Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd.

Commuter Cats

Posted by

0

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?)

****

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.

All Amongst the Little Stars

Posted by

0

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.

All Wet

Posted by

3

Pam’s Pictorama Post: This March Sunday, a much yearned for spring thaw let alone summer, seems quite far away still. This Manhattan morning can’t quite make up its mind if it is going to be gray all day or not, but the temperatures will hover in the low forties – not unreasonable for March but we can’t help but yearn for the halcyon promise of summer. So for my part it seems that the least I can do is immerse us in a swimming cat card today.

It appears to me that in the early days of the 20th century, the Tuck company put all their eggs in the cat card basket it would seem – and emerged victorious. Churning out first Louis Wain cards, then these Boulanger ones and eventually making their way to Felix ones a few years later. (Examples from prior posts and a bit about Tuck can be found in posts here and one of the Felix Christmas cards here.) Clearly cats helped build the Tuck empire. By the time Felix rolled around they were card publishers to the King and Queen and I can’t help but wonder if that means that maybe George V was mailing Felix holiday cards?

This card is credited to Maurice Boulanger – the not-quite-Wain – whose cat antics are of a slightly less sardonic variety than those by Mr. Wain. (Albeit he is usually less pointedly ironic, this card as below which I posted about recently where Mr. Cat is preparing a rat feast!)

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. A post a few weeks ago.

Today’s card is from the earlier days of Raphael Tuck, before royal recognition it would seem. It was sent in 1908 with a sloppy postmark (marring the front a bit) on September 5 from Marblehead, Massachusetts – a lovely beachy place. (I have visited a childhood friend there and it is a wonderful seaside area not far from Boston.) This card was mailed to Winthrop Stacey and then simply Orne St. Town. On the message side it says simply, H.T.S. R.F.N. W.P.S. Don’t stay in too long. E.

This is sort of a pitch perfect message to go with this image of happily splashing cats, adult and two kits. (Splashing is printed at the top with lovely little flowering plants winding through it and a nice decorative frame top and bottom.)

The execution of the splashing cracks me up, a bit primitive but gets the idea across. The kittens are splashing dad (or is it mom?) and little white caps indicate some movement in the water. Two seagulls wheel in the sky above them unnoticed. Their catness does not extend to that at the moment – they pay them no mind. And of course traditionally cats eschew water so in that regard these are anthropomorphic kits too.

View coming into the Sandy Hook Bay recently on the ferry.

A lighthouse is perched on land in the distance – it reminds me of the Sandy Hook bay where I land when I take the ferry to New Jersey. (And really quite near where I myself learned to swim as a tiny tot.) As mentioned above, an errant postmark registration lightly mars the front of this image over the grown up cat on the left but doesn’t take away from the overall card. The yellow in the sky indicates either sunrise or sunset – I vote for the latter – and of course picks up at the top of the card.

Summer will arrive here as suddenly as winter did I suspect. The Farmer’s Almanac says that it will be a hot spring season and while I am not a fan of heat and humidity I look very much forward to evenings on our deck under twinkle lights and the hummingbirds and bees feasting on the dahlias and strawberry plants. Here’s for contemplating summer days!

Jack and the Giant Kitty

Posted by

0

Pam’s Pictorama Post: It seems only fair to launch 2026 with Pictorama’s best foot forward so today I share a tatty but wonderful Louis Wain card to help set the tone.

As always, it is impossible to entirely follow Wain’s train of thought. While we all know Jack and the Beanstalk, what might have possessed him on a given day to make a one off cat version? Hard to say, however I will share that frequently as Kim and I go through the world, he pops with one-off ideas that could be one or two page comic strips but because of the nature of his work (long, complex stories) he will likely never use. We might blow them out a bit while we’re walking but know they are unlikely to ever go anywhere. For example I pointed out the other day (we were discussing the idea of a short piece about the orderly way he tends to eat food – I call him a largely linear eater) and he took it down the line a bit of how it could be a comic. That would be if he had a weekly deadline, like back in the days of papers like New York Press, and then he’d be using them all.

Anyway, I imagine Louis Wain, at least at one protracted point in his career, was just grasping at every single idea and utilizing it. Either that or his brain just overflowed with them. Hard to say. (I have happily embraced writing about Louis Wain, his life and work, via a number of items which can be found here, here and most recently here for starters.)

Wain is in his full glory in this card. His humanoid-ish giant cat wields a bread knife with a small potpie in front of him and an oversized mug (stein?) which tiny (rat-sized) sword wielding kitty hides behind. (Would the giant be less dangerous if he had a larger pot pie? Just asking.) The giant has a three-prong fork grasped (awkwardly) in his other fat, white tipped paw. It is a formal table setting and another fork and spoon are in front of his pie. There is a lit candle and, sort of funny, a salt cellar and pepper shaker to his right, our left. A potted plant on a doily is on the other side which is sort of a funny middle-class household look. You can almost imagine Wain added that touch from his own tabletop.

Early Wain post from ’18. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

The giant and Jack are both brown tabbies – a coloring I am not sure is prevalent in the real world of cats. (Putting Bengals aside as I don’t think they were known at that time.) Giant bully kitty has his ears back (same color as the tapestry design covering the back of his substantial throne-like chair so they blend a bit) in a very real annoyed feline fashion. His fangy toothies show in his whiskered grin, but it is the look of merry mayhem in his eyes that tell the tale! Yep, he sees Jack and he’s thinking a bit of extra protein on the run for today.

Meanwhile, we only see Jack from the back, tiny sword in hand. As noted, he is a slightly darker odd brown version of a similar tabby stripe. He’s sort of portly (hang-y kitty tummy) to be our hero – usually portrayed as a kid or in this case kitten. At the top right it just says, The “Louis Wain” Series. Bottom left says, Jack the Giant Killer and Louis Wain. This card is a bit grimy and found its way to me with some folds – there are indentations (although not holes) which might mean it displayed somewhere – hence the grime but also the survival.

The back sports a somewhat illegible postmark but I can make out April 19 and 1907. This was sent in the United States (most I have seen were sent in Britain) and addressed to Miss Miriam Hall, Bangor, ME 395 Center Street. He writes, Dear Miriam, What do to you think of these Pussies? Papa. I think that’s what it says – Pussies looks more like Jussies though. (However, to go off on a bit of a sidebar – have any of you seen the articles about how the post office is no longer saying that mail will be postmarked on the day it is picked up? It is now going to sorting centers where it will be postmarked before distribution, hence days later. So much for a world where there were AM and PM postmarks!)

Back of card.

Despite the card having been mailed in the United States, it was printed in Great Britain by the ever popular Raphael Tuck & Sons company of Wain fame. The card, it is noted, was designed in Britain and chromographed in Germany. It also bears the indicia that Tuck was the fine art publisher to their majesties the King and Queen, and to TRH the Prince and Princess of Wales.

This jolly card joins a growing subset of Wain cards in my collection. Whatever else that can be said about Mr. Wain, more than 100 years later, he always puts a smile on my face.

I Was Much Surprised

Posted by

0

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Every day that is a Louis Wain day is a good one here at Pictorama! I have had the pleasure of adding many Wain posts to the collection here at Pictorama, including a review of the recent book. (Some of those other posts can be perused here, here and here for additional Sunday leisure reading.)

Like my post a few weeks ago, this is another example where the sender has (consciously or unconsciously) enhanced the card with their message. Somehow when I saw it I just laughed at those words in script under the cat – thinking that he was much surprised by the basket of kittens! Surprise Pops!

Instead the brief missive written on the card is from a grandma to a sick child – chicken pox I suspect. I believe it reads, I was much surprised to hear of your spotty face. I hope its back soon be better & no marks left, don’t scratch it. Your loving Gramms. (The woman didn’t believe in periods for the most part so I have added them.) It was mailed from Paddington at 5:30 PM on May 5 of 1905. It was sent to Master C. T. Travers, Woolfanger (?), Markingham, Surrey.

The card was produced by the Raphael Tuck & Sons Company and declares in tiny print that it is a part of their Write Away postcard series. It also proclaims that it was designed in England and chromographed in Bavaria. I have only started to focus on the Raphael Tuck cards as sort of the sweet spot for Wain. (They also produced a rather fascinating set of Felix holiday cards. I have a few in my collection and find them almost impossible to turn down at auction – although they go very pricey. One is below and the post for it can be found here.)

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Finally onto Mr. Wain himself. Grumpy Papa cat drops his pipe at Momma cat coming from behind the door with a basket load of kittens. Is it the first time she is presenting and surprising him with the kits? Was he, like any traditional papa, pacing and waiting pipe in hand (paw) to hear the baby news? Regardless, it is a bit of a sour puss he presents.

He happens to be tabby-spotty (additionally accurate for this card), he stand on hind legs, tail down. Ears are back in a cat look of annoyance which Wain has morphed with a human expression. Mom cat just looks tired and the five kittens (that we can see) are a mix of tabby, marmalade like Mom a white and two grays – ready to hop out of the basket and start causing chaos. Adult cats stand on a carpet of a sort of wild print with this bit of door between them. As always, Wain manages to express much with a brief, somewhat sardonic vignette.

My family only won the kitten lottery once which if Mom was here she would agree was more than enough. Our female tortie, Winkie, escaped out one morning while in heat, teaching us forever to get kits spade as quickly as humanly possible. Her paramour appeared to be a tabby we’d never seen before. And surprise she ultimately produced a gray tabby, a marmalade one, and two grays – so not unlike this bushel.

Honestly Winkie had little use for them after a few weeks of being very possessive. We kept them all (Tigger, Squash, Ping and Pong) and our feline family burgeoned at that point for a long period of time. I think it brought us to seven. The cats were still free range outside in those days so it was a bit less evident than the Jersey Five (plus visits from Cookie and Blackie) are in the (small) house today. Ultimately Winks started to pretend she had no idea where these interlopers had come from and would growl at them or at best ignore them.

Arguably Wain is pretty much at the height of his popularity and success when this card was produced. It is nice to think of Grandma, long ago, going to the shop and picking it out especially for Master Travers who was suffering a bit from this childhood ailment. My guess is that it cheered him immensely.

Christmas in July – Part 1

Posted by

2

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Pam’s Pictorama Post: A month or so ago, someone on Facebook sent me some photos via Kim of really unusual Felix Christmas cards. They were not for sale, but on a site where they were on display as part of a collection. I had never seen them or anything like them before and loved their strangeness. I save the images for my own edification (shown here above), but unfortunately have lost both the link and the name of the person who sent them. (Apologies – and if you remind who you are I will happily update this post!) Shortly after, in that way that the universe seems to have sometimes, one of them turned up on eBay, in mint condition although used, and I snatched it up.

These cards are British and there is a tiny embossing at the bottom of the back of this one which says Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd. Publishers to the King & Queen Produced in England with a crest of sorts which is very hard to see. A quick check online tells me that Raphael Tuck and his wife Ernestine, started the business out of their home in Bishop’s Gate in 1866. They received the royal nod in 1893 and carried the royal imprimatur from that point on. Evidently the company rode the crest of the Victorian novelty postcard and book craze and published the likes of my friend Louis Wain. The business stayed in the family, first bringing Raphael’s brothers in, and then Raphael and Ernestine’s sons. It flourished until their headquarters was severely damaged in WWII during the Blitz and, although they stay in business until 1959 they never fully recover.

Also, printed on the back is “Felix – Pathes Famous Film Cat” in tiny black letters. The outer wrapper is the glossy printed image of Felix and the inside is a separate piece of paper – held together by the ribbon like a tiny four page book. The inside is printed on slightly different stock. In case you cannot read it, under the black and white cats it reads, Snice World this! It is not technically the most festive holiday card I have ever seen – the front, Felix gets the Bird! Lucky! anyhow! doesn’t exactly scream Christmas to me. It is a nice, early Felix though, squared off and pointy the way I like him. Those exclamation points emanating from his head are cartoon great and embody his spirit nicely. If it wasn’t for The Compliments of the Season on the inside, and in spite of the jolly red ribbon, we would never know to mail this for the December holidays. This card, in splendid condition, was used and is simply signed on the left, inside, from Frank, in neat script.

inside xmas card

The other cards, supplied from the original link and shown on a loop above, are also super strange images for holiday cards, but nonetheless bear tidings for Christmas and the coming New Year on the inside of each. It almost seems as if the company printed a random series of Felix illustrated outsides and then neatly, if somewhat haphazardly, tied them together with holiday greetings insides. Felix being so popular at the time that appropriateness of message and image mattered not perhaps? In one, Felix with a sort of strange turnip which looks like a monster; Felix wearing a radio headset, and of course mine where he talks to a bird. The messages on the front of each are equally odd, Felix Gets the Bird! Lucky! anyhow! on mine and the others A Turn-up for Felix, Good Luck to You! and Cherio! The supporting characters, inside and out, appear to belong to an entirely different inking hand. More mysteries of Felix here to uncover, but jolly for a Christmas in July I think.