Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: It is another (dreadfully) rainy morning in a string of them this week here in New York, but I have just the thing to cheer us up or so I hope. This especially fun Felix card showed up here at Deitch Studio this week. I am always happiest when one of these turns up for acquisition into my burgeoning collection.
This time the photographer has cleverly set this large Felix up to pose for a stroll down the road with all comers and this tiny tot is just the right size for a companion, a full head shorter than this magnificent Felix. The kid has a nice hold on Felix’s crooked and proffered elbow and is attired in short pants, sun hat and beach shoes of the day.
I don’t recognize the location and don’t know what seaside town in Great Britain this was taken in, almost looks like more of a park. The scruffy vegetation and the stony wall do put me in mind of being near the ocean. However, the men walking behind Felix and child are in dark suits and hats – not exactly beach-y attire, perhaps an important gathering of corporate tycoons? A Davos of the day?
A card added to the collection earlier this year, February post. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Felix and the kid are looking right at the camera. Felix sports a wonderful flowing bow and somehow his cock-eyed legs create the allusion of movement; he’s marching down the path. They are right in the center of the picture which is a great composition.
This card was never sent and there are no notations on it for date or location. Part of me is curious to know if there is a whole series of pictures of people strolling down this path with Felix (wouldn’t it be fun if others turned up?) or if this was a single lucky shot. For now though I think there is a perfect horizontal empty spot, right under the calendar and across from where I am sitting, for it to join some other jaunty giant Felix souvenir cards.
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: It’s a rainy sleepy morning here at Deitch Studio and I slept in a bit after a late night. However, as I sat down with my coffee and looked through the mail (the IRS sent something about my mom’s nascent estate – haven’t opened that yet) and found this gem which I forgot was on its way to me. An excellent way to start the day – IRS notwithstanding.
There is a somewhat manic quality to this photo, which Kim pointed out right away. The seller doesn’t seem to know anything about it and it was purchased from a US dealer. The card was never used and the woman, if she was notable, is unknown to me and us. Kim added that she doesn’t look like she was living right.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
However, let’s focus on this really splendid black cat pillow she is displaying! Wouldn’t I love to have that on the couch here at Deitch Studio. (Incidentally I have a very nice black cat curled up on said couch right now – Blackie has rediscovered the couch post-NJ visit, after a long period of pouting in the closet. He and Cookie appear to have made up as well and they no longer hiss at each other in passing.) It strikes me as funny that she is displaying this pillow for us. I love it but it must have been a slow day at the photo studio for props and inspiration.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
This card reminds me of a popular French card series in the early 20th century of nearly or entirely naked women posing with a small stuffed black cat. I have one (extremely popular I might add, the post is called Kim’s Favorite Photo) card in my collection. That post can be found here.
Small children and black cat toys featured on postcard are also popular, perhaps more easily understood. Also have to remember that the superstition about black cats is an American thing and the Brits even consider them good luck. (A post on the one above can be found here.) Of course black cat toy photos abound here at Pictorama!
Still, this can serve as my opening salvo for Halloween, the upcoming celebration of all things black cat.
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: For those of you keeping track, a few weeks ago I featured a panorama photo of a local high school on a class trip to Mount Vernon in 1931 and I promised a follow up. (That post can be found here.) Mere days after that purchase I can across the one I am featuring today and snatched it up as well. It too is a Jersey image – the First Annual Outing and Picnic of the F and M Foremen’s Club of Garfield. (Of course I have been left to ponder what a Foremen’s Club might be – a gathering of various foremen? From one place? Many?)
At 46 inches long (click on the photo and try to blow it up) the size of this photo is clearly one of its most outstanding features. Unlike the photo from Mount Vernon, this one is a parade of period picnic attire. While a few men hold out for jackets, others have ties even if no jacket, for the most part folks were letting their hair down in the literal sense here. There is no date and because of the nature of the clothing it is a tad difficult to date it. A few of the bathing suits (on both the men and women) convince me that this was probably the 1920’s. Most of the women are in variations of pretty cotton dresses which in terms of style could stretch over several decades.
IThe accordion player is a good addition. I like to think of him roaming around and playing in the late afternoon after the lunch hampers were largely repacked and everyone was sated and resting while considering another dip in the lake or perhaps a lazy trip in a boat. The kids in their various states of attire are great. Some kids are even wearing ties (hats) while others are stripped down for action.
Unlike the other photo this one has noticeable distortion with the people on the viewer’s far right significantly larger than those on the other side. The guy who is blurred is the distortion line, with it increasing from there going right.
Neither of these pics grace the walls yet, but I am enjoying living with them and getting to know them. More to come about further acquisitions of this kind – and other Jersey finds from this trip. However, as Kim recently said as he looked around the living room – it is starting to look like we live here.
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This the first of a wealth of posts with some nice New Jersey items purchased in the antique markets here. This photo was my first purchase – and one of the best! I have wanted the right panorama photo for a long time and have looked at and dismissed or lost out on many over the years. This one won with both a local New Jersey related subject and for being a great photo.
I have endeavored to photograph it in a variety of ways to give you the best view – my own panorama, a video and several still photos taken of the parts. If you made it to the end you see that this was the Middletown Township, Leonardo NJ trip to Mount Vernon on May 15, 1931.
A local friend who is also a professional photographer told me he thinks this one was made with a banquet still camera, which I believe means that it was a camera set to take this size photo with one still take, as opposed to the sort of camera that might move to get the full (and I guess larger) group in.
Larry also told me that he has one similar to it, taken of his dad at Mount Vernon at approximately the same time. (He’s promised to dig it up for comparison!) Another friend online (@marsh.and.meadow via IG) has clearly seen these Mount Vernon group photos before although Google images doesn’t turn them up as a genre. Larry thinks his has a different view of the buildings so presumably they didn’t just set it up in the same spot every day. He is going searching for it so we’ll see.
One of the things I love about this photo is how dressed up everyone is for their trip! We get some great eyeball kicks of clothes from the day and it gives a great sense of the time. Those were the days when girls put on their best fur trimmed coats and cloche hats for such a trip and boys wore suits or at least ties with their v-neck sweaters.
We get a nice view of the buildings behind them and other folks are milling around up there too. The fellow at the lower right sports a cane and a careful look shows us that he has a wooden leg. He looks utterly undaunted by this and is embedded in a likely crew of boys. The group is lightly integrated.
Middleton High school graduates about 350 students annually so class size has grown over time. It appears to have been a prosperous enclave at the time and remains so today.
For me this is a great inaugural piece for decorating our New Jersey home away from home. However, it was just the first in a buying fiesta here recently in Monmouth County so stay tuned.
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today I write of another delightful addition in a long line of my real photo postcards of people posing with Felix. These were mostly taken in Great Britain (although Australia and New Zealand were in it too, although those appear to largely be of the tintype variety) and this one made the trip across the ocean to join the Pictorama archive.
Like virtually all of these cards this one is postally unused and nothing is written on the back. Although I am not in New York with my full collection at my disposal, I realized almost immediately that this Felix is likely the star in at least one if not more of my other photos.
First there was this most recent purchase, shown below (with a post that can be found here) and while it is possible, the ears are perkier in the prior post and possibly a big white tooth missing or not shown in the latest one. The window backgrounds are also very similar.
However, in an earlier post, this one is pretty much a cinch to be the identical fellow – missing or unshown tooth and all! In some ways it is surprising this doesn’t happen more often. After all there are only so many places taking these photos and presumably not that many Felix-es in play. (The post with the below photo can be found here.)
Images from Pams-Pictorama.com collection
While both these little girls are cute the older one with the hat steals the show – even from Felix. She is delighted to have a hold of Felix’s outsized and overly long arm (all the better for throwing around fellow subjects it seems) and she grins broadly. Her outfit is pitch perfect with that lovely straw hat, decorated with flowers, embroidered collar, short pleated skirt and right down to her white ankle socks and black Maryjanes. The younger sibling (we’ll assume) is in layers of pretty white cotton, complete with bonnet and matching Maryjanes, but she has just been place in front of Felix and shows no real interest.
Of course Kim, cats and I are spending a few weeks at the Jersey shore and having a true summer vacation experience. Tomorrow night we are slated to enjoy the local fireman’s fair (which I wrote about a long time ago here – it turns out that my childhood fireman’s fair is quite a well known one) which I have not attended in decades. While I am excited for some cotton candy or perhaps a candy apple and a ride or two, sadly it seems unlikely I will get to pose with Felix for a photo – the seaside not being what it used to be. More to come about that, perhaps, on Sunday however.
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I bought this photo during my work trip to Poughkeepsie recently. I had a couple of hours one morning and a colleague and I ran out to a few antique stores and over time Pictorama readers will be the beneficiary of several posts about those over time.
I snatched this one up in the first shop which was a real treat with shelves and walls laden with interesting bits. The photo caught my eye almost immediately. Such a happy little fellow!
At first glance I thought this photo was taken inside (something about the stairs and something that looks like a banister but I think is a fencepost) and that was a bit of a head scratcher. That made me wonder if the pony was real. At closer examination it was taken outside and of course it is a real pony – a bit blurry since he didn’t stay still.
Huge cowboy hat (a ten gallon hat on a five gallon size head?) atop his head, this young’un is decked out from head to toe with a kerchief and chaps, down to his tiny riding boots. On careful examination there are stirrups that hang down for decoration or use by a larger person and our pint-sized cowboy has his boots tucked into smaller, shorter ones.
Our pony is a natty little fellow too with his or her shiny bridle. There’s something about the precise focus of the little boy versus the slight blur of the pony’s head that creates a sense of movement and dimension. There is some sort of chemical mistake behind the horse, a dark blot drawing your eye back.
Set up as freestanding.
The cardboard self-frame is nice and cheery. There is a ribbon to tie it closed or it can stand on its own which is how it was when I first spied it.
On this trip I was with a new colleague who I was getting to know a bit better. As it happens he hails from Nova Scotia and revealed in conversation that his family had horses growing up and he actually had a pony. However, he also said that he was kicked more than once by said pony, as well as some of the other horses on occasion. He was not left with a lasting love of horses as a result. Food for thought but despite that story, I can’t help think that the boy in the photo was one lucky fellow.
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Blackie sitting with my computer and bag of vitamins and meds this AM.
Update on the NJ cat fiesta. Cookie remains under the blankets on the bed. She slept behind my knees last night. Blackie is starting to venture out a bit and came to me for some purrs and conversation. Beau (another all black cat who was rather amazed to find a doppleganger in the house) tried to make friends, but Blackie was not ready and sent out a series of quiet hisses. However, neither of them is willing to eat! I am stymied by their combined continued refusal and even offered tuna. Please send advice if any!
Peaches and Beau, largely undisturbed by the visiting felines in the bedroom.
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s photo post is a page from an album which I purchased on Instagram primarily for the two cats, but I confess to just liking the overall effect. It is from a small, horizon album and the photos are snipped into shapes to fit with some skill. Everyone is identified in nice neat white writing.
Left to right we have John Langley who we assume is the baby perched on this woman’s lap, the full skirt of her dress covered by his voluminous baby blanket. A clothesline with a baby bonnet hanging is in the background and lush shrubs in front of a fence or edifice as well as visible fencing in the distance. Master Langley is attired in bulky diaper only.
Detail. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Much more comely is Jeanette Howard. She is all pretty white dress, beribboned curls and something unidentified in her hands. (I recently read a chapter in a book about the care and cleaning of clothing in this period and the laboriousness described comes back to me as I look at the attire. Oh the children’s clothes!) Jeanette is in profile and looking off camera, but the flowers make a nice foil for her.
Detail. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
At long last, we have our two kits. Fifi appears to be some variation on a black and white tuxedo, face in shadow beyond that white nose and muzzle. This is a fluffy kitty. Only Fifi’s name is in quotations, making me wonder if it was a nickname?
My favorite is Lord Bobs. This is a black and whiter with some nice cat-attitude. He is a very fluffy kitty, big whiskers and all the genteel self-possession we would expect from someone sporting his moniker. I especially like the “s” at the end of his name. He is a handsome fellow.
The back of the sheet – as I think of it anyway – is less interesting. The Nashua Library, is trimmed down to its outline. Nashua, in case like me you are not in the know, is in New Hampshire and it is a very difference edifice today as shown below.
Verso. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.Nashua Public Library today.
Lastly we have the photo marked Charlie Chase. I am probably one of a smallish subset of people who even remember who Charlie Chase was – although the likelihood of Pictorama readers knowing is perhaps marginally higher than the population at large. For those who are not familiar, he was a very well known silent comedian and this is probably not him. (As seen below in a Wikipedia post, he is fairly distinctive in appearance.) I think that he is maybe another Charlie Chase is also a possibility – alas, we are unlikely to ever know.
Comedian Charley Chase in an undated photo.
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A postscript to regular Pictorama readers in case you are wondering – we survived moving the contents of the storage facility yesterday and I write (if somewhat exhausted!) from my perch in NJ today. Next week, Kim and cats will follow so more to come!
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Sometimes a photo just socks me right in the eye and I have to buy it. Admittedly this happens most often when the pictures have cats, but sometimes a non-cat photo hits me just as hard and this was one. It wandered into my Instagram feed where @baileighfaucz.h announced a sudden photo sale.
Baileigh has brought us some wonderful photo here on Pictorama before. (Some of those posts can be found here and here.) So I always settle in for a good peruse when I see a sale.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
A makeshift photo studio seems to have been set up and these ladies pose in front of a sheet. The fact that we see beyond the edge in the upper right actually improves the composition by drawing our eye up I think. The light coming from the left side creates a shadow on that side, almost like another person and depth under them. The light plays on the folds of the pressed cotton dresses they sport, as well as the folds on the sheet behind them.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
I had a post back in March of 2021 which can be found here and featured a clutch of photos from the same period, taken outside and more casual – but all of women lined up. What was it about photos of the time and lining folks up?
At first glance I thought maybe the four women in white were in uniforms, but a careful look at the tops of their outfit show that each is noticeably different. The woman out in front, far left of the viewer, has a bib that made me think apron at first, but at a closer look is likely the fashion of her top. All the white skirts are very similar, but aside from the one bib, there are different collars (high neck with a pin; dark side bow and a mannish tie) which are all quite distinct.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Of course the woman in black (or very dark dress) stands out. At first I thought she was older than the rest, but closer examination reveals that she is not. Is it black and is she in mourning perhaps?
Despite the similarity created by their dresses and hair dressed in the style of the time, under greater scrutiny they do not look to be related. Black dress and the woman behind her have the most serious expressions, although only the woman in the middle attempts a true smile.
Our gal in front steals the show however – she was clearly born with an attitude the camera loves. Hands on hips, she sports a saucy look at us, all the way forward to this century. She doesn’t quite smile, but she is the one you come away remembering.
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Taking a brief break from the big box of Felix, I share a recent photo postcard acquisition of this serious fellow with his cat and dog in a lush garden setting. He is surrounded by bounty from his garden, including an enormous melon, leafy greens and something that looks like eggplant perhaps. He is plant and pet proud! It is the sort of photo which, Felix notwithstanding, is the mainstay of the Pictorama collection. This card was never mailed, nor is anything written on the back.
Kitty, a nice orange tabby, who is distracted by something off camera to the left of our view, sports a collar and perches nicely on Dad’s lap. The black dog at his feet is has a bright white chest and a substantial collar. Our man is dapper in a vest and collared shirt, neatly trimmed mustache and combed hair. His expression is serious, but he is pleased with the photo taking. He sits atop a simple wooden bench with spindly legs.
I am curious about the ropes or twine coming down from the tree, perhaps vines were being trained up them. There is a mass of unidentified leafy foliage behind him. A house peers through an arbor covered with ivy or something similar. There is an opening to a fence on the other side and these draw our eye back, deeper into the space.
Mystery bush in the backyard which has grown enormous. My tomato plants, which remain totally happy, are hidden behind them.
I myself am fresh back from a few days of hectic gardening in New Jersey and this photo of pets and vegetable bounty remind me of the garden there. All the cats are indoor ones and cannot join me in the yard, but otherwise I might give this fellow a run for his money posing on the deck.
The herb garden in an earlier state.
Yesterday I was feeling the residual effects of digging some deep holes for transplanting lavender plants, not to mention hauling soil and water around earlier in the week. Evidently my gym and running trained muscles are not those employed for gardening! Among my duties, was transplanting a sizable jasmine plant, purchased online and which arrived in my absence. It needed to be moved to a proper pot which was one of the more pressing duties.
This is more or less what the jasmine should look like in bloom.
I lived in London many years ago and I have never forgotten how much I loved the smell of jasmine in a pub garden I used to frequent so I am very keen on trying to grow it. Jasmine’s ability to survive a winter in New Jersey seems questionable, so I have put it in a large pot and will consider bringing it into the garage over the winter. I purchased a trellis for it and was surprised how quickly it seemed to take to the idea of climbing up it. In the summer humidity it almost seemed to grow before my eyes. The arbor in this photo puts me in mind of it – would be lovely to have one with jasmine climbing up it.
The first dahlia of the season!Hydrangea blooming away behind them.
However the trellis seemed like a sort of marvelous thing in itself and I thought it was wonderful to purchase for $14 – such an interesting object, simple and made neatly of wood. There are several others in the yard, most notably a few holding up large pink honeysuckle bushes which mom ordered. I only found out fairly recently that she was especially fond of honeysuckle. Not sure if it was to provide bounty for the insects and birds or just because she liked them.
Largely the garden was planted by her for birds, bugs and small animals to nibble and attract. Blueberry bushes bulge and despite my mother’s more charitable inclination in providing for the bunnies, squirrels and birds, I am determined to at least let some ripen and taste them this summer. To that end I fought with a complex bit of netting I purchased and, in my own ham handed way, draped it around one of the bushes. We’ll see how that goes. I think I saw a squirrel laughing at me.
One of two blueberry bushes, laden with not-quite-ripe berries.
I also had it in my mind that I wanted some sunflowers as I have very fond memories of growing them as a kid. I purchased some seeds and planted them a few weeks ago. Although I haven’t grown anything else there from seed I thought that growing a line of them against the fence would be a no brainer when I tucked the seeds in the ground.
When I arrived the other day I anxiously checked them and found the spot utterly barren. Upon further inspection, something had delicately dug and nibbled the seeds all up – a nice meal. Arg! I purchased two small plants which were already well underway instead, not to be utterly thwarted. Admittedly my approach to the garden has been to plunge both headlong and headstrong into the process.
Hope springs eternal! Here are the two new sunflowers I just planted.
I should not only talk of failures – a stunning dahlia is already well underway blooming and meals there are liberally seasoned with an abundance of herbs from a garden I put in near the kitchen. It is, as an herb garden should be, close enough to the house that I occasionally wander out in my pj’s to snip some for a morning omelet. I am sorry not to have recent photos to provide for some of it, but will share an update after my next trip back later this week.
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: If there’s an area I am a bit completist in my collecting it would be Felix photos. Really, no early 20th century photo of someone posing with a Felix (of any size) is beneath my notice and consideration. Quite simply, I want them all.
As a result, in a safely dark corner of the apartment, in a hall (to the extent that one room can have a hall, but I will discuss that another time) near the bathroom a number of these tintypes hold court. I have written about some of them before, (posts can be read here and here) and some are clearer than others. I bought a collection of them from a reader that were remarkably clear (read about that here), but most are variations on murky.
Today’s photo is pretty much on the far end of overexposed and slowly over time sinking further into obscurity. Some readers know that I have made early process photographs and know the technique for tintypes (also known as ferrotypes) reasonably well.
From a collection of Katoomba photos I purchased as a lot from a reader. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
As I understand it, these tintypes which were made at beachside resorts, carnivals and the like, were usually made and developed on site in what amounted to a bucket of chemicals and then water to wash them off. As the chemicals became exhausted and the water dirtier the chemicals and the image became more fugitive. Over time (let’s face it, this is about 100 years old) the chemicals which were never properly set or washed off, continue to react to light and the image gets darker and more obscure. While tintypes were waning in popularity by the 1920’s (a period while Felix’s fame was ascending) this remained a technique for roving photographers and seaside pics for another couple of decades. (And not just Felix of course – Mickey was another favorite as far as I can see.)
A closer look. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Shown here in this post (close up above) this image has been lightened and enhanced some and sadly what you are seeing is clearer than what you’d get with the naked eye by a fair amount. While I can make out this little girl sitting in a chair in her finest, dress, coat and hat, Maryjanes and ankle socks barely visible, I cannot see what she is holding in her hand and I do wonder. The background she is posed against is too faded to see.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. Featured in an early 2014 post.
Her other arm is of course around this nice big Felix. He’s a bit unusual actually, full circle eyes and smaller ears than most. For the record, he doesn’t look like any of the others I have in my half dozen tintypes of this kind on the wall presently. (See the one above however, which I briefly thought might be the same. Kim pointed out that the eyes are further apart though. I had to dig in my collection for it.) However, the large number of my tintypes are from Australia, several from a park in Katoomba, and this one hails from England, precise location also lost to us. I have another (equally fuzzy) one that is similar and also with a location unknown, but the Felix is different so it isn’t the same setup.
It’s hard to say why I have such a passion for these pics and rescuing them to reside here in the Pictorama archive. The postcard photos are easier to understand I guess. But somehow the appeal of these little tintypes which have been passed down through the decades of people cuddling up to Felix to remember a beachside holiday now long passed have also earned my devotion.
Pam's Pictorama 