All Things Merry and Bright

Definitely from the Sinister Nineteenth Century Department.  Time to read The Scripture.

Apple-Munching She-Dweeb

The Acknowledged Favorite

I don't think he's really playing.  Charming and peculiar detail: the white lozenge-like ornaments on the chair, the violin, the bow, and of course His Himness's "shorty" leather overall.

Joy to the World Etc.

Dutch (I think) Xmas greeting with a sinister someone seeming to rise out of a steaming hot bathtub which turns out to be a little bed.  I covet purply nightshirt of female urchin on the left.  If they happen to look up, they are going to jump out of their skin.

Courtesanal

You Said It, I Didn't

Men in Their Off-Hours (Not)

Mustaches required, it seems.  Don't know when this photograph was taken, but it remains a still-daunting challenge to the viewer.  Do not ignore or demean us.  We are intel-ligent men.  We gave you many things you value.

Still In The Asparagus Biz

Another beautiful card showing Sicilian occupations and their costumes.  Gorgeous subtlety to the colors here.

Preternatural Children Department

A slightly odd version of the standard circa 1900 French 'pretty child' postcard genre.  The blowsy hair and the tension in the arrangement of the mouth--a slightly curled lip on one side and raised nostril--makes this sequin-speckled girl strangely "adult" in presentation.  There's a critical dimension, a kind of incipient bluestocking-ism, here that puzzles.  Puzzles me, at least.

Home-Made Dog Brontosaurians

A hand-colored postcard drawn in  idiot savant mode.  (The medium is chalk pastel.) Luckily, dogs' short legs and insanely long backs (are they meant to be Retrievers?) do not impinge altogether disastrously on the nobility of the scene.

My Favorite Derviche

The hair, the hat--he'ze got it going on.  And did I ever say turquoisey-greeny-yallery is my favorite color combination of the moment?

The. Perfect. Postcard. of. Its. Kind.

No less.

In Process of Rebranding

Still Going Strong!

Dreadful how I've been neglecting my Almanac!   A rich haul from most recent Vintage Paper and Postcard fair, tho.....  So stay tuned.   

Meeting Cute

Tristan, Akt 1.

We Struggled To Understand

But some things are just not self-explanatory.  No, this is not--as far as anyone knows--Rachel Dolezal.  But then who is this coy lady and what is that *thing* she is posing in?  It looks at first like a gigantic piece of rubber tubing, but in the bottom frame, it has begun to take on the appearance of a giant eggplant.  She's resting in it, seemingly unperturbed.

Let's All Be Sultry Together

Not a contact sheet, exactly, but a scan I made after hauling off a bunch of anon. photos from a junk shop on 18th Street in the Mission.  I will need to process everything individually, obviously--especially those strips that ARE from contact sheets, of the same cheesy model--but I think the scan page make an intriguing all-female portfolio as it is.

Click to zoom, of course.

Bouffanterie

There is hair and there is hair.  And sometimes it takes your breath away.