Kitten with Fruit

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today is a (somewhat) rare Pictorama painting post. Mostly these seem to be summer New Jersey posts as this is the home with enough wall space for paintings. Some of you may remember my pig painting purchase post from last summer (post can be found here), although cats are more typical and prior posts of some of those acquisitions can be found here and here.

Having said that, this one was acquired from a seller in Britain (@oldstockantiques, his website can be found here), via Instagram and has sat, still in the shipping wrapping in the New York apartment for several month until it could come out here. As a result, when I unpacked it I felt a bit like I was seeing it for the first time all over again. (Good thing my taste is consistent!) There are actually others still to come (largely but not all cats by far), but we start here today with this one which is my favorite.

I don’t know if you can see it from the photo but this painting is old and the surface is a bit reptilian in places as the top layer has crazed and crawled over time. I would guess that this top layer is actually a glaze and there might have been a moment when removing it and replacing it made sense but I think that day has passed and it doesn’t really impact the enjoyment of looking at it. The frame, which I like very much, came with the painting and from the back I would say they have been together for a good long time.

As you can see from the back, this painting was done on an old form of prepared board (Academy Boards prepared for oil painters it says) and sold by Geo. Rowney & Co. 18 Rathbone Place, London. I believe I have purchased both Rowney pastels and oil paints in my life. The nails holding it in are new but I think that is gratis the seller, along with the bit of string and hooks to hang it. It appears not to be signed, front or back although I won’t say there wasn’t something that is now obscured by the crawling surface.

To start, there is something about the pupil dilated wide-eyed look of this kitten that draws me in – I always think that it is as if he truly was asked to pose amongst this wild assortment of fruit and flowers and is wondering what the heck is going on. The cat is well done although we really only see his vaguely peevish head (note ear askew too) and sort of a nod to the rest of him – there is a bit of paw where the crazing is bad on the right side. A few trumpet lilies are at the top and wandering down to these somewhat oversize peaches, an oddly too small avocado (with a giant pit) and some grapes that look a bit like they are of the glass rather than the food variety.

Kitty is of course a tabby, pink nosed and bewhiskered. I would say the article was a better cat and flower painter than a fruit one. There is a moody background too – a sort of sunset horizon and a darkening cloudy sky – also a victim of the surface to some degree. I would say a careful look suggests that there are bits of blue sky among the dark clouds.

It may sound funny to say since I am far from being a kid, but I have only recently given myself license to buy paintings. I mean, I have made paintings, sculpture, prints and certainly photos myself, however the act of purchasing paintings always seemed like something only grown ups like my parents did. I have bought art on paper (in large quantities as you know) but never paintings. It took inheriting a house along with some paintings to prompt thinking about it as an option.

In my mind purchasing paintings was always something my father did. From the earliest time I can remember Dad (almost always him and only occasionally Mom) brought paintings home. He was a particular sucker for a seascape (future post on that), but also an eye for landscapes – never figures. Dad had a good eye. I wouldn’t say we have the same eye but nonetheless, the paintings he purchased are good ones and I have them up in the house now. It is nice to find an avenue of collecting like this so late in the game and it will be interesting to see what I can come up with.

Vacation in the Air

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today is the first day of vacation. First thing this moring I wandered outside in my pj’s, admired the dahlias and some just emerging zinnias and popped a few ripe strawberries in my mouth while the coffee finished perking in the kitchen. I have fortified myself with one of my friend’s popover, provided earlier this week, and now I sit with my second cup of coffee (coffee so good this morning I texted a friend that I felt like I was swilling it) and share this new favorite card with you.

*Strawberry plants offer a few nibbles every morning.*

I purchased this postcard just before we left New York and it has just made its way here from Britain. I haven’t acquired one of these big kitty chair photos in a very long time. This cat chair is a bit smaller than some and sitting sidesaddle on him seems quite easy. My very favorite part is the way she is holding onto his (her?) little round cat ears!

The woman is wearing a white dress and sandals and she is dressed a bit differently than the general sort of togs we see in these holiday photos. (Early examples from my collection can be found in posts here, here and here for comparison.) The woman is smiling sort of placidly – a good sport but not embracing it quite as much as I think I might have given the opportunity. (I would have been bouncing with excitement!)

Meanwhile, Kitty is a bit bowlegged which gives him an especially cheerful look. He has a ribbon around his neck and a Steiff-y sewn on nose and mouth. We can barely see it, but kitty has a big fluffy tail up behind her. There is some vegetation in the background and what appears to be ivy climbing up a stone wall. This doesn’t have the seashore feel that some of these have and as I said before, this appears to be a somewhat smaller cat so likely a different location although obviously it is a resort area of sorts. This card was never mailed so we don’t have any sense of date or precise location. Oddly it has a narrow fold at the very top like maybe it was kept in a book and sticking out just the slightest bit.

*The dahlias in the garden have either gone plumb wild or not come up. It’s an odd year.*

I am savoring the delicious moment of my entire vacation stretching ahead of me. All things are possible at the beginning, and it is a cool morning here in New Jersey which beckons us outside. My dahlias are blooming and the red ones in particular are attracting my favorites, the hummingbirds. (I have not captured them in a photo and am unlikely to as they are so mercurial.) Evenings under the fairy lights are ahead as well as good food and friends visiting, cats to be fed and petted. More to come but enjoy this grand kitty chair for now.

Tough

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Writing from our New Jersey outpost today – more about that maybe tomorrow. However, I am fresh off a Saturday morning of cat chores – multiplied of course by the number of cats and also with my commute less gets done during the week. There is a day of gardening ahead too – the first of the dahlias is blooming and I have even cut a few for enjoying here in the kitchen.

I tucked a few cards in my computer bag for posts, although there are also a few items that have come with us to live here which I hope to feature in the coming weeks as they get unpacked and are fully available for consideration.

Today, this little tidbit however, purchased at the most recent card sale. I chose it as I am now in a bevy of kitties here in the House of Seven Cats and I am reminded of their pecking order. Although Milty is the oldest of cats here (and male) he is so old that Beauregard, the five or six year old all black fellow, is really top cat for all intents and purposes these days. Beau (and Milty) are fed first among the Jersey kits. (Cookie and Blackie, aka the New York cats, are fed in separate rooms to keep the peace.) Gus, Peaches and Stormy wait to eat after. The older boys also get their pick of the choice sleeping spots. Alas, the feline world is a sexist one.

*Milty, true elder statesman senior cat.*

In this card we have a fellow who is indeed a tough guy after a fashion. He sports a pistol, knife and has a cig hanging out of his mouth. (Arguably though he has a fluffy kitty tummy being shown!) The newsboy cap pulled over one eye, a kerchief knotted around his neck, here is something of a Frenchmen about him, an apache. His Wanted poster is on the wall behind him, sporting the same, striped, vest and presumably a list of his sins below. His hands (um paws) are on his hips. He is looking to the left of the viewer at something, above him Tough Baby! is inscribed.

*Peaches, meanest cat ever, just shown here for the heck of it.*

If I was going to draw comparisons to my New Jersey cats this chap would be Milty not Beau who for all his top cat status isn’t really a tough guy – just the largest kitty here. Milty, even in his dotage, is more like this swaggering fellow.

This card was mailed, although the message and address are quite faded. By happy coincidence it is postmarked July 30, 1940 from Margate, Kent. So as of yesterday, it was mailed exactly 86 years ago. As best I can read the message on the back, in faded blue writing it says, Dear Andrew and Timothy, We are having…time here and the weather is lovely. How are you getting on Andrew with your work, not working…hard I hope. How is Timothy, I’m sure…love the sea. Love from Heidi & Madelaine. It is addressed to, Master A. Marr, ‘Kilroney’ Swan Lane, Edwin Bridge, Kent. The card is British published.

So that is your quick Pictorama post for today. I’m off to do household and cat chores and find my way to the garden, weather permitting.

Fishy Wain

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: I tossed this into a purchase pile recently as clearly somehow these are Wain or Wain-ish cats; however I would bet dollars to donuts that Louis never saw a payday for this one. However, having said that, I cannot easily locate another version of this image online, only one other copy of this card itself.

A few posts back I discussed the history of New York postcard producer Franz Huld and much to my surprise this morning, his credit runs along the side of the front of this card, Huld’s Correspondence Series No. 23 Franz Huld, Publisher, New York. (That post of an entertaining card about the Catskills, Hanging on the Moon, can be found here.)

Meanwhile, just yesterday Pictorama had a post about another innovative early postcard maker but in Germany. I think of that one as more of a high end (photomontages and trick photography) and our US friend Huld as sort of creatively low end if you will. (I am only on my first cup of coffee today so stay with me a bit.) Huld had a much briefer run in the business and never on a huge scale of production and maybe wasn’t above a bit of image thievery. Just a thought anyway because this card looks distinctly culled from something else and does not bear the Louis Wain signature nor credit however those are Wain cats.

This card was mailed but the postmark has been torn off therefore I cannot accurate date it. If I put it roughly at 1910, Huld is coming toward the end of his several years of production but still active and in upstate New York. However, the real smoking gun is that Wain was living and working in New York from 1907-1910, but only doing newspaper work. He was producing two newspaper strips, Cats About Town and Graymalkin. There is evidently no record of him producing postcards here. So my guess is that Huld lifted this image somehow from a newspaper illustration and craftily “repurposed” it.

One of the few images I could definitely tie out to this period of New York newspaper work. I do think there is some under-valued and interesting Wain work published in newspapers. While much of it was repurposed and collected, I have definitely seen work, mostly for sale as tear sheets, that I have not seen elsewhere.

On the card we have two grainy Wain cats, one yellow fellow attacking a meal of fish – his mouth in an “O” of expectation. I like the way his paws manage to hold the implements in a logical way which I would personally find challenging if I was drawing this. The orange, grumpy, cat looks on in expectation holding a three-prong fork and knife up like he might bang on the table with them. Next to them in script it reads in neat script, This is no Fish Story. Again, while maybe in the quirky style of Wain somehow perhaps misses the mark?

*Detail of a Christmas page done by Wain that I purchased and wrote about last December.*

The sender of the card has underlined the above and written, No-sir-ee – Dearest Ross; How are you enjoying your vacation. I am having a fine time. Love to all, Bradley. It was mailed to Master Ross W. Guernsey, Schoharie, Scho, Co. New York. As I mentioned before, the stamp and cancellation has been torn off so no date and no point of origin for the card. (In sorting out the address a bit the internet told me that Ross W. Guernsey was a life-long resident of Schoharie, New York. I have no way of knowing if that seems true or AI just sort of winding me up.)

Our friend Mr. Huld was sadly certainly not the only one taking advantage of Louis Wain and liberating his work for his own purposes. This is perhaps though the most egregious and evident example I have run across. Still, I remain grateful for a snippet of Louis Wain I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. I intend to continue to sniff out some of this newspaper work in its original form.

In the Yard with Cats

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I am heading to New Jersey tomorrow for a few days and this card has me in a pleasant mind of backyard time I hope to enjoy. My roses are in bloom and the gorgeous purple-blue hydrangea, both front yard and back, is starting its ascension into its first flowers of the season. The herbs are well on their way and I understand my grapes have finally come back with a will. Strawberries have already made an appearance and the dahlias are shooting up en force!

I will, of course, be greeted to varying degrees by the resident cats there. Beauregard will claim as much lap time as possible while Milty and Gus will shove in where they can. Stormy and Peaches, my girl cats, are my scaredy cats and although they may (or may not – thinking of you Peaches!) be glad to see me.

*The grapevine has returned with a vengeance I am glad to see. All the garden photos are via my friend Winsome.*

If you pay attention to all things cats on the internet, you know that catios are all the rage and you can purchase them pre-made (think screened tent for your cats) and less expensive, or you can build a more elaborate version. Ideally the cats have free passage from house to safe outdoor harbor in the catio, but there are an increasing number where the expectation is that you will plop them in and take them back out yourself. Of course, I have considered these but I am not carrying my precious pusses outside to put them in a flimsy screened enclosure. No, I would have to be one of those folks who built something solid and give them cat door access to it.

Although I grew up with cats that roamed free in the yard and divided their time in and out of the house as a matter of course, this is no longer the way in the area where I grew up and where we now have a house. At some point, keeping your cat inside, or with a collar for brief outside turns, became the way of things. Cats are chipped now in case they are lost, although something about putting that in her cats always made my mother nervous. Although all these cats came from living on the streets, none of them has set a paw outside since.

There is something wonderful however about my childhood memories of cats wandering in and out, more or less at will, without thinking about it. They enjoyed it so much and all the better if we were outside with them. As I kid I would sit outside and play with them for hours. I actually haven’t thought about it for years.

Like this photo we might have had a light indoor chair outside, although it would likely be alongside a bunch of lawn chairs. (My father eventually bought heavy outdoor chairs and tables at garage sales, but I was older by then.) If we were outside at least a few of the cats and the dog would be out with us although, maybe someone was sleepy inside too. There were no particular rules. We just never thought about it. Everyone pretty much came in at night unless for some reason they had a mysterious kitty rendezvous and were off on a toot for the evening. Noted but not a cause for alarm.

*The dahlias are showing early promise.*

Looking at these folks and their cats in their backyard in the dabbled sunlight it makes me think about it. The women are in their long dresses of the day but summer versions and the man, seated behind them, is in a suit with a tie. (One could say he is sort of not quite fully participating.) Those summer cottons which while beautiful must have required difficult laundry and endless patient ironing. Hard to see but the woman in white is leaning on a bit of a chicken wire enclosure behind her. When we look closely there are beds of plants, something leafy and green climbing up an arbor to the viewers left and behind them.

It was clearly a bit of an occasion. Girl kitty (my assumption) is wearing a big bow and looks a tad unhappy about it although not in full on revolt. She perches in a timid way on the chair with a cushion. She is a light-colored tabby-ish kitty, orange most likely? The other looks like a tom and he is in a loving if tightly gripped hold for the photo. Look at the stripes on his legs! Those black bands! Both have white faces and front paws. Handsome fellow!

The yard has a high fence around it as far as we can see, although technically not one that would keep an interested (let alone determined) cat in or out. My backyard is also fenced, but given small spaces as entry points near the ground I have found all sorts of animals back there including a fox who got in and admittedly didn’t seem to know how to get out. (I opened the gate and invited him to take his time leaving.) Cats do come by occasionally – that is how Stormy and Gus came to live with mom. Some of you might remember the stray tom I christened Hobo who we fed on and off for several years.

This photo was never sent and nothing was written on the back. On the back there is a very faded company logo for Central Studio, and an address, 103 College Street, Burlington, VT. It is easy to imagine that this was taken in Vermont, a singular photo postcard and the cats were clearly rallied for the photo opp. It is a wonderfully distilled moment from a long ago summer.

Meanwhile, on my way to the Jersey shore so a Jersey summer specific card to come tomorrow!

The Well Dressed Puss

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Ah, what is the well dressed cat wearing these days? At work I saw a few sporting Knick’s attire (dogs wear it better I am afraid), some need newborn baby style onesies to keep them from a surgical site (kinder than the cone of shame if it works), and there is this strange meme on the internet to put them in yoga pants, which turns out to be a stunningly bizarre look. I may have mentioned that we have a policy against dressing the cats here at Deitch Studio and they seem to be grateful for it. Once again, this seems to be a fundamental difference between cats and dogs. I have handed over many a branded bandana to a pup at work and most seem to embrace it.

The imaginary sartorial bliss of these well drawn felines from 1908 certainly provides a counterpart in the space of time and imagination. I’m hazarding a guess to say this artist (it is unsigned) is an early US pretender to the Louis Wain throne.

These four gentleman cats all duff hats, jackets – three have monocles, two have walking sticks – one sort of shillelagh-esque on the end. Each kitty has a different model hat, but each one is stylish in keeping with the period. I was actually in New York City’s oldest hat store yesterday, JJ Hats, founded in 1911. It was doing a fairly booming business, and I admit I made a not insubstantial contribution to their income for the day. (Maybe some hat related posts in the near future. I stocked up.) It was there, several decades ago, that I purchased the black Stetson cowboy hat Kim wears as one of his first birthday gifts from me.

*It’s actually currently under scaffolding but it looks like this!*

These kitties have a variety of top hats, a stove pipe and a sort of bowler/deer slayer model. They wear fancy pointed shoes and dressy sort of smoking jacket style coats – one with a boutonniere. Their trousers, some cuffed and others not, all have a decoration down the leg I associate with tuxedo pants. (I just looked this up, the stripe down the side of tuxedo trousers is to hide the seam and give them a more cohesive look. Who knew?)

*Tempted to buy Kim a new straw hat…these can survive a rain storm.*

Even their collars represent a variety of styles of the day, mostly the high, white stiff ones that would have been attached by a few buttons, although our fellow in blue with the top hat seems to be wearing a different, long flat one. We have a few different cat kinds here too – from stripe-y short hair to a fluffy Persian look. Hands (paws) are mostly conveniently tucked in jacket pockets, with the exception of one gloved one holding a walking stick on the end.

The top of the card poses the question, Are we top-notchers on dress? Well, look at our clothes. This seems to arise with a bit of smoking detail around it. Behind the gentleman cats a vague landscape of mountains and perhaps water and grassy fields is sketched in. I would have thought these natty kitties belonged in a more urban setting.

Someone has written, Love to Leslie From Margaret at the bottom. It is addressed to Master Leslie H. Stauffer, 5314 Addison Street, West Philadelphia, PA. It was mailed from Braddock PA on February 5 1908 at 9 AM. I always think about these lucky children getting these fun cards in the mail at the turn of the century.

*Cookie is, of course, always in formal dress, even when napping behind Kim on the couch.*

As it happens, Kim and I head off to Philadelphia shortly. He will be reading at Partners & Son bookstore tonight. I hope to report on that and a whole bunch of other Deitch Studio activity around Kim’s book, How I Make Comics tomorrow so stay tuned.

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.

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

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

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

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

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.