Feb 11 2015

Romance In A Glance Valentine Whimsy

As I collect my Victorian era trade cards, the romance novelist in me is most fascinated by the ones that seem to encapsulate an entire romance in a single glance. I’ve been saving these cards for my Valentine’s Day whimsy post. Before we get to those, I think it’s amusing that the 1880’s had their version of “Victoria’s Secret Angels” (some concepts are timeless, apparently) even though these ladies to the left here are advertising cigarettes…and for this post I’m considering them to be Cupids…

This first card to the right is my very favorite and for some reason it reminds me of Georgette Heyer Regency novels (which I love with a passion…). I realize it doesn’t seem to be depicting the Regency (and I’m no expert) but something about it really appeals to me. Probably the man in uniform with the broad shoulders and her very demure face.

Moving along, this next one could be an entire novel I think. My take is that the dashing musketeer or cavalier is trying to make his case with the maid, while the eager lady of the house is just now coming through the door. (Of course, he is bringing the maid starch, which considerably reduces the romance factor and could indicate he wants her to starch his small clothes just so, but I choose to go with the more interesting romance plot.Then we have some more conventional moments of romance to share….

I love the elderly couple depicted below – romance doesn’t pay attention to age!

And here’s a beautiful pigeon in the center, below, who’s clearly delivering a love letter, don’t you think? Happy Valentine’s Day!

Jan 28 2015

Wednesday Whimsy – Snow Days

Sending lots of good thoughts to everyone currently snowed in or otherwise challenged by the snowstorm on the East Coast (including my relatives in Maine!). I grew up in upstate New York, so I remember big storms and being snowed in. We’d lose our mailbox after the first big storm of the year because the snowplow would push it under a big drift. We wouldn’t see it again till Spring thaw. If we wanted mail, we had to stand in the road around 11AM and try to catch Fred the mailman as he drove by on his rounds. Because, as we all know, snow didn’t stop him.

I like this Shakespeare quote (partly because he uses the word “kindle”, which of course nowadays brings something else to mind, thanks Amazon): “As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.”

This is a good one too: “The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?” J. B. Priestley

Interesting pair of sled dogs the child in the card above has!

I have a feeling this next quote represents more closely how many people in the East may be regarding the event: “A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.” Carl Reiner

“We build statues out of snow, and weep to see them melt.” Walter Scott. Well, ok, I built snowmen and snowwomen but I don’t believe I ever cried when they melted, did you?

And we’ll finish with this: “Advice is like snow – the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper in sinks into the mind.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Aug 20 2014

L is For Laundry on Whimsy Wednesday

Combining my slowly unfolding A to Z challenge with my Wednesday Whimsy meme, and adding in my Victorian trade cards! I’ve got some fun ones to share this week. I actually enjoy doing laundry, even though it’s one of those never ending tasks. Somehow it doesn’t seem as pointless to me as dusting does. I even enjoyed the laundry process as a kid when I had to go hang the clothes outside to dry, using wooden clothespins. I think it’s satisfying to end up with loads of clean, fresh smelling clothes and sheets, more or less neatly folded. Although thankfully our clothespins didn’t talk to me or try to run away, as the ones on this card above are doing!

True story – my mother was right handed and she would go behind me into the linen closet and refold ALL the towels I’d just put away, because I folded them the reverse way from how she did it and she informed me it bothered her to know the towels were mixed up on the shelves, facing different directions! (I’m left handed.) She’d really be appalled by the state of folding in my current linen closet.

I think these trade cards are especially fun, from a late 1800’s brand called Soapine. Evidently they did a whole series of clever cards where daily household objects spelled out the company name. The two I’m sharing in this post were my favorites. Soapine also had other humorous cards, like the clothespins, and more mundane ones, without humor, that just touted the virtues of the soap itself.

I have a kind of running joke with one of my author friends, about how she always leaves the laundry until Sunday night and then has to stay up late to get it all done – this 1880’s Queen of Laundry card below is in your honor, Jodie!

Aug 13 2014

Ladies Reading ~ Wednesday Whimsy

For today’s Wednesday Whimsy I went to my stash of Victorian trade cards and decided to present a theme of Ladies Reading. Most are reading books but a few, like this charming medieval damsel, are apparently reading letters. I love her hair, seems to be in the most elaborate braid.

Found this quote from Francis Bacon:

“Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.”

And I think the picture is a good illustration for the quote

She was advertising some kind of meat extract…..

Now the recumbent young lady below was apparently reading and then began having “Maidens Dream of a New Home”, as the card says, which was apparently going to have to feature a new sewing machine! Here’s a quote for her:

“Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.” John Locke

I love the ones of people reading together, like these two elaborately dressed young ladies, who were advertising shoes (although the shoes are all but invisible in the picture).

And my next art card embodies this Jane Austen quote, I think, and reminds me so much of her novels. “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

And this last one is just fun – she’s obviously reading a scary book alone at night. I like to imagine she’s reading Frankenstein perhaps, or Dracule, or maybe even The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. This card was advertising “a trusty family tonic” and advises on the reverse side that young ladies should forego reading ghost stories at bedtime. I guess if they ignored the advice, then the trusty tonic was ready to banish the nightmares!

Aug 6 2014

She Went to Sea In A Sea Shell 1800s Cards

Continuing on with my new Wednesday Whimsy posts, here is a charming set of three Victorian trade cards that I thought had sort of an almost-steampunk feel – the ladies are so intrepid, setting out across the ocean in a shell or a bowl or on a banjo! (Yes, I do realize that other than binoculars there aren’t any specific steampunk elements.)

These are from a shoe and shoe repair store, “Repairing neatly done.”

I also liked that one lady brought along her cat and her dog, and a good book to read! I’d be too nervous to read, out there in the middle of the ocean, in a glass bowl so I admire her fortitude.

And then the third card in the series:

I also found the charming trade card below, which carries on the ladies at sea theme in a somewhat more alarming manner – three undersea bathing beauties have been caught in a net. This one is from a Parisian corset and lingerie maker!

Jul 30 2014

Wednesday Whimsy Cat Romance Doesn’t Run Smoothly

Continuing on with my current weekly series of fun 1800’s Victorian “trade cards,” from my collection, here’s one from Brummel’s Fine Candies that I found amusing:

“Well, sir, what are you going to do about it?” the caption across the top reads (sorry, it photographs a bit darkly). Sounds like a cat duel will soon ensue! I love the expression on the lady cat’s face. Not too sure what this had to do with candy….I think my money is on the marmalade tomcat….