Tag Archives: Victorian trade card

Apr 8 2015

Victorian Insect Ladies Wednesday Whimsy

???????????????????????????????A few weeks ago I did a Wednesday Whimsy on Victorian trade card illustrations of people as flowers, in honor of Spring. Well, the obvious accompaniment to the flowers is the insects of the garden, so I’m sharing a few today. The Victorians seemed to derive much enjoyment from depicting nonhumans as people – wait till you see the Veggie People! But i’m saving them for Halloween because some of them are pretty scary.

I like the insect ladies on the Liebeg cards. They’re advertising for a meat extract, described on Wikipedia as a “black, molasses-like spread in an opaque white glass bottle.” The method for creating this foodstuff was developed in 1847 and the company being advertised began in the 1860’s. They’re well known in the trade card world for having done dozens, if not hundreds, of card series over the years, on topics ranging from my insect ladies today to sports, to geography to historical sets….lots to collect if you’re so minded.

There’s a convoluted corporate history of the company on Wikipedia, as you’d expect for a brand that started over 150 years ago. I think they might still exist as part of some conglomerate or other, but my ???????????????????????????????interest is limited to the really old cards.

Back to the insect ladies, I think the Liebig ones are quote amusing and sweet. The ones from the French chocolatier are a bit more buglike…

A few quotes:

Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind. Friedrich Nietzsche

I love all animals. I have a fascination with fish, birds, whales – sentient life – insects, reptiles. Nicolas Cage (Veronica sez: I literally tripped over Nicholas Cage one night at Disneyland, exiting the Indiana Jones ride. He’s one of the few celebrities I’ve encountered who seems to absolutely be the same person as his movie characters’ persona.Some of his movies I love with a passion and others…not so much.)

???????????????????????????????We are not like the social insects. They have only the one way of doing things and they will do it forever, coded for that way. We are coded differently, not just for binary choices, go or no-go. We can go four ways at once, depending on how the air feels: go, no-go, but also maybe, plus what the hell let’s give it a try.  Lewis Thomas (Veronica again: Loved this quote! This gentleman was an American physician, poet, etymologist, essayist, administrator, educator, policy advisor, and researcher, per Wikipedia.)

My 10th Sonata is a sonata of insects. Insects are born from the sun… they are the sun’s kisses.  Alexander Scriabin

I’m obsessed with insects, particularly insect flight. I think the evolution of insect flight is perhaps one of the most important events in the history of life. Without insects, there’d be no flowering plants. Without flowering plants, there would be no clever, fruit-eating primates giving TED Talks.  Michael Dickinson

Veronica: I once sat through a lecture on fruit fly DNA at Caltech, given by a Nobel prize winner, which was interesting because to me it was such a literally tiny thing to focus one’s entire life around, yet this person had made tremendous scientific breakthroughs by doing so.

???????????????????????????????I grew up watching ‘Star Trek.’ I love ‘Star Trek.’ ‘Star Trek’ made me want to see alien creatures, creatures from a far-distant world. But basically, I figured out that I could find those alien creatures right on Earth. And what I do is I study insects.   Michael Dickinson

It’s very easy to make insects move. Because they do move mechanically without the rippling of flesh as you mentioned. They move more like real tinker toys and you can make models of them quite easily. Michael O’Donoghue (first Head Writer for Saturday Night Live)

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

???????????????????????????????And here’s one I just love – although the couple aren’t depicted as insects, I enjoy the fact that they’re riding a dragonfly.

Mar 25 2015

Spring Flower People for Wednesday Whimsy

005Since we’re in Spring now, I’ll share some Victorian trade cards with flower irisaltpeople and people dressed as flowers….iris are my favorite flowers (well, along with roses) and I fell in love with these two Iris Knights to the left. To the right is a photo I took on my morning walk the other day.

I also love pussy willows (or “catkins”), which my mother and I used to gather for bouquets when we lived in upstate New York. Here’s a stanza from a particularly apt poem:

???????????????????????????????

???????????????????????????????“I sometimes think the Pussy-Willows grey
Are Angel Kittens who have lost their way,
And every Bulrush on the river bank
A Cat-Tail from some lovely Cat astray.”

― Oliver Herford, Rubaiyat of a Persian Kitten

???????????????????????????????“The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human ???????????????????????????????soul is apt to revive also.” Harriet Ann Jacobs

“In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.”  Mark Twain

“Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.” Rainer Maria Rilke

This one isn’t exactly about Spring the season, but I like it :“For happiness one needs security, but joy can spring like a flower even from the cliffs of despair.” Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment.” Ellis Peters

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Mar 11 2015

Nellie Bly Intrepid Women in Victorian Ads Wednesday Whimsy

???????????????????????????????I’ve been saving up a set of Victorian trade cards I think of as “Intrepid 001Women”. Actually, some of them remind me quite forcibly of  Amelia Peabody, the heroine in the wonderful Elizabeth Peters’ series about a Victorian archaeologist who’s a force of nature and has the most wonderful adventures…I highly recommend the entire series (but of course I love anything that touches on ancient Egypt, archaeology, mystery, romance…)….ok, enough digressing!

At any rate, there seems to have been an entire series of these wonderful, large cards above, depicting women in professions such as the Navy or Medicine, but I’ve only snagged two in all my time trolling eBay. One is from  pharmacy and the other is from a stove manufacturer!

???????????????????????????????Then there are a number of cards with women and binoculars and/or butterfly nets, which??????????????????????????????? I love because these ladies aren’t sitting in the parlor fanning themselves – they’re out and about studying nature, having adventures.

Not that he’s a Victorian in any sense of the word, but I loved this quote from Neil deGrasse Tyson. I can imagine the Victorian ladies were similarly affected when they sallied forth to examine the world with their binoculars:

For me at age 11, I had a pair of binoculars and looked up to the moon, and the moon wasn’t just bigger, it was better. There were mountains and valleys and craters and shadows. And it came alive.

???????????????????????????????I particularly like this card, where the little girl is being introduced to outdoors adventures by either her big sister or her mother.

And then this one of the woman leading a hike right up to the edge of the cliff. If that ???????????????????????????????isn’t intrepid, I don’t know what is!

 

???????????????????????????????And finally, a real life intrepid career woman, Nellie Bly. She was an investigative Nellie Blyreporter, who actually completed a trip around the world in 72 days to prove that the Jules Verne novel Around the World in 80 Days wasn’t so far fetched. (Nellie actually met Jules Verne in France while on the trip.) She visited a leper colony, bought a monkey…there was a “Nellie Bly Guessing Match” , which wasn’t so much “where in the world is Nellie Bly?” as “guess to the second what time she’ll arrive home”.

She once had herself locked in an insane asylum to do an expose.  At 31 she retired from journalism to marry a 73 year old millionaire and took over his factory when he died.  She’s credited with several inventions. During World War I she went back to reporting and was especially interested in the suffragette movement.

Several quotes from her (from the Nellie Bly Online website):

“Never having failed, I could not picture what failure meant.”  “From Jersey Back To Jersey”; The New York World; January 26, 1890

“I was too impatient to work at the usual duties assigned women on newspapers. ” Six Months In Mexico (1888)

“Energy rightly applied and directed will accomplish anything. ” Nellie Bly’s Motto

“I have never written a word that did not come from my heart. I never shall. ” The Evening-Journal; January 8, 1922

Feb 18 2015

Dogs As Victorian Era People for Wednesday Whimsy

???????????????????????????????I thought in honor of the Westminster Dog Show going on this week, I’d make my Wednesday Whimsy about some charming Victorian trade cards I found with dogs portrayed as people. (I already did an earlier Wednesday Whimsy about dogs being dogs, which is here.)

This somewhat wistful gentleman to the left has no advertising on his card but the rest of the group are ???????????????????????????????from a clothing store in Paris…

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

???????????????????????????????

Jan 21 2015

Parrots for Wednesday Whimsy

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????I picked this subject for today’s whimsy for no other reason than I enjoyed the Victorian trade cards I found when I  went searching in my collection for Wednesday inspiration. The Victorians seemed to utilize the ???????????????????????????????colorful bird in their advertising for all sorts of products.

Here’s a great quote from American humorist Will Rogers:

“Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.”

I’ve never owned a parrot but I once knew a guy who had inherited a parrot from his greatgrandmother, as I recall. The parrot was really old at the time I “met” it at a party, and had lived through the San Francisco Quake of 1906. Whichever maternal relative my acquaintance had inherited the parrot from, had been engaged as a young woman to a seafaring man, who brought her the parrot and – you guessed it! – the parrot swore like a sailor. I heard that for myself. Apparently the lady was quite genteel and this fiancee thought it was hilarious to have the parrot uttering obscenities in her living room. (No idea if she actually married the guy but she sure kept the parrot LOL.)

???????????????????????????????My only other up close experience with parrots would be the animatronic ones in the ???????????????????????????????Disneyland Tiki Room.

Here’s what Mark Twain thought on the topic: “She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot.”

Not specifically about parrots, but I like this quote:

“When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all.” E. O. Wilson

Here’s author Eric Jerome Dickey: “It’s impossible to explain creativity. It’s like asking a bird, ‘How do you fly?’ You just do.”

I like this one too: “The soul has illusions as the bird has wings: it is supported by them.” Victor Hugo

I think the trade card below was my favorite of all the ones I found…

???????????????????????????????

 

 

Dec 31 2014

Wednesday Whimsy New Year’s Eve

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Been saving a few Victorian trade cards for this post…I hope whatever you’re doing for New Year’s Eve, whether it be an evening at home with the family, or a night out dancing, you’re going to have fun!

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.” Alfred Lord Tennyson

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” Benjamin Franklin

“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” Oprah Winfrey

“And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.” Rainer Maria Rilke

“All of us every single year, we’re a different person. I don’t think we’re the same person all our lives.” Steven Spielberg

“Celebrate what you want to see more of.” Tom Peters

This card just seems very New Years Eve-ish to me….

009

And I love the dramatic representation of time in this one!

???????????????????????????????Best wishes for a wonderful 2015 and may all your dreams come true!

Nov 19 2014

Cooking Up A Storm for Wednesday Whimsy

???????????????????????????????Since next week is the American Thanksgiving holiday, which revolves around a feast and therefore lots of cooking and baking, I pulled some Victorian era trade cards that went with that theme for Wednesday Whimsy.

Of course first one has to buy the groceries.???????????????????????????????

I love this quote from Wolfgang Puck: “Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many flavors – it’s how you combine them that sets you apart.”

And oh boy can I relate to this from Gail Simmons: “Patience was not something that came naturally to me, but in cooking it is the quintessential skill.” I’m not patient by nature at ALL but you can’t rush a turkey or a pie…

“Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” Harriet Van Horne

???????????????????????????????“Cooking with kids is not just about ingredients, recipes, and cooking. It’s about harnessing imagination, empowerment, and creativity.” Guy Fieri.  So true! And my adult children are going to cook the entire Thanksgiving feast this year, which will be interesting to say the least. Hard for me to keep out of the mix!

There’s a curmudgeon in every crowd (although I miss Andy Rooney who said the next ???????????????????????????????quote):  “I don’t like food that’s too carefully arranged; it makes me think that the chef is spending too much time arranging and not enough time cooking. If I wanted a picture I’d buy a painting.”

“I’m just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression.” Maya Angelou.

“Cooking and gardening involve so many disciplines: math, chemistry, reading, history.” David Chang. Hmmm, not sure I want to think about cooking  SO seriously, although he does have a point!

Trying to represent all viewpoints here:

“I go out to the kitchen to feed the dog, but that’s about as much cooking as I do.” Betty White

“What my mother believed about cooking is that if you worked hard and prospered, someone else would do it for you.” Nora Ephron

I beg to differ with this next person! “Stuffing is evil. Stuffing adds mass, so it slows the cooking. That’s evil because the longer the bird cooks, the drier it will be.” Alton Brown. Stuffing is THE best part at our house! We have learned to cook it in a separate pan though.

???????????????????????????????“My grandmother was a typical farm-family mother. She would regularly prepare dinner for thirty people, and that meant something was always cooking in the kitchen. All of my grandmother’s recipes went back to her grandmother.” Willard Scott. Neither of my grandmothers was a “farm-family”, but my Irish gramma surely had some wonderful recipes!

“If you’re not the one cooking, stay out of the way and compliment the chef.” Michael Strahan.

“…cooking is the expression  of the land where you are and the culture of that place.” Wolfgang Puck

“I find cooking very sensual. I love getting in there with my hands instead of utensils. With all of the textures and everything, it’s very erotic. Also the time it takes to prepare, and the anticipation and the buildup, you know. Then finally, you get to eat.” Jacqueline Obradors

And then at the end, of course someone has to do the dishes!

???????????????????????????????

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nov 12 2014

Seashells and Mermaids Wednesday Whimsy

???????????????????????????????This week I’m showcasing some Victorian trade cards with shells and an oceanic theme…???????????????????????????????
“One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few.” Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“A beach is not only a sweep of sand, but shells of sea creatures, the sea glass, the seaweed, the incongruous objects washed up by the ocean.” Henry Grunwald

“I was all in gold sequins for Million Dollar Mermaid, 50 feet in the air.” Esther Williams (Clark Gable was the first person to call her a mermaid.)

???????????????????????????????

“I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
— T.S. Eliot

???????????????????????????????
I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin’s back,
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song;
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea-maid’s music.
– William Shakespeare

 

 

 

???????????????????????????????Who would be

A mermaid fair,
Singing alone,
Combing her hair
Under the sea,
In a golden curl
With a comb of pearl,
On a throne?
I would be a mermaid fair;
I would sing to myself the whole of the day;???????????????????????????????
With a comb of pearl I would comb my hair;
And still as I comb I would sing and say,
“Who is it loves me? who loves not me?”
– Lord Alfred Tennyson, The Mermaid

 

???????????????????????????????

 

 

 

Nov 5 2014

Blowing Bubbles for Wednesday Whimsy

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????A sure fire method for entertaining babies is to blow soap bubbles…well, come to think of it, that works for  amusing pretty much everyone! I’ve put together a fun little gathering of my Victorian trade cards around this ???????????????????????????????theme.

“Real laughter is spontaneous. Like water from the spring it bubbles forth a creation of mingled action and spontaneity – two magic potions in themselves – the very essence of laughter – the unrestrained emotion within us!”  Douglas Fairbanks

“No bubble is so iridescent or floats longer than that blown by the successful teacher.”  William Osler

“In all our quest of greatness, like wanton boys, whose pastime is their care, we follow after bubbles, blown in the air.” John Webster

“Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; let fortune’s bubbles rise and fall; who sows a field, or trains a flower, or plants a tree, is more than all.” John Greenleaf Whittier

“Songs are like a form of time travel because they really have moved forward in a bubble. Everyone who’s connected with it, the studio’s gone, the musicians are gone, and the only thing which is left is this recording, which was only about a three-minute period maybe 70 years ago.” Tom Waits

???????????????????????????????I enjoy this card to the left because it solemnly instructs you to “Read The Other Side”,  lest you not flip it over and thereby miss the Yates & Company Clothing’s wish for you to have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
???????????????????????????????
???????????????????????????????
???????????????????????????????
See you next Wednesday for more Whimsy!

Oct 29 2014

Pierrot, Bonbons, More for Halloween

???????????????????????????????For Wednesday Whimsy, I thought this charming group of French 1880’s trade cards would work well, since they’re mostly Pierrot and Harlequin costumes, with a few others added in and the majority of them are advertising French chocolates and bonbons. Trick or treat indeed!

twiggy pierretteI first encountered Pierrot in the movie “The Boy Friend,” actually, when Twiggy wore the female version of the costume and sang a very sad little song which is not my favorite in that movie. These trade cards offer much happier and even mischievous examples. Looking it up, I found out the character goes back to an Italian troupe of actors performing in Paris in the late 1600’s.

???????????????????????????????He was a trusting fool, in love with a girl named Columbine, who he usually loses to ???????????????????????????????Harlequin. He was usually portrayed wearing a loose white costume with a ruff at the neck and a pointed cap or sometimes a black skullcap. He first appeared in a play by Moliere but was then adopted by many other authors and actors in the centuries since.

This character apparently had a wave of popularity in the 1880’s, which is the general time frame of these trade cards. By then mimes had adopted the white-painted face and some of the aspects of the character and the costume. It was also around this time that Pierette, the female version of Pierrot, began showing up, as a rival to the fickle Columbine.

Even the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt played Pierrot once.

???????????????????????????????“Never get a mime talking. He won’t stop.” Marcel Marceau???????????????????????????????

“I studied and performed and even taught mime years ago.” Tom Bergeron  (Who knew?)

In the card to the left, don’t you love the crown-which-is-a-castle on the girl’s head? And I want the “harlequinesque” dress on the girl to the right        ???????????????????????????????

And last but not least, the mischievous players get up to no good with the Jack-o-Lantern  in the card below:

???????????????????????????????

Happy Halloween!!!