Posted 1 year ago
wolcott1
(43 items)
These are some images from my great great grandmother's gift to my grandmother that are more on the strange and wonderful side. Not as Christmasy as the former posts.
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Fashion
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If These Shirts Could Talk: The Tantalizing Tales Behind Used Clothes
The mysterious packages kept arriving, some from eBay, others from the Home …
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Jockeying for Position: How Boxers and Briefs Got Into Men's Pants
Just as underclothes are shielded from public view, the evolution of men's most intimate apparel is shrouded in secrecy. But the story of men's underwear is about more …
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Design
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Gloriously Grotesque 19th-Century Pipes
The meerschaum pipes carved in Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th century are among the most bizarre and improbable concoctions in decorative art. Some feature …
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In the Hot Seat: Is Your Antique Windsor a Fake?
While researching her book, "Killer Stuff and Tons of Money," Maureen Stanton came across all sorts of characters. For years, she shadowed her antiques-dealer friend …
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Machines
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Love at First Kite: How Pizza and Pente Led to One Oklahoman's High-Flying Obsession
Vintage kites from all over the world hang from the ceiling and walls of Richard Dermer’s popula…
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Blood, Sweat, and Steel: My Afternoon with the Ace of Swords
“When I got this sword, it was completely covered in blood rust.” Sword maker Francis Boyd is showing me yet another weapon pulled from yet another …
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Culture
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'The Great Gatsby' Still Gets Flappers Wrong
Have you heard? There’s a new swell in town named Gatsby, and he’s bringing flapper flair back into fashion. Baz Luhrmann’s latest cinematic spectacle—his take on “Th…
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Say Ahhh: An Oral Surgeon's Quest to Reimagine the Garage-Band Guitar
It’s not unusual for men of a certain age to have a soft spot in their hearts for the look of vintage guitars and the sound…
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Collectibles
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Forget TV Pickers, Meet the Real Mavericks of the Antiques World
Long before Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz swaggered into the spotlight with "American Pickers," writer Maureen Stanton …
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Coveting The Craziest Cat-People Collectibles
The memes are endless—Grumpy Cat, Nyan Cat, Keyboard Cat, Maru, and all the Lolcats. Last year even witnessed the first ever Internet Cat Video Fe…
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Victorian EraThe Victorian Era, named after the prosperous and peaceful reign of England…
PostcardsPostcards became popular at the turn of the 20th Century, especially for se…
Here you are Hedge. Like who is that man in the third frame?? There's more to come...
Very eclectic groupings.The first one is quite different.I really love the one with the girls and dogs,I love pics that have the predater and prey living together in peace.And yeah what is up with the hatman ?Very cool !
Very eclectic is the word! The clownish guy with the toothache is different to say the least, considered comical I suppose - a bit surreal to me! I like your take on the predator and prey togetherness theme. The children look a little startled in the last frame lol, but perhaps they have an expression of wonder. I'm glad I have this book. I only acquired it a few years ago, and just looked through it for the second time last week.
It just keeps getting better, Thank-you for these wondeful images!
BeauxPurdy, Your post cards are amazing so I take that as a real compliment, thanks!
Sing a song of sixpence. A pocket full of rye. Four and twenty blackbirds. Baked in a pie. When the pie was opened. The birds began to sing......
But what are doing with those pigeons down below?
Vet, Exactly the question I was asking myself, lol. Hopefully not getting ready to be baked in a pie...
I now see there's a title to that picture of the pigeons. Can I get you to have a look at it? I think they might be readying them for message duty. It might be a war thing.
Vetraio, there is a caption written in French under the pigeon picture partly obscured. The best I can see is Le Gav(several letters obscured) des Pigeons. Perhaps a pigeon is being hand fed (gavage). It is a large image that seems to be cut out from a french text maybe a newspaper. There is french writing on the back (I pulled back a corner). I like your theory about the pigeons being messenger carriers for wartime. I'm sure that's what it is. Thanks!
Hi wolcott! It might be a little more sinister than a war theme. 'Le gavage' is normally associated with geese and ducks. Remember those stories of 'forced feeding' of poor animals by farmers to fatten them up for bigger livers; "foie gras"?
It was a practise confined to le Périgord & le Midi in France where an expert would use an tube-like object called an "embuc" to pour feed down the neck of the bird.
There's a version of the engraving for sale on ebay France at the moment, taken from a a magazine. Probably where your grandmother got hers as well.
Squab is eaten not only in France.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squab_(food)
On a TV programme I saw how the English gentry had dovecotes (des pigeonniers) where they kept birds to breed. Huge towers where the birds nested and provided eggs on a daily basis for the lord's table. The young birds were eaten too as a ready source of protein.
Perhaps the engraving shows an industrial form of readying young birds for the restaurants of Paris. Wiki also mentions the squab and frog pie as a treat for Friday food. Perhaps your grandmother was 'meating out" the idea of four and twenty black birds.
Here in Australia we eat "meat pies" as a form of fast food. One of the major producers of these Ozzie favorites is a firm called Four'N Twenty founded in 1947 and still active today. Their logo has a pie open with lots of blackbirds flying out.
http://prismreptilerobot.net/archives/2010/02/20/992/
Wow, I can't believe you saw the same engraving on ebay. My photographic skills leave much to be desired but I can see now that they are in a huge warehouse like building and the man in the picture is indeed force feeding the bird- thus the word "gavage." Pigeon pie- well, well, lol.
Vetraio you are amazing putting this all together ;) Thanks for sharing. So much fun!
Happy New Year!
I think grandma was pretty out there.
Did you see the little cat eyeing off the pie, too?
She's created a series of images that bounce off each other.
More than just 'collage'; there's a term for it, but not much used: 'concrete poetry'.
What about the title underneath the Caucasian in his 'papakhi'?
Why the geraniums (or palergoniums)?
And the title underneath those horses is " ...scouting danger' with those very wary kids and leaping tiger and wolves after a ram.
She seems to have a real feeling for animals and their plight.
Vet, My mom was a collage artist! It must have skipped a couple of generations from my great, great grandmother to my mom. My grandmother grew up with all kinds of pets including a miniature pot bellied pig. It's nice to see the connections.
The title underneath the man says "A Cossack. (By Permission of Cassell, Petter and Galpin)" Etching by H. Koch. Perhaps at the time he was considered exotic by my great, great grandmother. Yes, I love the kitty peering out (at the birds). She must have had a good time putting it all together.
Happy New Year Vet!!!
Thanks Oz, Vanskyock24, CantStopBuying,Lisa, Scandi, Vintagemad and jojomang for the likes and loves!!
Thanks for looking AmberRose and Checkerbloom!
Thanks BluVamp!
Thanks Bellin68!
your very welcome wolcott1:)
This is just awesome.