to-wear clothes for the rank and file had entered the public consciousness in this country with the rise of department stores and catalogue buying in the 1880’s but a majority of Americans still sewed either to make clothes, tailor or repair them.

Reproduction advertising available on Etsy.

A well supplied sewing box was a necessity in every home – I can remember my grandmother’s (Ann, my mother’s mother – I have written about her here and here) sewing box which was substantial and she wasn’t even an especially good seamstress but could swing a hem, a button or a simple adjustment.

So while today it is hard to even find a notions store, the idea of not being well stocked with thread, needles and buttons was unimaginable for the early years of the 20th century.

This little fellow has a spool of bright red silk thread under his chin, as if he was wearing it like St. Bernard out rescuing folks with a bit of whiskey in a cask. A careful look shows however, that he holds the spool in his mouth by a thread – proving how strong it is! The label is cheated toward the viewer and of course he has this nice, tiny date calendar, still fully intact, on his chest for the year 1909. He is designed to stand up and still does – sort of. The calendar appears to have Clint E.M. written at the bottom.

While my own skill with a needle and thread is extremely limited, I do love the early advertising for thread. I have been tempted by the beautiful display cabinets from stores so we’ll see. If a Corticelli kitten one every came my way I think I would have to snag it.

Crying Kits

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today I have cat tales. Cats are of course the foundational interest of Pam’s Pictorama although we do stray – Kim’s comics, the occasional dog. We are All Pam, all the Time, but albeit not quite cats all the time but much of the time.

Today’s card came as a purchase from the most recent incarnation of the postcard show and we have the Boulanger card with crying kitties to consider. I’m not exactly sure what in particular Maurice was thinking about. We have a dark gray and white matched pair of kittens who are looking at each other with tears running down their faces. The white one is a bit pudgier and a smidge bigger than the gray one, one with yellow eyes and the other a very light green.

In my opinion Boulanger (b. 1910, d.o.d. unknown) was something of a pretending to the Louis Wain (b. 1860, d.o.d. 1939) throne so to speak, as there are a few decades of overlap between them. I reckon there was more than enough demand for the images produced by two cat artists. (Some prior posts for Boulanger can be found here and here. Louis Wain Pictorama posts abound but a few are here and here.)

This image is evidently called, Tendrement (Tenderly) and on some versions evidently in German it is also written, Apfelblüte. Daut un daut lüschen Hoffen – Apple Blossom. That sweet, soft glimmer of hope. I did wonder about the image of weeping pusses. It does raise the issue of who you might have sent this card to and what their reaction might have been. Mine was not sent and does not have any useful information on the back.

Yesterday was a major cat event here as Blackie has been doing sort of poorly with a lack of appetite. Ahead of the holiday weekend I managed to get him into his local vet in the late afternoon. Have I ever mentioned that Blackie seems to have an uncanny need to go to the ER on a holiday weekend or otherwise inconvenient (reads as more expensive too) times? He does. Long story short, no sooner had we gotten home than the vet called to tell me that after looking at his tests (a small amount of ketones in his urine) he needed to go to the ER.

The little man, feeling more himself, today.

Of course, these days the kitty emergency room is at the hospital where I work. So yes, on what should have been an afternoon off I was hopping in a cab and rushing Blackie down there. (Kim, still recovering from back surgery did the first vet trip but we decided he should stay home for the second.)

I took him fully expecting that he would need to stay overnight. A young resident saw him and ran some more tests. Blackie hates going to my place of employment, but this time I had reason to bless working there. He enjoys a low-key celebrity status as an employee kitty (people came and visited with us and even with him in the back, reporting out to me) and despite it being the Friday night before the long weekend, one of the senior docs who has seen him before came by to have a look at him.

She mentioned as had the other two vets, that he had a lot of bowel not moving in his intestines – kitty constipation. The difference was she gave me instructions for giving him a tiny kitty dose of Miralax. Since eating and resolving constipation were the main issues we decided I would bring him home – he has an appetite enhancer and an anti-nausea drug. Even when we came home last night, he was ready to eat! That combined with the Miralax appears to have set him absolutely right today. I woke to a hungry boy cat and a rather impressively full litterbox. Yesterday reminded me of why I love the hospital where I work. Yay for Blackie!

Noted

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: It is threatening to be a hot summer’s day in May today – we are having now you see it, now you don’t warm weather here in Manhattan this spring. We whiplash between our light down filled jackets and sleeveless dresses, and I gather today will be the latter. I am heading to New Jersey to get the dahlias in for the year. They sit out the winter in the garage, tucked in paper bags, but for all the fickleness of the weather I think we are past frost here and I want them to have maximum time to bloom.

After yesterday’s excitement of reviewing Kim’s new book, I am afraid I have created a hard act to follow. I hope this Wain card from the recent postcard show does the trick – a palate cleanser of cat images to get back to the general business of Pictorama.

Upon reflection I realize I was slow to cede to Wain adoration – I resisted for quite a long time (overpriced postcards I remember thinking), but when I fell, I fell hard. I am a Wain addict. Few things dependably make me chuckle than a Wain image even if I have seen them many times before. A few of my past tributes can be found here and here but there are many!

His cat postcard parade is an almost endless variation playing on human foibles and attitudes – sardonic, malevolent, self-satisfied, mystified, distracted for starters. There are types too, fat, thin, businessman, solid citizen, and of course troublemakers galore. For types he is partial to tabbies – those nice decorative stripes I suppose. They can be a variety of shades. Today we have a gray tuxie which seems a bit exotic for him.

Today we have a Raphael Tuck & Sons card with four choral kitties – a cat quartet. Each holds a score which is inscribed, Nothing New Latest New Songs. Starting on the end with our pudgy, contented (self-satisfied?) fellow, gripping his book with both paws. He’s a fat cat in the best sense. (Somehow, we know these are all boy cats, yes?) Next to him is a small and skinny gray tuxedo, sporting a red bow looking a tad waifish, paw on tummy to help him emote. The two on the end are sort of a matched set of two colors of tabby, one has a blue bow for good measure and the music books they hold are a variety of green, red and blue. Each has a singing pose all his own showing his enthusiasm for his chorale endeavors.

When we look closely there is eye color variation and I assume Wain figured he could goose that a bit without anyone noticing – these cats have eyes of yellow, green and blue! They all are looking in different directions too which packs a smidge of action into this small image – and each singing with a different level of enthusiasm. Tails are curled in a variety of ways and directions, whiskers as well as eyebrows help complete the expressions. All these details are what Wain swaps out within his mental inventory of images he uses again and again. Finally, he supplies a sketched in shadow on the ground and nothing else aside from his signature which is sort of a visual element anchoring that side of the card, fat cat tail on the opposite side.

The title below is, The note duly reached in what I assume is Wain’s hand. Below that, in remarkably similar but lighter script someone has written, Hope I shall see you Thursday, Grannie. It was addressed to, Master C. T. Travers, Woolfanger, Warlingham, Surrey. The cancellation year is hard to read but appears to be August 13, 1905. Can I just say, how much fun must it have been to get a postcard like this when you were a kid? Yay for Grannie! Clearly enough that this card has survived more than 120 years.

So I leave you to revel in this smidge of Wain while I pack up my gardening togs and head out shortly. Look for some New Jersey pics on Instagram later.

Scratch That

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: At the heart of my collecting are odd bit postcards and photos that just appeal to me and today it is one. It has been a little while since I have featured a real one-of-a-kind photo postcard that was made of someone’s pet – my indulgences at the postcard show have turned up more illustrated cards and professional photo postcards. However, in some ways these one-offs epitomize something about why I collect cat photos.

Photos are usually tributes to the puss in question, many mice caught, had kittens and the like, today’s is a different sort of good kitty notice. It took me a bit to realize that this missive declares that this Miss Cat (I believe kitty to be a girl), sweet little thing we see in the sun here, has not scratched our sender.

Beauregard is a very thoughtful cat and was always extra careful around mom.

Now, I am the first to say when you live with a kitten, you generally walking around like the bleeding wounded on some horror film set, arms and hands particularly mangled, until you convince them that there are things for scratching (and biting for that matter) and slowly it ceases.

It must be said that an odd flaw in my beloved Blackie is he never learned to use a scratching post or box. His sister Cookie is happy to tear furiously into one, as are the Jersey Five. I have set scratching boxes up in strategic places and they are used not only for scratching but Peaches in particular likes to sleep on them, as if on a little cardboard throne, as well as tear them to bits.

Mr. Blackie without a care in the world, showing his tummy recently.

As a result, we occasionally get a negligent scratch from Blackie’s nails, although he hasn’t actively scratched either of us since kittenhood. I used to worry about those kinds of unconscious scratches with my mom and her cats. At the end of her life her skin was very thin and as a diabetic, scratches could be a problem. However, her cat favorite lap cat Beau always seemed to be extra careful and we rarely if ever had a problem. In an adult cat clearly scratching is a clearly a sign of unhappiness – Back off buddy! You’ve crossed a line.

The cat in the photo reminds me of Peaches. She’s a terror and to my knowledge no one has actually ever touched her. She will get within two feet of me when I am putting out food and that’s it.

Our kitty here has been captured in a benign mood, although something has caught her attention out the window. She appears to be white with some stripe-y patches on the bottom half of her and some of the same color up around her head and ears. She’s not a kitten but does appear to be a fairly young cat. We see just the tip of her curled tail, mirrored by her shadow on this small table – she is barely staying still enough for this photo to be taken. She’s a sprightly cute little thing – clearly a scratcher though!

There is a cannister, such as would hold something like flour, behind her. (Dollars to donuts that got knocked over eventually if this was her favorite viewing table.) Puss is a little sassy, you can tell that from this pic. All this is captured in this circle printed at the top of the card.

Cookie likes to curl up under my desk. This was her during a zoom call last week.

Under it, the fellow in question has written, “Hasn’t scratched yrs” Yours Samuel Jackson. It was mailed from Schenectady on June 11 at 11:30 (maybe 12:30, hard to see), 1906. It is addressed (to the best of my decoding ability) to Miss Emma Crisppen, Coxsackie, N.Y. It arrived in Coxsackie at 4:00 PM of the same day. A miracle by today’s standards we cannot imagine. (Not that they could imagine sending an email or this blog post in all fairness.)

So there we have it, our slice of time out of 1906, very close to exactly 120 years ago today.

Commuter Cats

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: There are a few rather interesting things about today’s card – an image I have never seen before but cracked me up. It posits six cats in a flying machine that is both futuristic while still being of its early 20th century time – a nice commute indeed for these workaday kits, I must say. I want to say the flying machine is one part kite on the top and this wing advertises, Why trouble to drive? Aerobus Trips in the Sky. It has, oddly enough, skis as well as wheels. I assume that although no snow currently threatens the bucolic green town below, one has to be prepared for all eventualities and seasons. (Wain is a Pictorama favorite and if you are new to the fold you can find more past Wain posts here, here and here for starters.)

On the side of the aeobus there is a partially obscured inscription, Catlands Branch…and then what likely is Service. The plane appears to be made of something reminiscent of balsa wood, but we will hope for their sake that it is something a bit more substantial. A little put-put propeller seems to be the force behind flight, perhaps helped along with the kite-like design. Just behind the propeller and hard to read is the name of the vehicle, evidently christened Mouse No. 15.

It is a tabby filled load, heavy on the oranges (orange tabbies seem to be a favorite of Wain’s, perhaps their natural tendency toward trouble making), although there are a variety of shades within that, light and dark, and one black and whiter for good measure. A jolly fat fellow is steering, wheel and stick I notice. He sports a cap in case we doubt his official role. The other cats seem to be enjoying themselves, looking at the view. I’m surprised no one is reading the newspaper or coming home with bags and boxes from a shopping trip in town – it could use a middle-aged female cat.

The town below sports a church and a single, very large home, a bridge in the distance and tended fields awaiting crops. There seems to be a sea which drifts almost invisibly into the sky.

Notably, in case you did not know, this card is a contemporary reproduction which was advertised as such online. I was curious and not unsatisfied with the results. After all, the “real” postcards have wide variation from multiple printings as well and what is real when it comes to postcards. The image is sharp and not dupe-y which is what I was most curious and concerned about. There is a somewhat undefinable not oldness about it. There is no manufacturer’s info on the back. It would have originally likely been the product of Raphael Tuck and Sons Ltd.

I have been unable to find versions of the original card online which lead to an interesting thought – what if this isn’t really a Louis Wain but instead a very crafty modern mix up and reassembly of existing and new parts? I don’t really think this card is, but it begs the question about our new world in the not too distant future will be we be parsing real versus actual reinvention?

To me it is also interesting that it is my inclination that I would mail this postcard and I never mail my old ones – too expensive and too fragile. If I give one it is generally framed. At $5 this was about the price of an average greeting card these days, although maybe a bit more with postage. I guess we will just have to wait and see if “new” Louis Wain’s start to appear and then we can judge them on their own merits. However, modern reproduction does bring the possibility of bringing them back into play so to speak and using them again for their original intention. (Does anyone actually even know what a postcard costs to send in the US today?)

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For those of you who are wondering, Paw Day was a huge success yesterday at the Second Avenue Street Fair here. While the block long Japanese food fiesta might have topped our block marginally, we were packed with interested parties and lots and lots of dogs (and a few adventurous cats) and curiosity. Many existing clients visited with us and our docs but also lots of people with puppies and new pets who were curious. It was fast paced and exhausting but great fun.

A brave cat visitor to our table yesterday and Blackie exacting a lap toll this morning (slowing me down some) for yesterday being mostly a day out of the apartment.

On the Fence

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I have seen this postcard before and I cannot say why but have never thought to purchased it until now. Suddenly it just struck me as good fun when I saw it the other day online, a perfect version of a sort of a card. Perhaps all my kitten photo posts lately had me in a different frame of mind and attuned me to seeing it better.

Meanwhile, it’s an overcast morning here in Manhattan and shortly after I finish this post I need to hurry down to 76th Street and Second Avenue for a street fair where the animal hospital I work for has taken a block for our annual Paw Day. I will layer up with branded t-shirt, sweatshirt, baseball cap and kerchief – we actually give those to dogs who visit but I like to wear one jauntily tied around my neck. I don’t know about sun, but I think maybe we can avoid rain.

Anyway, today’s card shows these two adolescent cats, just out of proper kittenhood in my opinion, sitting on a picket fence distracted perfectly in unison by something we cannot see. Their uniform, spotty fur makes me thing they might be littermates. Utterly illegible, in poorly planned white writing on the white fence it declares these two as, The Astronomers. These are stargazing felines it seems. The background is a solid black so if there are stars in theory, they reside out of view.

Perhaps ironically, or not, the copyright by Rotograph is a more visible white on black, under the leg of the left cat, right where his black tail is curled around his feet or her feet. The copyright is 1906 by the Rotograph Company of New York. (Almost exactly a year ago I did another post about a Rotograph card which can be found here. However, more about the Rotograph Company and Rags their cat, can be found in a post here. Oddly that one is from April of ’19. Spring is Rotograph time here at Pictorama!) It would appear to me, for the record, that the cat on the left is indeed Rags as he has a singular mark coming down from his right eye.)

Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

This card was mailed in the year of its copyright, December 1, 1906. It was sent from and to Worcester, Massachusetts at 4:00 in the afternoon. It was mailed to, Master Topsy & Sweetheart Merrit, 6 High Street, Worcester, Mass. (Out of curiosity I checked and there is a split-level home of relatively recent vintage there now.) I’m sure it was great enjoyed by Topsy and Sweetheart and as a result has somehow lasted in splendid shape all these years.

I pledge for a longer post tomorrow when I am not under the gun to get to work. I will catch you all up on tales (and tails) from Paw Day perhaps.

All Amongst the Little Stars

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I seem to be on a roll with this avenue of kitty photo postcards. This one just turned up on eBay and I snatched it up. Once again, a kitten is drifting along in a night sky, among some stars and clouds, tucked into a tiny basket. Someone has strung up a nice little umbrella instead of a balloon this time. (Other posts sporting our feline floating friends can be found here and very recently here.)

I like this night sky background best of all – a very artistic depiction. At the bottom it says All Amongst the Little Stars. Noted that this is a line from a British music-hall tune called Up in a Balloon. It goes, in part:

Up in a balloon, boys, up in a balloon,
All among the little stars, sailing round the moon;
Up in a balloon, boys, up in a balloon,
Every one is sure to say, it’s jolly in a balloon.

Our AI friends (assuming they are friends) tell us that it was written and composed by G.W. Hunt and famously performed by singers like George Leybourne, the song became a widespread hit after its release in the late 1860s. (Full lyrics and a chance to hear a more contemporary take on the song can be found here.)

Pams-Pictorama.com collection – an even earlier post from 2017.

Unfortunately, the stamp was removed from this card and no postmark remains, however I have found an entry that sites the publication of these cards as in 1903. That entry includes Many happy returns on the front and therefore I guess was promoted as a birthday card. They were sold as a pack of six and thus far I have seen the birthday variation, this one and a similar version that does not have the white space to write in at the bottom. They say there was a French produced version as well, noted as being in blue, and I would like to see those.

One of the reasons so much information is available about the card is because it was produced by our early 20th century cat card friends at the renown British Raphael Tuck and Co. I have gone into raptures over their series of Felix holiday cards, among others. (A few of those posts can be found here and here.) Unlike their rather deluxe later editions, this card is a bit austere in its choice of paper (thin) and is of course black and white. Those gold tipped and colored images were still a decade or so in their future as a company. On the back, in tiny type, there is a note that this series is Studies by Charles EID. Not sure how that works in conjunction with Landor as noted below.

At the top it declares, Landor’s Cat Studies (copyright) and brief research reveals that E. Landor (aka Reginald Wellbye) was a cat photographer of note in the late 19th and early 20th century in Britain. He was based in Ealing and was responsible for many of the Tuck photo cat cards in the early years.

The Welby’s Silver Monarch as provided by the Cat-o-pedia on the CFAF History Project site. A handsome fellow indeed.

It is said he frequently photographed well-known cats of the day, noting those such as Silver Lotus and St. Veronica, the daughters of a famous breeding cat named The Squire, as per one entry. (Shades of the nascent development of cat breeding and the evolution of them as pets in Great Britain as noted in the bio of Louis Wain I did a post about here.) However, I dearly love a note revealed in further investigation that his wife was a cat breeder and those named above were actually their cats – Silver Longhairs. Mrs. Wellby was a seminal figuer in the early cat breeding efforts of the Victorian day. They were clearly a dynamic duo.

Evidently Landor’s great technical achievement was successfully photographing seven kittens in a row. A task he described as nearly impossible because the kittens would constantly try to play with each other’s tails. Somehow it seems to me that it was probably only one small part of the trouble one would have – nor is there any mention of how he ultimately achieved success. Perhaps he wasn’t willing to record that. We’ll hope it was just yummy special treats.

He was up to five in the series here. Not in Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

The sender of my card has written at the bottom, Wishing you a very, very. On the back she writes, Happy Xmas & plenty of fun & hoping to see you at a time not far distant – is the sincere wish of Auntie Isabella. It was addressed to Master Hopley at an address that is hard to read for she has blotted and rewritten a bit, but appears to be Crossloom Villa, Mollington ur, Chartes.

You can see where the stamp was removed on the back of this card. Her otherwise decorative hand adds to the front of the card.

This card was one that continued to reveal more interesting bits as I went further down the rabbit hole so I hope you enjoyed the trip with me this morning. Kim and I are off shortly to a signing at the L’Alliance Comics Fest for him to sign at the Fantagraphics table there with advance copies of How I Make Comics and a new softcover edition of Reincarnation Stories. Hope to see some of you there today or tomorrow! Pictorama review of Kim’s new book How I Make Comics on board soon.

Beauty

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Yesterday’s postcard show did not disappoint, and Kim and I wiled away an hour or two perusing the wares. This is a single day show and therefore a bit smaller and folks say they don’t bring as much stock but we made out just fine. We will wait for Friday and Saturday, June 5 and 6 for that. Meanwhile I present one of my purchases which caught my eye, however it is more fun now that I have transcribed the message on the back. The message is for a new kitty, named Beauty, that has clearly joined the family.

It would appear that these cats are ice skating – and this Mom (?) cat is putting a skate on the young cat (boy? it has a blue bow) although there is only one, which she has just placed on his foot. (Where is the other skate?) The chair is somewhat mysteriously placed out on the ice, another cat skating with what appears to be a cane in the background. In the foreground there is a black kitty, who looks like my Blackie with just some white on his neck, also standing with a cane. (Do cats need canes to stand like humans? Is this something we should know if we want them to become bipeds?)

Youngster looks like the one I am calling Mom and has a matching tabby stripe to his fur. The skater in the background also appears to have stripes but is at a distance and somewhat indistinct. The weird sea green ice (which makes them appear to be actually standing and seated on water) goes to an only slightly lighter background. Dad pokes out of the frame and Mom perches right on it.

Back of card – very embossed indeed! Makes it a bit hard to read at first.

This card is embossed, creating a very three-dimensional effect, and around the edge is some snow decoration, also embossed. The postcard was made in Germany, however no artist is identified with it. Youngster is eager to get skating I’d say.

We stopped for lunch at a place called Bagel Pub.

I didn’t understand the message at first as it took some decoding. Despite the neat script the back of the card is pitted with the embossing making it hard to read. Anyway, it reads as follows, October 2d 1910. Well, my one eared Beauty how are you? Snoozing in your mother’s big chair I presume. Be good to little Georgie and never scratch him. Hope you will live many years. Auntie B. It was mailed to, Beauty Dunham, 782 Commercial S, East Weymouth, Mass. and just in case below that, To Georgie Dunham. It’s nice that she dated it because the postmark does not show the year, although October 3 and 6 AM show, as does New Jersey, but only Brio…? shows on the postmark for location which I cannot figure out. And gosh, what happened to one of Beauty’s ears?

Spotted this interesting building – the old bit in front seems to have actual gas lamps. The ancient building on the other side is interesting too. This is 13th Street, I think between 7th and 6th, southside of the street.

Meanwhile, Kim had his maiden voyage on the subway, his first long trip out since surgery. I think a change of scenery swept away any cabin fever he had, although admittedly he has been deep into his work so I am not sure how much he was suffering from his time at home as a result. However, all is onward and upward here at Deitch Studio.