toy collection

Who’s a Scaredy Cat?

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: While my timing may miss the mark for Halloween this year, the subject matter in a sense is pure Pictorama. The cat in question showed up from an auction house on Halloween night, having been purchased at an online auction a few months ago. While most auction houses I have encountered actually get items to me very quickly (one called Everything but the House sends out their packages with startling efficiency seeming to arrive within days) clearly some are more pokey. I purchased two things recently, at different auctions, and they have slowly meandered in a few months later. They are both welcome additions and today we start with this kitty – the other is a rather great future post.

Pams-Pictorama.com collection – the office annex. There’s something about his only having three feet on the ground which entertains me.

This fellow appealed to my black cat Halloween loving sensibility for obvious reasons, although I very rarely purchase contemporary items. I am occasionally persuaded and this cat entertained me. I will say, I won it at auction for next to nothing but they really socked me on postage. I actually rejected what they said the postage was going to be at first and figured if I lost the cat and the few dollars over it so be it. Oddly they came back with something more reasonable and here he is.

It is my intention to have him join another Halloween cat which has graced my office for many decades. I was working at the Met and I don’t remember how this couple knew that I collected black cat items, but they made a gift of it to me one day. Seems their son was a buyer working for Martha Stewart and was responsible for sourcing decorative items for the various holidays which would then be shown in the magazine and probably also sold under her brand. This cat had been a sample among the items he proposed and it was rejected. Somehow his parents saw it and grabbed it up for me.

More jagged teeth and yellow eyes; he’s missing a bit of paint on his nose sadly.

It has always been my office black cat if you will. (For many years I also kept the Happy Life wind-up toy, below, in my office because it has a calming and cheering effect on me. I was known to wind it up for staffers under distress, especially while at the Museum. I wrote a post about this soothing toy here and you can see it’s a clip of it wound up as well.) There has been occasional conversation about the scary black cat when he was introduced at various offices and why I have him and I usually just tell the story of his acquisition. However, over time for those staffers who have seen me on zoom from home they have been treated to a small view into the mighty black cat collection and it makes more sense. No one at the animal hospital has asked and I assume that has something to do with being an animal hospital? Or are they just not surprised to find me guarded by a scary black cat.

New kitty on Kim’s desk. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

Both of these cats are made with a plastic arched cat body which is covered in black “fur”. The smaller older one (or one from my office, who knows the age of the additional one) has more wiry legs and you can almost pose him but I have never pushed it. Overall, this new fellow bigger and sturdier. Part of me wonders if he had shown up rather than the other if he would have made the grade with Martha. He is better made, although clearly from the same sort of origin.

The new cat is more substantial in every way. Both have glass eyes and whiskers although both stand out a bit more on the new cat. The office cat has those sort of spindly claw paw toes which are arguably a bit more intimidating than the fluffy feet on the other and his tail is on a jauntier angle. However his red nose is a bit comical and makes him friendlier than the shiny black one on this cat. His ribbon has always struck me as at odds with his overall appearance and if the new guy sported one it is long gone.

Fangy kitty close up.

Both have been endowed with differently ferociously toothy mouths. The smaller cat has more teeth and the new one has fewer but they really look like they mean business. The many hard whiskers stand up on either side of the gaping mouth complete with a bright red tongue.

This fellow is going to make his way to the office this week now that he has had his baptism by Pictorama post. Unlike my prior offices, I have somehow fallen short of actually decorating this one in a meaningful way. (A post about the black cat sheet music that decorated my office at Jazz can be found here.) My first office for the animal hospital had a terrible leak (think water pouring into pots on the desk and floor) and I refrained from subjecting any of my framed sheet music to it. We moved offices last January and the new office does seem pretty water proof yet somehow I have yet to attempt to brand it much as my own. Perhaps I should be more concerned with the image he projects to staff, yet to know me is to know my love of all black cats – just ask Blackie and Beau!

Four Footed Friends

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Last night a friend from Europe took shelter couch surfer here at Deitch Studio after an airline mixed up. Pete and Kim were up late catching up so I am typing quietly with my coffee. As visitors and long time readers know, Deitch Studio is a very compact establishment and should you come to spend the night you are more or less sleeping at our feet with a wall of bookcase between us. Anyway, coffee is on and the sun is coming up.

Cookie wanted her breakfast and Blackie is hiding – evidently he somehow thinks an overnight guest might result in him being placed in a carrier and going somewhere! I hate to say it but Cookie visibly expands when Blackie isn’t around. She is rolling on the floor and talking to Kim while he does his morning exercises.

I am off to New Jersey today to handle some appointments there. Sadly Kim and I will be paying a condolence call in the afternoon so it isn’t an early start for NJ.

All this to say, I don’t want to give Four Footed Friends short shrift and will attempt to do it justice this morning. We picked it up at the 26th Street Flea market two weeks ago. The cover is in unfortunate shape and it is a bit off my usual beat, but Kim and I are both suckers for good illustrations and this has a few inside. I decided that for a few dollars I wouldn’t leave it there and I bought it along with a couple of photos which may be shared in a future post.

I used to buy more children’s books. I think just space constraints in general keeps me from being a real player. I started back when I was still doing more drawing. (I thought about that is bouncing around in my head so maybe more to come on that too.) I would pick them up at library sales and flea markets and use them for reference.

Somewhat tatty cover but for its age and wear not really in bad shape.

As far as I can tell this is a somewhat later version of a book by the same company (McLouglin Bros. of Springfield, Mass.) – from the 1890’s, also in linen but with a full color cover. Ours must be a bit later but there is no date. It seems like it could be a reprint from the teens. It has water damage what I thought was foxing but now I am thinking something may have actually splashed on it.

A copy of the earlier version.

My copy starts right in with illustrations and on page 2 where Faithful Carlo, is featured. A prior owner, Ernest Cooueles (?), has written his name in a neat if childish script. This handsome pooch is holding what might be a riding crop – not sure why. Maybe this is originally from another book.

Some of the illustrations are line drawings, although several are also in color. Admittedly the color plates don’t seem to correspond to a storyline and have just been dropped in. The Cow was definitely in the earlier book. There is a mix of a few compact nursery stories too.

Loose page left in the book.

A single additional page was included, French Nurse. (From the Green Isle.) This is a much more ironic illustrated rhyme which seems a bit odd to have felt compelled to include. Someone has printed, in a less legible hand, Margaret Ross. 

You try your best to make folks think
That you're a maid from France,
But that you hair from Ireland's bogs
They can all see at a glance.
You're as lazy as you're homely,
Which is saying a good deal;
And for the kid that's trust to you, 
The hardest heart must pity feel.

And there you have it – Pictorama for today!

The Bowers Movie Book: Aesop’s Fables

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: I have an unusual nugget of animation history today. It came to my attention on a search for Aesop’s Fable dolls which I have put out in the world. I asked for more photos because only a few pages of the inside were shown and I was afraid it was just the covers and a couple of pages. The seller quickly replied. In the end I offered a bit less than he was asking and he agreed. It was still a bit dear but something about it appealed and I went the extra mile to purchase it.

The instructions.
  • Try flipping the page by hitting the arrow!

In reality the book is more interesting even than it appeared at first. Every illustration has a second illustration under it and you are instructed to (gently, especially now) flip to the second page and you see “movement” between the two. It is rather ingenious and simple – a different type of flip book. (Flip the Pages…the Pictures Live.) The book is super worn and shows evidence of much use, flipping the pages. Every other page is several more short tales which are illustrated but do not flip.

It was published by Harcourt, Brace and Company of New York and we can see it was Book 2. A search on the internet shows that Book 1 was dedicated to Mother Goose which looks at least equally interesting. In the back we see that there was a Book 3 (which I now really want!) about the circus which seems to feature a very Koko the Clown looking character! Book 4 was called Once Upon a Time. These volumes are somewhat rarified and I can only find evidence of this one and Book 1 having been recently available for sale. There are eight pages in its entirety, counting the fold-out double pages as one.

One of my attempts to show you how flipping the page looks.

The artist/s do not appear to get credit for these so I am assuming that Charley Bowers is the artist and perhaps the writer as there are no other credits for the book. On the inside cover there is a 1923 copyright and W.F. Powers Co. On the cover we see that there is a Pat. Applied For.

Charles (Charley) Bowers started his animation career working on the silent Mutt and Jeff cartoons. By the early twenties he moved to Educational Films where he made slapstick comedies, some shorts featuring Rube Goldberg creations and a mix of animation, stop motion and live action short subjects. He is prodigious in his output through the twenties and does a stint with Walter Lanz in the thirties. At the end of his career he moves to Wayne, New Jersey and drew cartoons for the Jersey Journal. Sadly at the end of his life arthritis cripples him and he instructs his wife to execute drawing the cartoons under his instruction.

It is also noted in his bio that he was known for illustrating children’s books although the Wikipedia article mentions this for his post-film career and these were clearly made in the thick of it. He was largely forgotten until a Lobster Film dvd came out in 2004 and revived interest in him. It is still available however you will pay up. (It can be found on Amazon here or Flick Alley here. I would poke around eBay for a slightly better price.) As a result, not many videos are posted online, but one I offer is available here.

Not in the Pictorama collection.

Clearly a bit of a mechanical genius this is a tiny salute to Charles Bowers of early animation fame. This book is a remaining concrete tribute to his ingenuity.

Bunny Snapshot

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: This was purchased in a small haul from the antiques annex in Red Bank, New Jersey recently. (Other treasures from that trip were recently posted about here and here.) I snatched it up for a few dollars because I liked the toy the kid is holding. It sat on a cabinet in NJ while we were there and I grabbed it up to bring it back so I could spend a bit more time studying it. It’s a tiny 2″x 3″ picture is the least expensive self-standing gold trimmed frame and I admit this is the first I have spent time looking at it.

There is a photo somewhere in the world (or was) of me very much like this, minus the nice toy and I think I was shaking the crib bars more like I was in prison. There are stories about my being anti-crib although despite that I have always been an excellent sleeper, even in the days when I was first brought home as a newborn. (As I write I am still a bit dazed and sleepy on this Saturday morning after a hard night’s sleep.) However, if I had one holding such a nice toy I could probably lay my hands on it.

While my older sister Loren made it into adulthood rarely sleeping more than 3-4 hours a night (as a small child she’d roam the house and when she got older we all got used to sleeping to her practicing the violin at all hours), always raring to go with energy, I slept through my first night home. This scared the heck out of my mother who however quickly adjusted and learned to enjoy it.

Of course it is a pretty typical photograph and likely there is a variation of most of us in our parent’s homes. (In the world of digital photos is this still true? Are there printed out pics from phones of this sort everywhere? I wonder.) I do like this nice big rabbit toy (I have a future post about a rabbit toy – a rare stepping out into a different species which I do occasionally) and this one wears a suit complete with sporty cap. I would have been pleased with such a toy no doubt.

Kim was the first to point out that maybe there is something pro about this photo. It is a bit perfectly posed. This morning while looking at it I had a hard time deciding if the hand holding the rabbit could really belong to the small child or if it was someone below and behind. Could that arm belong to that child? Seems long and maybe large? What do you think? Toys are piled in the crib and we can’t really see. On the other hand the composition is not so impressive and the contrast a bit low so it is hard to imagine a pro did it.

It is hard to pin a year to it – the stuffed rabbit is the only clue at all and I would say it could be anytime from the 1950’s forward a decade – or back a few years? Meanwhile, somehow it has now made its way to the Pictorama archive where toys are always appreciated in all forms.

A Sprightly Black Cat

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: For those of you who read yesterday’s post, you know that this little kitty came to me from Great Britain via an Instagram post where I spotted him in a flea market display. It was the first time I purchased something from @woodenhillstoys via Instagram, but I deeply suspect not the last. He caught my eye at the same time as the Louis Wain doily (yesterday’s post), on a shelf on the same table.

This kitty is tiny, only about four inches from his nose to his curled up tail. He is velvet and sports a ratty ribbon, the same yellowish color as the velvet on his tummy. A red nose and mouth are a stitched star between glass ears with rounded ears. Still, it is his sort of splayed leg stance, arched back and curled tail that catch your eye and give him his cat-titude. A tiny hole in the tip of his tail reveals a bit of straw stuffing. He is a prime example of less is more.

A closer look at this little addition.

Meanwhile, in the process of the sale, the seller Steven Phillips (@woodenhilltoys) shared a rather extraordinary piece he recently acquired for his own collection. For those of you who are regular Pictorama readers you may remember several posts devoted to animal imitators – dogs and, of course, cats. (Some of those prior Pictorama posts can be found here, here and here.) While I wouldn’t say that the Brits owned this occupation, they are definitely in competition with the us in this narrow area of expertise and this is a grand example.

Steven Phillips cat impersonator poster.

I just about fell over! Shown here in a glorious poster size in his cat suit with a small image of him, sans suit up in the corner. I pulled this off of Instagram where he direct messaged it to me. I love that he has himself perched on this illustration of a rooftop with neatly tended fields in the distance. The cat costume is notably comical. A note in the corner says, Elite Photo Co., Glasgow, Scotland.

A wowza of weirdness in this close-up.

A Google Image search tells me that this gent in his cat suit was in ads for Black Cat Cigarettes and I have grabbed a few images shown here. (One is a Getty Image with its watermark.) I cannot seem to get the name of the performer in question. Clearly he is a rather inspired imitator and his devotion did not go unrecognized.

Black Cat Cigarettes, it goes almost without saying, had a long and storied series of ad campaigns featuring black cats – both real, drawn and clearly imitated as well. (For a post highlighting a notable item of their advertising in my collection have a read here.)

Black Cat Cigarette ad I found online. I love the two mugs who are driving!

Oddly this came up the first time I put it in Google Images but not subsequently. AI had all sorts of weird answers for me when asked!

So a real hats off to Steven Phillips (and my thanks for allowing me to share the images) for a real hotsy totsy find! I have a feeling this won’t be the last we hear about the lore of this particular cat impersonator and we at Pictorama will be looking.

It’s a Felix!

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Sometimes here at Pams’s Pictorama it’s just a Felix acquisition day and today is that day. The other day combing through listings I came across a duo of Felix in Australia. The condition was sort of medium and the price right and the next thing I knew this fellow was on his way to me.

I have a few other examples of this Felix and this fellow in particular may next find his way to New Jersey where there is a shortage of Felix-es at my house. (Although there is an abundance of kitties who have a lot of unsupervised hours so I am mindful of that as well. The younger inhabitants there like some high jumping too and I have an Oswald Rabbit I worry for occasionally. A post about him can be found here.)

Years ago I was at a huge vintage toy show in Atlantic City where a dealer had a whole basket of these (such bounty!) and he said that they were used as carnival prizes in England. They must have been very popular because many exist today but somehow they seem a bit too well made, and therefore expensive, for that. Still, it makes my brain whirl a little to think of being able to bring home such a toy from a fair – perhaps after having had my photo taken with Felix elsewhere earlier in the day. (Throwing in a photo below from my collection of folks posing with Felix for anyone who is a new comer here!)

Pam’s Pictorama.com collection.

Also a long time ago I took one of these for repairs at a toy hospital that used to exist on Lexington Avenue near Bloomingdales. I wrote about it here. It turned out to be very expensive but, at least for me, worth the brief entrée to that somewhat ancient and particular place before it quietly disappeared a few years later.

This fashion of Felix has mobile arms and legs. (Legs had come off on the one that had to be repaired. I do not recommend moving them much – I learned from the broken one that there is just a rusty metal rod holding him together.) This fellow has a good look until you realize that oddly almost all of his mohair has worn away. His tummy in particular is quite bare as is the spot under his snout. He has such wideset eyes – they always contribute to a goofy look. His tail, as is often a design feature, sets him up like a tripod for steady standing.

While his felt ears are intact, Felix has a few places where his fur is completely worn through, revealing small spots of the straw stuffing underneath. It is my understanding that these were assembled by hand in England in small factories. (Read a very interesting and popular post about this here. Such a factory was set up on the East End of London to employ indigent women.) All this to say that these end up have a very individual character and look to each one.

Tummy is oddly barren. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

I did express some concern about Felix making such a long journey from Australia to New York City with the small holes and stuffing in particular leaking through. I am afraid I offended the poor seller when I asked – it wasn’t meant to be a reflection on her packing ability – more just the reality of a certain amount of jostling he was bound to undergo. However, she pledged extra good packing and she came through so there was barely a smidge of stuffing loss in transit.

We will pack him carefully again as part of our exodus to New Jersey in a few weeks. Until then he is hanging out with his Felix brethren here in Deitch Studio.

Amazing! Aesop’s Additions

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Pictorama readers may have sussed out that there are strata to each of my areas of collecting. Photo postcards of people posing with Felix rate very high but people posing on giant black cats are a bit more due to rarity, a stuffed Felix that I have not seen is extremely rarified and I haven’t purchased one in years.

Yet somehow an Aesop Fable doll that is sufficiently unusual and requires purchase these days is a whole other thing. I don’t think I have purchased a doll since I scored one in a box back in 2018. And today I have not one but two, purchased together, and seem to be of a piece. While my longstanding lust for these toys has been documented back to 2014 and the early days of this blog, the most recent acquisition before this was a bit of ephemera, a piece of related stationary, in 2019 and can be found in a post here. A purchase of these is unusual indeed.

Unlike the off-model madness that was Felix production at one point in Great Britain, the production of these dolls was limited to, I believe, one company and a brief period of time. Therefore the survivors are decidedly more finite. As someone who has been purchasing them, and the occasional related item, for a few decades now, I rarely have the opportunity to make a significant purchase. (To be clear however, I am still searching for some of the cast including Milton Mouse should he make an appearance among others.) Notably though, the other morning, a listing for these showed up in my inbox and as seems to often be the case, with utter disregard for the well being of my bank account (Kim made a contribution), something had to be done about it immediately.

Before I get to the heart of this today’s story allow me to backtrack a bit further for anyone who is just entering the fray and encountering these toys for the first time. These items were made based on Paul Terry’s Aesop’s Fable cartoons of the 1920’s and early ’30’s – a delightful never ending saga of cartoon cats, mice, bears and other animals in a world dominated by them and the occasional visage of a human, often the frustrated Farmer Al Falfa. In some ways they represent my ideal of silent cartoons.

A sample of the cartoons can be found below.

However, if the scant information the internet provides about the W.R. Woodard toy company of Los Angeles is true, the production years of the dolls seems to be limited to the years of ’29 and ’30 – the years of the company’s existence. (A post about the company and an original box of one of the toys which helped me research it can be found here.) These recently purchased additions seem to clearly beg to tell a story as well.

As far as I have been able to tell, there was always a certain amount of variation among these dolls. For example the Princes (cat) toy seems to bear several versions of skirt. Sometimes other outfit swaps are made and maybe a bit of variation even on features. I have an especially prized possession which is a variation on the Princess made for a theater raffle. A post devoted to her can be found here.

The same standard company stamp that is found on the standard toys.

These two recently purchased dolls, both bearing the same W.R. Woodard stamp on the bottom of their feet as some of my others (not all are stamped) and both still have fragments of their original tags – Don the Dog and Mike the Monkey, which appear to be the same as the rare ones I have seen on other toys. While their red trousers, held up by a single strap, are similar in design to some of my other toys. The differences seem to mount up from there.

These two toys are a bit smaller than what I will call the standard toys. (The raffle doll is also a tad smaller than the standard ones but not as small as these and other than a special design on her skirt; a marker testifying to her as a theatrical raffle prize but otherwise is made the same as the standard toys.) Rather than standing, these are in a permanently seated position. Instead of a sort of velveteen fabric for the heads, feet and clothing, they are entirely made of a sort of cotton fabric. As a result they look newer than their counterparts.

Mike the Monkey
Don the Dog

Meanwhile, the features are printed onto the faces rather than being stitched on. Their hands do not have defined fingers (the standard ones have fully defined five finger hands), and even their sewn on noses are more of a piece of the fabric, rather than the (admittedly vulnerable) more defined and stitched on noses of the other dolls. shown together below, the standard version of Don has the same square ears and similar but not identical facial design and he does not sport the same single button overall style trousers. Where the feet join the legs seems to also be produced differently too.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. The variations on Don the Dog side-by-side.

In short, they appear to be a less expensive line of these dolls, either made contemporaneously or later than the others. Was it another promotional item which had to be less expensive? A last ditch effort to produce them for less? Or was it some later production under the company name and these designs – perhaps in conjunction with a revival of the cartoons? I don’t think we’ll likely get the answer any time soon if ever. In my decades of collecting these dolls (and looking at them – those I missed at auction!) I have never seen them but they have come now to live for a spell at Deitch Studio in the Pictorama collection.

It’s a Felix-y Time

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: My fascination with these cards is at the root of starting this blog (as a summer project while recovering from foot surgery, confined to bed for weeks) as a way of organizing and recording my then nascent collection. It expanded to toys and eventually life, but the square one was folks with Felix in a parade of early 20th century photos.

If you consider reincarnation you might think that some time back, about 100 years ago, I decided to forego and opportunity to have my picture taken with Felix, or I was a small child and no one would listen to me, or it was taken and lost. I have found a tiny window onto my past passion and devote myself to the glorious fulfilling of it now.

Margate photo. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Romantic day dreams of Felix lost and found aside, I now own a pile of these photos – far more than I have room to display here in the apartment although I have started to think of what a series of them would look like in New Jersey and need to consider a spot without much sun which is more challenging there.

As postulated in my post last week about two somewhat different cards from the same negative, I now have a large enough collection to make some interesting (at least to me) connections between them. In that way I bring you today’s acquisition, a card recently purchased from England, the locus primary for these photos.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Today the breaking news is that this card, which was never sent, was taken in Margate, England, a summer resort town there. As you can see, it is the kissing cousin of another postcard in my collection, purchased back in 2022 and posted about at that time. That post can be read here. Ironically I evidently paid a lot for that card and this one was a bit of a steal. (It averages out I find and try to be philosophical about it.) Interesting to note that, like the one last week, the card above was unusual in that it came via a US dealer. It was identified with Margate on the back.

Magnificent Kim Deitch original valentine depicting Margate. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Margate! Where you could also have your photo taken on a giant black cat chair, was a swinging summer resort if having your photo taken on the beach was part of a good time. It lives in my imagination and Kim has brought it to life in these drawings he has done for me. Read about those here.

Kim Deitch original drawing, valentine from this year. Proudly in the Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

These two cards share the singular vision of this photographer who liked to blur his (or her) background, bringing just the Felix and child into focus. The children are also remarkably similar, but a careful look shows that it does not seem to be the same day and the negative numbers are far apart as well. Still, this cheerful little boy and the sad small girl could easily be related.

I have more, different Felix treats in store although Kim and I are heading out for a much belated birthday celebration for me which includes a postcard show I haven’t been to since before Covid so who knows what else might lurk there!

Esoteric Felix Photo Find, Seeing Double

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s post is a bit of Pictorama inside baseball as it were, with some coincidences which occurred nicely and a bit of a divergence down another tributary. If nothing else lots of eyeball kicks from my photo collection today.

Recently I jumped, as I do when I see them, to purchase this postcard of three children and Felix. It is a particularly nice one. Like virtually all of these souvenir postcards, this one was never mailed and on the back is only more contemporary writing noting, Felix the Cat.

When it arrived I realized that I already owned one from the same session or the very card. As it turns out, according to the number at the bottom it is a, more or less, identical image from the same negative. They are both originals and it is virtually the first time I have collected two contemporary copies of the same photo. Surprising to me on some level considering how many I purchase and how many people must have ordered more than one copy of a fun family photo. (The notable exceptions in my collection would be once or twice when I purchased a full lot of photos from one shoot – on two occasions I think once a batch of tintypes from Australia and a strange bunch of photos a a giant Felix at an intersection in Kuala Lumpur of all places – and ended up with a repeater in the group.)

The photos side-by-side. The one on the right is the earlier purchase and slightly better version. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Another interesting fact is that this one was purchased from a dealer in the UK as most are (some, tintype versions as far as I know, come from Australia), and the original one was that extremely rare occasion where it was purchased from a US dealer, whose card it happens I saved in the sleeve and just found. I have bought very few of these photos from US dealers, they generally don’t seem to travel far from their place of origin, at least until they travel to me. These do not ever appear to actually have been produced in the United States which always leaves me wondering what was wrong with the folks at Coney Island anyway? They missed a great opportunity.

So one wonders why one photo traveled far from its origin and mate. I guess a family member lived or moved abroad, or it was somehow separated and sold off to a dealer and found its way here. By way of comparison, it should be noted that today’s was developed poorly, a bit of overexposure – note that the wooden floor is bleached out as is the background a bit and the printing in general is lesser, chemicals a bit tired on that day perhaps. Although the one recently purchased is also a tiny bit larger meaning that there is a bit less information too. Pure speculation but my guess is that one of these was ordered subsequent to the first one when a copy was desired, perhaps to give away to a doting relative.

One of the ones that may show the same windows and likely Felix. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

The post from March 2023 can be found here and investigates another coincidence which is that I have at least one other photo (possibly three now that I have a look around), taken at this very location and with this Felix. These were taken on the beach itself rather than near a studio so identifying the location is always a bit iffy. These distinctive windows are the key here.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. I think someone in Australia selling reproductions of this one.
Not in Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.

Meanwhile, while on the subject of seeing double, I occasionally find one of my photos reproduced for sale. At top above is one where I have assumed that the seller scanned the image (shown above) at the time of selling it to me and another is one I missed at auction and now reproductions are being sold – a bit different admittedly.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection. Reproduction prints of this one turned up recently.

However one (shown above) turned up after I had owned this photo for a period of time and I was curious. (Posts for these pics can be found here, here and here if you are curious.) I did wonder if somehow they had lifted them off of my post, but I doubt the fidelity would be good enough for an even halfway decent reproduction.

Of course the possibility that the seller owned another print of the same photo occurred to me as well. I reached out to them with a friendly and polite inquiry and their response surprised me. He had purchased a box of items and at the bottom was a disk and the image was on it so he was printing and selling them. Interesting!

While some less utterly compulsive folks might see duplicates as an opportunity to sell one off, at least in the short term I am just tickled to have these photos reunited once again.

A Mr. Peanuts for Pam

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Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: This just in – my first ever Mr. Peanut! He comes via an auction house that sends me endless listings and from which I rarely win anything. (The first item I ever won from them were these nice metal dogs featured in a post here.) On the rare occasion that I do win something, it was because no one else wanted it or was looking at the moment I think and therefore I got it for a good price. I do believe that part of the method of buying from these folks is to actually participate in the live auction but I am almost never able to do that and so, mostly I lose.

I had spotted this fellow in a listing along with a bunch of jointed Felix toys and admired him. Never seen the likes of him. I put a watch on it but expected that like many things (I keep trying to get a deal on cat andirons for the fireplace in New Jersey) it would go high and slip away. In fact, I never got around to putting a bid on it.

However, I was at loose ends the other day and a reminder that the he was going live in the auction. I believe I was feeling a bit burned by something I had just lost on eBay and I thought what the heck and put a live bid in just as the bidding was closing. Low and behold – I won Mr. Peanut!

Nothing much unexpected on his back side. Schoenhut has no markings on these toys but they are very distinctive.

He is an early product of the Schoenhut Toy Company, circa the 1930’s. He is of course, an early example of an advertising to toy crossover. My fellow is missing his cane which would have stuck in one hand. And yes, if I was about 100% handier I could replace it easily! I especially like his blue hat with Mr. Peanut boldly printed! (Was his hat always blue? I think not.) When you look closely at his peanut body you see small black spots to create the peanut shell surface of his body.

Insert jaunty cane here.

What I never knew is that Mr. Peanut was originally conceived of by a 14 year old boy, Antonio Gentile, who won a contest to design a mascot for the company back in 1916. The charming monocle, top hat and spats were added subsequently by commercial artist Andrew S. Wallach. (Fascinating that spats manage to carryover on him – common in 1916 but unheard of now, of course he just appears to be wearing socks.)

  • Original drawings of Mr. Peanut

To jump down a tributary – it turns out that although Antonio Gentile only won $5 for the contest, it was his lifelong friendship with the founder of the company that was significant. Amedeo Obici befriended the boy and helped put him through medical school. He pursued a life of service as a doctor and surgeon. A moving quote from an article in Smithsonian Magazine, evidently published in a newspaper as part of an obituary article (sadly Dr. Gentile died quite young, only a year after getting married) and is summed up below:

For Dr. Antonio Gentile, skilled physician and surgeon, loved by a paying clientele who admired his ability and his personality, was perhaps held dearer to those who were not a paying clientele, whose money was gratitude only but whom he served as freely, as fully and as willingly as though they had been able to return wealth for service. (The full and rather touching article can be found here.) The Smithsonian owns the original drawings and the dapper cast iron version below.

You may be saying to yourself, what’s up with Mr. Peanut and why, given how much stuff I have found over the years, have I long neglected this particular desire. I asked myself that as well, I admit. My interest in Mr. Peanut advertising predates my current collecting passions. The first time I remember seeing an early bit of Mr. Peanut advertising was on a trip to Paris in my 20’s. I saw a nice early metal one and was entranced but it was too dear for my extremely limited budget, but it stayed with me.

Of course I have encountered this and that small item over time but none really spoke to me. I do remember that on American Pickers once they found the giant Mr. Peanut peanut butter producing machine! Oh my goodness, I was in love! I gather one like it was in use and on display in Atlantic City. Shown below, this one hails from a Peanut Shop in Columbus, Ohio. Their site can be found here and it would be absolutely top of my list if visiting Columbus.

From The Peanut Shop in Columbus Ohio.

In looking online at Mr. Peanut items I am reminded that even as a child I very much wanted the Mr. Peanut hand crank peanut butter maker. Alas, this was not the kind of toy that made its way into the Butler house (I can see my mom thinking, complicated and very messy) and I don’t believe I ever had the pleasure of acquainting myself with one via a friend in those formative years.

I believe it was a less impressive version of this figure that made me salivate in Paris those many years ago.

However, if there is a Mr. Peanut item I still long for, it would be that long ago cast iron one in Paris. I found it online and actually, it would appear that it is indeed quite rarified and remains too expensive for me to acquire – certainly in this pristine condition.

Meanwhile, I intend to bring my Mr. Peanut to New Jersey where the heat in the house is less dry than here at Deitch Studio. This in the hopes of keeping his stringing in order. Somehow now that I have acquired him I think more Mr. Peanut may be forthcoming – increasing rather than sated my appetite for this natty fellow.