Mar 2 2016

Image

Wednesday Whimsy Flower Girls

025 Continuing on with my general theme of Spring and flowers, here are a series of Victorian trade (advertising) cards that feature delightful ladies perched a bit precariously on flower stems!

The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all directions. Chanakya

There are always flowers for those who want to see them. Henri Matisse

Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul. Luther Burbank

Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson 027

Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them. A. A. Milne

Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light. Theodore Roethke

The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful
bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms. Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him. Auguste Rodin

How does the Meadow flower its bloom unfold? Because the lovely little flower is free down to its root, and in that freedom bold. William Wordsworth

It’s so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that’s what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom. Alice Walker

How can you consider flower power outdated? The essence of my lyrics is the desire for peace and harmony. That’s all anyone has ever wanted. How could it become outdated? Robert Plant

The smallest flower is a thought, a life answering to some feature of the Great Whole, of whom they have a persistent intuition. Honore de Balzac

By means of microscopic observation and astronomical projection the lotus flower can become the foundation for an entire theory of the universe and an agent whereby we may perceive Truth. Yukio Mishima

The fact that the colors in the flower have evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; that means insects can see the colors. That adds a question: does this aesthetic sense we have also exist in lower forms of life? Richard P. Feynman

When I walk with you I feel as if I had a flower in my buttonhole. William Makepeace Thackeray

Love is the answer, and you know that for sure; Love is a flower, you’ve got to let it grow. John Lennon 032

031

Feb 24 2016

Wednesday Whimsy Sylphs

020 I’m in a Springlike, flowery mood and when I went through my big box of Victorian trade (advertising) cards today, I found this series from The Liebig company, entitled “Les Sylphides.” They were mythological spirits of the Air, first named and described by Paracelsus in the 16th century. A number of creative people have been inspired by the idea of Sylphs and there are several different romantic ballets centered around this theme.

Until I researched the name for this post, I thought they were merely fairies but apparently Paracelsus himself visualized them “rougher, coarser, taller, and stronger than humans.” You can see that the Liebig illustrator was more in tune with my theory of the ladies as nymphs or fairylike beings!

015 (Liebig by the way, was an 1800’s purveyor of extract of meat, and renowned for their beautifully illustrated sets of trading cards on just about any subject you can imagine. The company continued on into the 20th century in a variety of corporate incarnations.)

021

“She’s the only sylph I ever saw, who could stand upon one leg, and play the tambourine on her other knee, like a sylph.” Charles Dickens

022

Oft when the World imagine Women stray,
The Sylphs thro’ mystick Mazes guide their Way,
Thro’ all the giddy Circle they pursue,
And old Impertinence expel by new.

And:

To draw fresh Colours from the vernal Flow’rs,
To steal from Rainbows ere they drop in Show’rs
A brighter Wash; to curl their waving Hairs,
Assist their Blushes, and inspire their Airs;
Nay oft, in Dreams, Invention we bestow,
To change a Flounce, or add a Furbelo.

Both quotes from Alexander Pope’s poem The Rape of the Lock

024

Dec 9 2015

Victorian Fairy Tales for Wednesday Whimsy

032 The holiday season all seems magical to me, so I thought I’d share some of my Victorian trade (advertising) cards which feature fairy tales, nursery rhymes or myths! The card above needs no further explanation, I’m sure. Lion Coffee ran quite a series of nursery rhyme cards.

019 My favorites are these three from Au Bon Marche, the first modern department store, founded in 1852 in Paris. These cards are from the story of Cinderella, and I wish I had the entire set because they’re quite charming. We have her helping the wicked stepsisters to dress for the ball; the Fairy Godmother’s arrival – and I have to say the 018 FG looks like she’s been imbibing a bit too much or something, her expression is a hoot! – and then the Prince finding that the glass slipper fits Cinderella. Typically the cards from this store are lovely…

Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it. Alexandre Dumas

All the ancient classic fairy tales have always been scary and dark. Helena Bonham Carter (She was my favorite EVER Fairy Godmother in the recent live action Disney “Cinderella”.)

002

In kindergarten that used to be my job, to tell them fairytales. I liked Hans Christian Andersen, and the Grimm fairy tales, all the classic fairy tales. Francis Ford Coppola

With ‘Stardust’, I hope what I was doing is giving 30-year-olds and 40-year-olds and 25-year-olds and 60-year-olds a chance to get the same sense of wonder, the same feeling, the same magic, that they got in reading the classic fairy tales as children. Neil Gaiman

I think that Shakespeare himself raided fairy tales and chronicle writers, and he always looked to people who worked in the mythic genres, whether it was folk tales or popular novels. Kenneth Branagh

012

I also like these charming fairy tale cards featuring children….

021

022

Nov 4 2015

Victorian Hats and Caps for Wednesday Whimsy

It’s been rather windy of late where I live, which made me think of hats, so this week I’m sharing some of my Victorian trade (advertising) cards with that theme. I realize the hats and caps depicted are from different eras, but the cards are pretty much all Victorian.

I did another post about hats awhile ago, so for today’s quotes I’m going with the subject of wind. Speaing of which, the only song I ever learned in Spanish was “Windy” by The Association. Second random fact, the only song I ever learned in Russian was “Moscow Nights.” OK, on with the quotes!

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. William Arthur Ward

The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all directions. Chanakya

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind. Bruce Lee

If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees. Khalil Gibran

A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known autumn too long. e. e. cummings

Life is short. It can come and go like a feather in the wind. Shania Twain

Same with anyone who’s been flying for years and loves it still… we’re part of a world we deeply love. Just as musicians feel about scores and melodies, dancers about the steps and flow of music, so we’re one with the principle of flight, the magic of being aloft in the wind! Richard Bach

The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach. Henry Beston

Though the sex to which I belong is considered weak you will nevertheless find me a rock that bends to no wind. Elizabeth I

He ploughs the waves, sows the sand, and hopes to gather the wind in a net, who places his hopes in the heart of a woman. Jacopo Sannazaro

Men do change, and change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass. John Steinbeck

The autumn wind is a pirate. Blustering in from sea with a rollicking song he sweeps along swaggering boisterously. His face is weather beaten, he wears a hooded sash with a silver hat about his head… The autumn wind is a Raider, pillaging just for fun. Steve Sabol

Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires. Francois de La Rochefoucauld

One learns more from listening than speaking. And both the wind and the people who continue to live close to nature still have much to tell us which we cannot hear within university walls. Thor Heyerdahl

Words empty as the wind are best left unsaid. Homer

Oct 21 2015

Strike up the Victorian Ladies Band! Wednesday Whimsy

I lucked into this set of Victorian trade (advertising) cards awhile ago. I have no idea what they were meant to advertise or who issued them. Also, they’re numbered, which implies they were part of some kind of set originally. Maybe as an inducement to collect them all by buying a certain product? Mine have numbers in the 90’s, so there must have been at least 100 in the series.

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything. Plato

Where words fail, music speaks. Hans Christian Andersen

Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman. Beethoven

Music is the strongest form of magic. Marilyn Manson

It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony. Benjamin Britten

For me, singing sad songs often has a way of healing a situation. It gets the hurt out in the open into the light, out of the darkness. Reba McIntire

Music doesn’t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music. Jimi Hendrix

Jazz is smooth and cool. Jazz is rage. Jazz flows like water. Jazz never seems to begin or end. Jazz isn’t methodical, but jazz isn’t messy either. Jazz is a conversation, a give and take. Jazz is the connection and communication between musicians. Jazz is abandon. Nat Wolff

Music is the shorthand of emotion. Tolstoy

Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it. John Lennon

Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life. Jean Paul

Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die. Paul Simon

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. Maya Angelou

Sep 9 2015

Outrageous Victorian Hats for Wednesday Whimsy

Picked some of my favorite Victorian trade (advertising) cards for today’s topic of hats. This lovely lady to the left is an advertisement for “Heather’s Popular Dry & Fancy Goods Store” between 5th and 6th Avenues in NYC. She’s soooo serious!

I don’t wear hats much, unless I’m going to a costume thing, as with this steampunk cowgirl-themed event at the 2014 RWA conference. Purple cowgirl hat with rhinestones and feathers – what’s not to love? I used to have those little unsatisfactory white hats every year for Easter as a girl and one of my best friends gave me a blue velvet Dumas Three Musketeers hat years ago at a Ren Faire. Yes, complete with ostrich plume. I wish I were British sometimes because I’d love to wear those insane ‘fascinator’ hats that seem to defy gravity.

I have different hats; I’m a mother, I’m a woman, I’m a human being, I’m an artist and hopefully I’m an advocate. All of those plates are things I spin all the time. Annie Lennox
A person carries off the hat. Hats are about emotion. It is all about how it makes you feel. Philip Treacy

As a singer I tried on all these hats, these voices, these clothes, and eventually out came me. Carly Simon

When I first became a lawyer, only 2% of the bar was women. People would always think I was a secretary. In those days, professional women in the business world wore hats. So I started wearing hats. Bella Abzug

I just let the work speak for itself. An actor is not afraid to take risks; to put on different hats; to be a good guy, a bad guy, a victim, an abuser. There are all kinds of people in the world, and playing them is what acting is all about. Kevin Bacon

There’s a technicality to designing and wearing hats. A hat is balancing the proportions of your face; it’s like architecture or mathematics. Philip Treacy

I own over ninety-five different hats and, over the years, have lost or given away 120 hats. You gain to lose… you lose to gain. Theophilus London

All politicians should have 3 hats – one to throw into the ring, one to talk through, and one to pull rabbits out of if elected. Carl Sandburg

The only person I never made a hat for was my mother because my mother didn’t really – she preferred to make her own hats. I mean, she was intrigued by everything, but she didn’t want one of my hats. She made her own. Philip Treacy

Hats divide generally into three classes: offensive hats, defensive hats, and shrapnel. Katharine Whitehorn

And sometimes a hat isn’t a hat at all! This lady was used to advertise a “tonic and dyspeptic” remedy that actually sounded pretty darn unpleasant in the advertising copy on the reverse side.

Sep 2 2015

Peacocks for Wednesday Whimsy

Peacocks and their feathers were a big theme in Victorian trade (advertising) cards, so I thought I’d share some today! They are beautiful birds, even if they can be annoying to live near – very noisy!

She is a peacock in everything but beauty. Oscar Wilde

Some are jealous and fond of ornament, as the peacock. Aristotle

At twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty a nothing at all. Baltasar Gracian

“Dream tonight of peacock tails, / Diamond fields and spouter whales. /
Ills are many, blessings few, / But dreams tonight will shelter you.” Thomas Pynchon

Fly pride, says the peacock. William Shakespeare

She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue, Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue; Striped like a zebra, freckled like a
pard, Eyed like a peacock, and all crimson barr’d. John Keats

The sparrow is sorry for the peacock at the burden of his tail. Rabindranath Tagore

Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time. Jean Paul

Feathers predate birds. Robert T. Bakker

I like the way the peacock is subtly worked into this lady’s dress pattern. And here below – although not Victorian – is a photo of my latest Lenox Carousel animal acquisition, couldn’t resist when I saw it!

Aug 26 2015

Imagination for Wednesday Whimsy

I love these Victorian trade (advertising) cards with children at play, exercising their imaginations!

I doubt that the imagination can be suppressed. If you truly eradicated it in a child, he would grow up to be an eggplant. Ursula K. Le Guin

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. Albert Einstein

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try! Dr. Seuss

You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. Mark Twain

I am putting real plums into an imaginary cake. Mary McCarthy

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only at night. Edgar Allan Poe

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds. Gilbert K. Chesterton

The man who has no imagination has no wings. Muhammad Ali

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. Carl Sagan

Everything you can imagine is real. Pablo Picasso

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. Sylvia Plath

Imagination rules the world. Napoleon Bonaparte

One can live in the shadow of an idea without grasping it. Elizabeth Bowen

Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning. Gloria Steinem

Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination. Voltaire

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. John Lennon

A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment. Jane Austen

Falling in love consists merely in uncorking the imagination and bottling the common sense. Helen Rowland

I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything. Alice Walker

(I realize the card below is probably not Victorian but it fit the theme and I loved it!)

Jul 22 2015

Bicycles for Wednesday Whimsy

Continuing on with my very loose theme of summer activities, today I’m sharing some charming Victorian trade (advertising) cards on the subject of bicycles. And who knew there were so many great quotes about bicycles?! Of course the quotes aren’t Victorian….

Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use. Charles M. Schulz

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race. H. G. Wells

She who succeeds in gaining the mastery of the bicycle will gain the mastery of life. Susan B. Anthony

Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong. Terry Pratchett

Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle. Helen Keller

Look at Albert Einstein. He rode a bicycle. He was also an early student of Jazzercise. You never saw Einstein lift his shirt, but he had a six-pack under there. Steve Carell

The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets. Christopher Morley

My father got a phone call to bring me in to meet with Spielberg for ‘E.T.,’ partially because they knew I was a physical kid, and I was known in the business somewhat as a stunt kid, and I could do all the bicycle riding. C. Thomas Howell

Jul 8 2015

Rowboats for Wednesday Whimsy

When I was a kid growing up, my grandparents built a summer cottage beside a lake in upstate New York. We all spent hours and hours there and some of my best memories center around the lake. I was allowed to take the rowboat out by myself and I used to explore and fish and read and daydream….so for me, rowboats are part of summer!

I present some of my favorite Victorian trade (advertising) cards today for your July enjoyment.

I didn’t sail (although my grandfather equipped the boat with a removable mast and sewed a sail) but I liked this quote:

Sailing a boat calls for quick action, a blending of feeling with the wind and water as well as with the very heart and soul of the boat itself. Sailing teaches alertness and courage, and gives in return a joyousness and peace that but few sports afford. George Matthew Adams

Being on a boat that’s moving through the water, it’s so clear. Everything falls into place in terms of what’s important and what’s not. James Taylor

On my tombstone, I want written: ‘He never did ‘Love Boat!’ Orson Welles

I did a ‘Love Boat!’ And based on my trip on the ‘Love Boat,’ I said, ‘I’d just as soon not do ‘Fantasy Island.’ Tom Hanks

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. Wallace Stevens (Or rowing across it. VS)

It was beautiful. It was perfectly still when we got there in the morning. The fog was lifting off the water. It was just magical. Jennifer Granholm