vintage holiday

Easter Egg

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: This year it is a foggy, rainy Easter morning here in New York City. Hardly the harbinger of spring that you want it to be, however I am celebrating with this somewhat whacky card. I bought many months ago at the postcard sale and I bought it for the sheer, delightful, oddness of it.

Just noting that I have an odd fondness for these chocolate Easter eggs from childhood and still grab one or two annually.

The card is heavily embossed with thick looking gold highlights. A careful look tells that it appears to take place in a dark forest, if you peer behind the large egg house the trees almost bend around it. Easter Greetings is engraved with gold highlights, nestled among the trees. Meanwhile, a pretty little decorative, curtained window on the second floor of this egg house reveals a rooster portrayed in dignified profile. Below him is a sweet little green door complete with a mail slot and a red portico (you want to get into the house in the rain comfortably, after all), and even a little pull chain for a doorbell. There are a few front steps to complete the image.

Below, running wildly are two little chicks – I say little although somehow they are much larger than the rooster – who I grant you is at a bit of a distance up in his window, but still! They are in a race with each other on a grassy turf; the light one has a worm the one with brown feathers wants to share. Is there a cryptic and symbolic meaning in this? The artist was very conscious of shadow, bottom of the egg, under the chicks, under even the tiny window ledge, giving the card a three dimensional appeal.

The border of the card is a colorful riot of flowers, leaves and (pink!) eggs on a gold background. The eggs are dispersed in odd groupings of single, three and two, again not sure if there is some symbolism I am missing.

Back of card.

Like many lately, I find that this card was addressed on the back but never stamped and postmarked so therefore not mailed and no date for us. I show the back above, the sloping child’s hand going off the card and barely crams in the address. It appears to read, Miss Eleanor Bigwood, 928 Helamont Avenue, Schenectady, NY. Upside down on the other half, in the same hand but very hard to read is, Myra and Victor – presumably the senders. I will assume that this precious missive was ultimately put directly in Miss Bigwood’s hands.

With today’s weather we can only cheer ourselves with the old adage, April showers bring May flowers. And it is true! The pansies, tulips, magnolias and cherry trees are in bloom after a long winter’s nap. New York City is shaking off its long-held mantle of winter at last this year and it is all we can do from burying our heads in the flower filled tree wells lining the blocks here.

Meanwhile, we had a gorgeous spring day yesterday. Kim and I endeavored to undertake his first long walk since his surgery, about a mile round trip to Orwashers bakery and back. This weekly walk to get a nice loaf of bread for the week has become somewhat of a ritual and during the hospital stay and the MoCCA convention last weekend, it has been interrupted. However, the walk was much longer than anything he has done since the surgery, although still using a walker now and for the coming month. He did it like a champ though which makes us feel he is well on the way on the, albeit long, road of recovery from his back surgery.

Homemade matzoh making a holiday appearance at Orwashers this weekend.

Although Orwasher’s was all sold out of their as advertised, yummy-looking hot cross buns when we got there (oh my!) a small amount of homemade matzohs were still available. Although not our mission for the day (we stuck to our loaf of sourdough and a bonus olive stick), it was a reminder of the dual holidays, Passover and Easter, which signify this season of renewal and regeneration.

Pictorama readers may remember that with a Jewish father and a mother who was raised in a Catholic/Episcopalian household, I grew up recognizing both holidays, admittedly in a secular and food related way. I can remember Easter weekends with matzoh brie (my mom had mastered that) followed by an Easter Sunday family brunch at my maternal grandmother’s of ham and homemade Easter bread. We dyed Easter eggs but also, at least roughly, knew the rituals of a Passover seder. It all means the return of spring to me now – tied to the blooming of the magnolia in my front yard in New Jersey and streets filled with masses of blooming cherry trees.

A day or so in the ER and even a short stay in the hospital will always remind you of your blessings – other people’s problems are indeed frequently worse than your own, and we have seen that recently. For now, I remain grateful to say spring is arriving, Kim’s recovery and walking improving apace, and there are many signs for a significant growth and blooming in the next part of this year.

Kicking Off the Holidays: Fleureux Noel

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Evidently the literal (Google) translation of the flourish at the top is Christmas Flower but I am thinking it is perhaps more like Christmas Tree because that is what this kit is bringing home or delivering today.

This card is a nod in honor of those of you who get that tree and put it up right after Thanksgiving – which was at one time the holiday tradition in the Butler family home. After a few years it was a fake tree (mom developed a distaste for killing a tree for the holidays) and I always missed the smell of a real one. Luckily here in Manhattan I get to walk past them on the street and enjoy! I don’t do a tree in New Jersey – it would just be a giant, expensive, messy cat toy. However, I have employed a wreath and some swags on the railings of the front door in there and it has a lovely smell each time you walk in. (I also discovered that this do-it-yourself outdoor decor thing is harder than it looks!)

The front door, most of the way done for the holidays…it was a several day process.

On this cat card snow is falling on this already amply covered mountain scene. (I’m a sucker for snow in pictures, just ask Kim – I always ask to put it in the Christmas card! It is a lovely decorative element.) The tree isn’t especially well secured – snow covered, it is in fact a bit precarious in its (large) pot on the back of this wooden sled – and sports a few decorations, a gift box, some lights even if you look carefully.

Our kitty driver is a bit oblivious – he’s knocked this other unfortunate fellow aside. He does sport a nifty little tie around his neck, sled “reins” in his paws and snow shoes on his lower extremities – which I guess makes sense if you are an anthropomorphic puss. He has a fluffy tail but his fur otherwise suffices to keep him (and the others) warm in the snow. No hat, Mr. Cat?

The small cat which has been casually bowled over onto his bottom by this sled notwithstanding (I think of this as a bit of a ham-handed tip of the hat to Louis Wain myself), Mr. Driver Cat keeps his eyes on the path. There are two cats watching him go by – well, one is and the other is looking off elsewhere. The snow covered mountain peaks are in the distance and high above the scene. I am not exactly sure what the artist has sketched in behind the mountains and below the clouds – there are lines which might be water? Hard to say.

It has to be said that the sender had little respect for the card (or was it the postal service requirement?) and plunked a stamp on the front. As a result I can’t read the cancellation with place and date. It also almost covers the already difficult to read name of the card maker. I think it is Favorite, maybe a company name; it is pretty illegible. (There is also a sort of silver-izing or oxidizing of this card which makes it extra shiny in spots in the light and which make it harder to read.) I quick look at my own archive and I come up with Maurice Boulanger as the likely artist. (That was a New Year’s card back in 2019 which can be found here – ironically I opined that I would like to travel less for work in the coming year. Little did any of us know what March of 2020 would bring!) I have had other Boulanger cards in color recently – you can read one of those here.

Let me know if I have missed something in my rough translation!

This card was sent by someone named Louis and he has nicely dated the card as December 23, 1912. It is addressed to Monsieur et Madame Richard at what appears to be: S Rue Caron Malakof, Seine. (He has written over Malakof and I have checked the spelling online.) I don’t read French and the (very) rough translation appears to be something along the lines of: Dear Charles, I’m sorry, I had to go, I’ll woke up the [?}, he had been warned, but I’ll skip Christmas if that doesn’t bother you, I’ll be at your place around the 7th, say hello to everyone. Louis If I am missing something vital I ask you French readers to share!

Back in the early part of the 20th century the French did extremely well with holiday cards – New Year’s cards being their forte – which I continue to enjoy today. In fact, Pictorama may have one of those lurking in the pile for this year. I assure you all that some gems are hiding in this pile still!