collectible

Norakuro, the Japanese Felix?

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Pam’s Pictorama Curiosity Post: Pictured above is a bowl and saucer with the jaunty Japanese chacter Norakuro that I picked up on eBay for a song – only because it was listed incorrectly, I’m sure. The amazing thing about this piece is that when you hold the bowl up to the light, voila! – the geisha appears in the bottom!  I love this fat cat-like dog and have had an eye out for a stuffed toy of him for a long time, but to date to no avail.  The few toys I have seen are astronomically expensive, (at the time of writing this two wooden toys are listed on eBay under Felix for upwards of $800), but one of these days I hope a stuffed one will cross my path when I am feeling flush.  I have also included a trading card which I assume is him (although he’s gained weight) or a rip-off similar character.  Alas. since I do not read Japanese I cannot say for sure. 

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Lastly, I have included a link to a specimen cartoon on Youtube. It is in Japanese, but like most cartoons you can get most of the gist of it without understanding the dialogue. He isn’t as clever as Felix and his movements are distinctly Japanese – yet you can’t help but assume that they were looking at those early Felix cartoons. He’s in the army, rather than the sumo wrestler mode here. In the cartoon he practices looking fierce and samurai with his sword in the mirror before going out to drill.  He is most charming in his early comic book form.  I love to look at them – do wish I could read them!

Van Bueren’s Aesop Fables – the Toys!

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Pam’s Pictorama Toy Extravaganza Post:  Hold onto your hats, this is a huge post! I started this morning with the photo of Jane Withers holding her wonderful Aesop Fable doll, the Princess, shown in a photo grab off the internet rather than a ham-handed photo of my own also rather pristine example – the first to enter my collection several years ago. Jane evidently had an enormous collection which she sold off in recent times.  (See http://collectdolls.about.com/od/auctions/a/janewithers.htm for more info.)  One can only imagine what toys a child star had the chance to indulge herself in! I like this photo and it is one of the ones in more or less permanent rotation in our tiny home.

But onto the cartoons – and the toys! I never got to see these cartoons as a child. I have to assume that I would simply be a better person if I had been raised on them. I am convinced that their influence is one of the things that made my husband the extraordinary human being he is today. Certainly, they helped lure me over to him. I am including a photograph of his book Boulevard of Broken Dreams, although it wasn’t the first of his work I ever saw (his book Beyond the Pale was so I knew I liked him and it) the original comic books that ultimately made up Boulevard transformed me into a real fan.  jpeg

So, when I first heard about these dolls I was in love!  The only problem – they are about as rare as hen’s teeth and I only ever saw them in old ad photos such as the one above which is a Google image grab. As a collector there are somethings that make your pulse race and blind you to all thoughts except, “I must have it!”  These are among them. An expensive habit though. After several years I acquired the Princess through Hake’s auction, paying top dollar. Just in the past year I snatched up the other two – actually both were gifts from Kim.  One for my birthday (see me in black dress) and the other, in admittedly poor shape but much beloved, as part of a big art for toys trade he did as a surprise for me in San Francisco last year.

Finally, for good measure, I am throwing in a link to Making ‘Em Move, the Van Bueren cartoon I gather helped inform some of Boulevard and one of my very favorites. Enjoy!

Franken-Felix, Part 1

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Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post:  I have in my collection a whole shelf of what I call Franken-Felixes. This one here is a sort of do-it-yourself Felix and he falls loosely into this greater category, which is made up more of mismatched Felix parts reassembled and we will devote some time to exploring those at greater lengths in the future.  I have a soft spot for them. Meanwhile, this Felix doesn’t really appear to be from a pattern (those exist – even one to be knitted! – sadly, I don’t knit) but he sports a fairly professional design – if terribly off-model in a rather unique way. Maybe it was Krazy Kat they were looking at? However, should there be any doubt about his identity, they’ve taken the trouble to write his name on his bow tie! 

Corbin Canadian Cats

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Pam’s Pictorama Advertising Post: A giveaway from the Corbin Lock Company of Canada. Needless to say that if I lived in Canada and needed locks these folks would have been my square one – in fact, I’m sure I would have bought a lock just to get one of these!  Purchased as a pair on eBay recently, these were advertised as pin dishes, but as someone who has very few pins these days, these will probably hold paperclips on my desk in the office and rings on my dresser – although I don’t know if I can bear to hide those cat faces, maybe I should just put them up somewhere.  I would buy things like this all the time if I ran across them more often, but I can’t say that I do. I feel very fortunate to have found and purchased these!

Felix Tintype – Little Gem

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Came across this while I was doing my post earlier today and thought I would add it. While at some point I want to do something comprehensive on the Felix tintype, they are fun one at a time too.  While the quality on these is generally pretty hideous – they hang on a dark, interior wall in the apartment where they get a minimum of light so they don’t darken further – I find them utterly irresistible, and have paid dearly for most of the ones I have – about a half-dozen.  This is among the least faded images.

Among those that got away was one with a stuffed Mickey Mouse – Australian I think.  Can’t win ’em all – but always surprised I haven’t seen others of Mickey.  (I also lost out on a photo of people posing with Spark Plug the horse – Hake’s auction I think – which went for a fortune.  Again, the only one I’ve ever seen.  Where do these things go?  Were there that many more taken with Felix?)

Anyway, here we have everyone in 1925 all tricked out for their day at the British Empire Exhibition with Felix – the parasol is a nice touch!

Match safe – Ya Gotta Make Calls

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Pam Pictorama Post:  This match safe is a favorite and I have a postcard from the same era (side two drawing or at least a similar one) pinned above my desk at the office. Everything else aside, I believe it is true, Ya Gotta Make Calls if You Want Results!  I like to be reminded.

I missed the match safe era by several decades.  I gather the small box of wooden matches slipped in the middle – keeping them, well, safe I guess.  I have seen photos of match safes that held loose matches – some cat ones too although I don’t own any and the general theme seems to run more to dogs for some reason.  These are standing affairs of heavy metal which I imagine lived next to the stove. Many of the ones meant to be carried around are of silver and sometimes parts of sets.  Cigarette or cigar case and tools, and match safe.  The occasional cat there.

This match safe, the only celluloid cat one I have seen of this type – I’d have a whole collection if I could find them – was purchased on eBay a number of years ago. (Although this blog is having the effect of reminding me that I should go back to ferreting out this and that I haven’t looked for lately.  Just what I need – more stuff!)  Much to my surprise, it came from the collection of and was sold to me by Sally Cruickshank. She did not, ummm, acknowledge the Kim Deitch connection when the purchase was made, despite his name on the email.  Probably for the best. I guess it is a small world of cat collectibles. Anyway, this is on a shelf at the foot of our bed and I am very fond of it indeed. Now get out there and make some calls!