Victorian Photocollage Exhibit

I found out about the wonderful exhibit of Victorian Photocollages that is at The Art Institute of Chicago via the website Retronuat. So exciting that this is the first exhibit of this kind of thing and the books that accompany it are the first scholarly look at photocollage in the Victorian era.

Sixty years ahead of the avant-garde—and more than a century before Photoshop—aristocratic Victorian women were already experimenting with photocollage. This world-premiere exhibition is the first to comprehensively examine this little-known phenomenon, presenting many eye-opening works that have rarely—and in many cases never—before been displayed or reproduced. (from the AIC website)

You can see more collages here. Hope all you folks near Chicago can go.

calling cards

In the 19th century everyone of any social standing had a card with their name printed on it usually with some decorative element added. These were called Calling Cards and were an important part of introducing oneself and fostering friendships.

I have no idea is this is THE Oscar Wilde's card. But, isn't it fun to think it is? I need to research this a bit.

If you lived back then you might come back from a day out and there would be a small pile of calling cards on your entryway table from all the people who had come by to see you that day. After a dinner party or a ball it was customary for folks who attended to come by the next day and leave their card.

I can easily imagine how exciting it must have been to go to the printers and choose the font and emblem that you would want for your cards. What you chose was a key way of showing everyone who you were and I'm sure it was taken quite seriously.

When wax-resist color printing known as chromolithography became available for the masses, around 1880, calling cards could then be made in bright and many hued colors. On the more lavish cards it took over a dozen steps to print all the colors. 

A popular and fun type of calling card was the hidden name cards. Cards would be printed with the name and often cut into fancy shapes and a color decorative paper (now often called Victorian Scrap) was laid over and glued on one end. The result was that the recipient had to lift the decorative cover to see who had visited. I would assume this also served as a nice privacy screen for anyone who happens to be walking by your entryway table. (There is a set of these currently for sale in the shop)

Calling cards had a full set of rituals and sub-genres. One thing I like is that there were secret messages that you could convey by folding different corners of the cards. Some cards were specifically made so that a different design would appear if the corner was folded.

I kind of miss the days of the calling cards. I remember when my grandparents moved to Arizona in the 1970's there was this little holder on the wall outside their house. I asked what it was and my grandmother said it was for people to put their calling cards or business cards into. That was the first I had heard of something like that and I found it fascinating.

I guess business cards aren't really that different. But, they are seldom worth keeping. But, as you can imagine with me -  if you give me your business card and it's pretty enough I will keep it for a long time.

I am your friend

I am quite taken by the sentiment on the back of the portrait of this studious and very sincere seeming young man. On the back of this portrait it says:

With kind remembrance 

I am your Friend 

Henry Johnson

I love that he just states it. Just in case the recipient isn't sure he is letting it be known and making the commitment. I think that's lovely and I think we should do that more.  Maybe we could start posting on facebook walls and just say "I am your Friend" (friend capitalized as he did) to friends we really feel committed to. I am totally serious about this. I am not making fun of it, in case you can't tell.

I just listed old Henry here and also the beautiful wistful portrait below on my Etsy shop.  Her signature on the back is hard to see (partly damaged) but she also tells the recipient they are an old friend.

Valentine Party

I'm so pleased with this old photo that I got at the last Postcard Club meeting. It's of what looks like to be a Valentine's Day Party.

It's a group of woman, a table set with tea and snacks and homemade paper valentine decorations all around. I love that the photographer was more interested in getting a good shot of the table than the people.

I was so charmed by all the red paper hearts, I wanted to tint them all. This is a photo I really wish I could see in color.

Valentines Day is coming up. Maybe you're gonna have a little party. You can get some ideas from this photo and there's lots of great ideas in this old 1935 Children's Holiday Book I posted about previously. The illustrations in that book are gorgeous.

I posted a few new things in the shop yesterday:

Etsy thecedarchest

The Ghost Story

I really love the deep colors of this old illustration and the detail of the room. The image was used to sell cough syrup around 1860. Hard to believe this is around 150 years old and it still looks so rich and not faded.

It came to me torn, but from this blog I found what it says at the top:

The Ghost Story - "The moral of this, the Sixteenth Card of our Series, is that, if young ladies would avoid creating a scene, similar to the one of the artist, Mr. R. W. Buss, gives us in this admirable picture, they had better forego reading ghost stories at bed-time."

Turns out Mr R.W. Buss is a pretty big deal in London history. He illustrated some Dicken books. Here is more info on Robert William Buss.

The medicine that this illustration was for Dr. Jayne's Tonic Vermifuge. Dr Jayne's Family Medicine was a long lived and very successful company. It was around from 1843-1930 and they spared no expense getting the best illustrators for their products.

Wonderful illustrations for packagaing and advertising insured that people would be more likely to remember the product, even people who couldn't read and it also meant people would keep your illustrations for a long time - which is why we still have them now. People tucked them away and really valued them - even torn. I like that this is torn - it adds something to it.

I often don't know when I start these posts where they will lead. It is so neat to be able to learn more about these items instantly. Thanks, internet. I love you.

Oh and speaking of love. I've added some new vintage Valentine finds to The Cedar Chest shop. More to come soon.

Etsy thecedarchest

singular

I had a discussion with someone recently about collecting old photographs and she mentioned she likes to collect photos of women standing by themselves looking strong and solid. As soon as she mentioned it I realized that I am drawn to and collect those, too, without really realizing it.

The first image I thought of when she said that was this one of Ethel, that I absolutely adore.

I also really love this one. Just now after scanning it I could have lightened up to see more of the background, but it looks so good in the original dark state. I really like her outfit here. Such soft prettiness next to the industrial setting is great here.

This next one is more about the freedom to have fun to me. I love the old Rink sign and that she had a fun filled day of skating, presumably, in that hat and long dress. Perhaps something that was scandolous and wild to the older generation.

some new items listed

I finally listed some new items on The Cedar Chest shop. The set of postcards below is one of the listings. I wanted to share the message on the back of the red illustrated one:

Just got home from camping. Gee I wish you could come over.I'm not going to the fair. Are you? I'm working awful hard washing dishes. We have 6 men boarding here. Come over I'll give you your pick. They are nice ones too. Hazel

To: Miss Amy Harpe, Summerville, Ore. Postmark: Cheney, Wash August 9, 1909

puffed sleeves

Those are some puffy sleeves. All I know about this photo is that it was taken in San Francisco.

This, of course, makes me think of Anne of Green Gables. When Matthew buys her a dress with puffed sleeves. The thing she has been dreaming of having, but sensible Marrilla is dead against.

Anne: Marrilla, look at the puffs!"
Marilla: They're ridiculous, you'll have to turn sideways to get in the doors

sitting for a picture

About a month ago I watched the PBS show 1900 House. This is one of those shows where people go live in a house that is designed exactly as it would have been in a certain period and they have to eat and dress and live their lives as people did at that time. I love those kinds of shows.

In 1900 House they had one scene where Dad took the family out to the garden to pose for some pictures. He used a large camera with glass plates and developed them at home, I believe. I wish there was a video of that scene because it was very interesting. Seeing him set the camera up and do all the stuff he had to do and then watching them sit still for 5 seconds while he snapped the image was enlightening. It made me view the many black and white images I have from that time period with a little more color. It became a little more real to me.

About a day or two after I saw that show I came across these glass plate negatives. It was a nice moment to have it all come together in a way.

when girls and flowers shared names

The photograph on the left:

Pansy Miley Lawrence, aged 16 years 5 months. To Katie. Pansy Lawrence ----- Galesburg, Ill

The photograph on the right:

from Daisy. J.E.M.

I love the old trend of naming girls after flowers. I am sure many people have taken it up again in the last ten years. I met a woman once named Columbine. Unfortunately, I think less people would associate that with the flower nowadays.

Some other popular flower/plant names form the past: Magnolia, Violet, Fern, Ivy, Olive, Begonia, Blossom, Flora, Gardenia, Forsythia, Hyacinth, Lily, Jasmine, Marigold, Petunia, Poppy, Petula, Rose.

Are there any you have to add?

Although men are seldom named after flowers and plants, I have always liked the name Garland for a man, although it is rather flowery. There was a commercial on TV years and years ago with two old men. Their names were Gilbert and Garland and I have always been so fond of those names.

pretty things

Hello all. I finally got a chance to get some of the new Victorian Die Cut Scrap that I got for the shop listed on Etsy. Here are some new items. Hope you all had a great weekend. (P.S. There are more to come)

Etsy Buy Handmade thecedarchest

scrapbooks

I am currently reading a really interesting book called Scrapbooks: An American History. As, I am sure you can guess, it is a history of scrapbooks in America and it includes so many different kinds of scrapbooks. The photos are great and I really am enjoying learning about the history of scrapbooks.

I don't do scrapbooks like people do them today. I actually am not much of a fan of the style of scrapbooking that is so popular now, but I do like the idea of saving souvenirs and pretty paper things that you like and pasting them in a book with words and memories. I save the stuff. I just don't ever seem to get to the pasting down and arranging part.

But, since my interest in Victorian scrap and ephemera has recently been re-energized, I have been thinking more about the scrapbooks that they kept back then.

I love that the the scraps were collected just because they were pretty. Recently I came across some Victorian Scraps that had been pasted in someones scrapbook. They were images carefully cut out of boxes for products and maybe advertising cards.




I love the idea that someone appreciated the art in advertising and liked it enough to take the time to cut it out and paste it in a book. According to this book I am reading, many of the scrapbooks that had these kinds of items in it were mostly only these kinds of items.

There is a great illustration of a Victorian scrapbook using these kind of scraps in the book, but I cannot get it copy well. But, you get the idea. This is from around the 1880's.


From the book Scrapbooks by Jessica Helfand

Nineteenth-century scrapbooks, like this one made by Virginia native Annie Grace Clarke in the late 1880s or 90s, [see below] were a virtual ode to chromolithography, consisting of pages that basically celebrated the colored scrap. Annie's album contains trade cards, token of affection cards, chromolithographs and embossed prints, and exemplifies the Victorian propensity to create decorative, non-narrative pages. Compared to their predecessors — those staid volumes of black and white clippings, poems and prayers that dominated in the earlier part of the century — books like Annie’s are equally notable for their absence of writing. Many compositions like this one operate from a central image, around which an orbit of smaller images seems to radiate, like a quiet explosion on the page.


Some original die cut Victorian scrap I am getting organizing. Some will be listed in the shop soon:



You can view a lot of the scrapbook pages and read about them online, too, at The Daily Scrapbook.

my first

I think this is the first piece of ephemera I bought. I got it at a huge old bookstore in Oakland around 1989. I am sure the bookstore is long gone.

I love the idea that little pieces of illustrated paper were prizes at one time. I can imagine that Lizzie kept this for her whole life. Maybe she placed it in the corner of a mirror or propped it up on her desk in her room while she was growing up. No doubt is was a treasured item.

victorian lovelies

I just updated the shop with some one-of-a-kind Victorian embellishments. These are not reproductions, but the real thing and are in great condition.

Two of them are glued on calling cards. Each has a name on it. The glue is almost gone, so they could be easily taken off. I just found the names on the card while I was doing this and it was very exciting.

Emma E Everett

John Egger

are the names. I get such a thrill out of these kind of things.

Victorian Die Cut Decorations

Just in time for Valentines Day, I recently found some antique Victorian die cut embellishments. These are originals, not reproductions and are in wonderful condition.

They are so charming. They were very popular and were used for scrapbooks and for making cards and valentines.

I have a few listings of some of these to add tomorrow night. But, here is a little preview.

First Post

Welcome to my new blog, The Cedar Chest.

I have been a collector of vintage ephemera and photos for 15+ years. It is a pretty big part of me and yet I don't really comment about it that much. I wanted a place where I could share the images that are my favorites and also the vintage ephemera I am selling in my online Etsy shop, The Cedar Chest.

So, I am starting the posts off with some choice items I have tacked up (magnet board, actually) in my den. Some are new things that I put up there for a while so I can enjoy and some have been up for a long time.

Here is an image of a Victorian room. I have long been attracted to images of houses and have collected many. I have used some of them for my zine of house fictions, Current Resident.

It is somewhat rare to find images of houses without people in front of them, but it is even harder to find images of house interiors with no one in them. For a while now these have been something I have been interested in. Oh, how I wish I had images of the house I grew up in like this. Why didn't we think to do that!



I am looking forward to sharing more images with you, maybe even some from my past! I have lots of great old slides I have been scanning.