Ushering In Easter

Posted on March 26, 2016 by Annieoakley

Trade card, lithograph for The Fleischmann Co., Form No. 910A. Made in Germany. Circa mid-1880s – 1890s.

Price: $10.00 Size: 3 and 1/2 x 5 and 1/2″

There’s the Easter Bunny and one Easter egg behind the young gentleman in the flared double-breasted coat with the wide lapels, checkered pants, top hat and walking cane, with gloves in hand. It’s a spring day, the lilies of the valley are in bloom, and the flowing red lines appearing from “underneath” the scene, as well as the flowing lines of the lilies of the valley, are very Art Nouveau; a beautiful advertising piece from the Fleischmann Company. A “Handsome Banner Picture” could be obtained in exchange for 50 Yellow Labels taken from the cakes of their Compressed Yeast.

Exactly what is meant by “banner picture” is not quite clear. And an internet search did not illuminate the answer.

As to the time-frame for the card, perhaps mid-1880s to 1890s. An entry in New York City directories in 1886 shows, “Fleischmann Maximilian, yeast, 701 Washn. & 219 E. 23d, h. 115 Madison av.” which half-way matches the address given on the back of the card as 699-701 Washington St. The exact address given is proving hard to find in online sources, surprisingly. Newspaper ads show the 701 Washington address at least into the late 1920s. And numerous entries in various years show both “Fleischmann & Co.” and “The Fleischmann Co.”

Source: Trow’s New York City Directory, Vol. XCIX, for year ending May 1,1886. p. 606. (Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995).

Easter Day

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Annieoakley

Divided back, used postcard. Postmarked April 6, 1914 from Mount Jewett, Pennsylvania.

Price: $10.00

“The world itself keeps Easter day,

And Easter larks are singing;

And Easter flow’rs are blooming gay

And Easter bells are ringing.”

That’s a lovely poem for Easter, but what I love most about this postcard is the illustration: There’s a big basket of eggs (quite large eggs) two bunnies and a little boy. I love the expression on the boy’s face as he holds the one bunny in his arms (and the bun’s expression, too) while the one on the ground gazes at the basket of eggs. Flowers on each side of the card frame the scene somewhat, and have a little bit of a flow-y Art Nouveau look to them.

The sender wrote: “Best wishes for a Happy Easter. Your friend Annie.” The card is addressed to:

“Miss Edith Johnson, Clermont, PA. Box 85.”

The village of Clermont is a “blink and you’ll miss it” location, according to Neil Anderson’s blog, Neil’s Neck of the Woods. “It sits a few miles south from Pennsylvania’s scenic Route 6 as it intersects county Route 146.” (I was happy to find this description as Clermont was not showing up on my Google map search.) And here’s another great website regarding Clermont at Smethport History.

UPDATE: Thank you to Judy, one of our informed readers, who states, “Edith Johnson was the post mistress in Clermont, PA.”

Sources: Anderson, Neil. “The Village of Clermont,” Neil’s Neck of the Woods. Web accessed April 5, 2015.

Historic Clermont, Pennsylvania, Virtual Tour. Smethport History. Web accessed April 5, 2015.

Loving Easter Wishes

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Annieoakley

Here’s a gorgeous Easter postcard showing two bunnies, a rooster, and a hen inspecting a golden egg – underneath a farm scene: farmer and horses plowing a field on a beautiful day. You can see a church steeple in the distance. This rural scene is framed by a couple of pussy willow branches. What a very clever and lovely design, and the colors are just beautiful!

Divided back, embossed, unused postcard. Publisher unknown. Series or number 721. Circa 1907 – 1910s.

Price: $12.00

Le Lièvre Et La Tortue

Posted on February 28, 2015 by Annieoakley

The Hare and the Tortoise…more commonly known in the U.S. as The Tortoise and the Hare….

This is an antique postcard produced from a work by an unknown artist. It appears to have been modeled after an illustration of Le Lièvre et la Tortue, that was printed in France, which in turn may have been taken from the work of French artist Gustav Doré rather than being by him. Check out the set of trade cards for Solution Pautauberge (a product which was in it’s day said to be a cure for rheumatism and bronchitis and a prevention for tuberculosis.) The set is entitled Fables de LaFontaine, (and you’ll notice the indication showing “d’apres Gustav Doré” which might mean “modeled after” in this context.)

The back of the postcard indicates “Authorized By Act of Congress of May 19, 1898″ so this is a Private Mailing Card or PMC. The short PMC era ran from May 19, 1898 to December 24, 1901 when the new postal regulations ushered in the Undivided Back era. The size is smaller than what we consider the standard for postcards and measures about 5″ x 3”.

This beautifully done postcard is in very good shape for it’s approximate 115 year age, and includes glued on glitter highlights. In particular, the expression on the poor bun’s face is priceless, that panicked “Oh, no!” feeling, and note the beautiful, and correctly done, long bunny eyelashes!

Private Mailing Card. Circa 1898 – 1901. Unused. Publisher unknown, number 32.

Price: $20.00 Size: About 5 x 3″

Sources: The Tortoise and the Hare. n.d. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tortoise_and_the_Hare. (accessed February 26, 2015).

Gustave Doré. n.d. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Dor%C3%A9. (accessed February 26, 2015).

“Solution Pautauberge.” Creighton University. Web accessed February 28, 2015.

Bunnies In The Backyard

Posted on April 20, 2014 by Annieoakley

Divided back, lightly embossed, used postcard. Postmarked March 24, 1910 from Axtell, Nebraska. Publisher unknown.

Price: $4.00

“Axtell Nebr., Mar. 24, ’10 – Dear cousin Ida. How are you by this time we are all well hope this will reach you all the same. You had better come with your mother and Josie out here this summer. It blew something terrible yesterday but to-day it is still and nice. Have you got any small chickens yet we got two hens that are hatching. As ever your Cousin Alice.”

Addressed to: “Miss Ida Nelson, Terril, Iowa, Box 5”

Tea with kitty, breakfast with bunny….

This is a great card for me, as it so reminds me of myself with our own bunny (as previously mentioned on a prior post.) After, what I’ve come to refer to as “Tea With Kitty” comes “Breakfast With Bunny.” Breakfast with the bun takes place in the backyard, in a setting much like the one here, with a high fence, and greenery, and with me on the garden bench with my cereal, and the bun bun, just like on this card, to my left, with her varied plateful of kale, parsley, roses, dandelion leaves and flowers, etc. (Enough about me, but it is interesting to find the ones where art imitates life or there is some special connection.)

You might not notice at first, the caption in script at the top which says, “A Joyful Easter.” And just to describe the card, it shows two reddish brown bunnies and a white one (the lookout maybe, making sure everything is okay) in a garden setting. The brown bunnies are being fed some greens by a little girl in her Easter dress, who sits on a garden bench. She has gold ringlets, and holds Easter eggs in her lap.

The receiver of this card was not found in online records, though there are plenty of Nelsons in Dickenson County, and even in the town of Terril.

Bunny Embrace

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Annieoakley

Divided back, used postcard. No. 7713? Postmarked from Dixon, California, April 16, 1908. Publisher: Richard Behrendt, San Francisco, California. Made in Germany.

Price: $8.00 for digital scan only. Original in web author’s personal collection.

“Dear Cora! Rec’d you card and it was very pretty. How is every thing, all O.K? It is warm up here now. Farmers are all crying for rain up here. Hope they get it soon. Kind Regards to you all from Ellen – Write Soon”

Card is addressed to: “Miss Cora Hollenstein, Salinas, Cala.”

This is a postcard that my friend bought for me since my husband and I have our own bunny (the most beautiful in the world – and they all are; as well as the most beautiful kitty in the world, and they all are.) So, this card is only for sale as a digital scan. Anyway, this is just a precious image: A little girl with light brown curls, sits outside on a lawn, holding a closed umbrella (for some reason an umbrella, but this makes the picture even better.) She has an Easter basket of eggs beside her, and is dressed charmingly, with red striped stockings, a blue skirt, white peasant-type blouse, white apron, a red and blue scarf or perhaps this is part of a pinafore, and an embroidered-looking hat. Directly behind her is a taller basket with her brown bunny appearing out of it to give her a hug. Girl and bun are cheek to cheek, and their expressions are wonderful. The caption Easter Greetings appears in light purple at the top left, after which the sender has written, “to you all from Ellen Anderson.”

The card has the postal markings from Salinas on the front, as well as the postmark for Dixon, California on the back. Perhaps I will do a Photoshop version of the image without the postal markings. (When I get some extra time, ha – or finally learn how to “bend the space-time continuum” ha ha. This last remark is part of caption from a great newspaper comic that appeared somewhere, that I hope I saved. If I can find it, I will put post it. Why not?) This postcard is also interesting for the fact that we are also experiencing (unfortunately) a drought here in California, just as the farmers were in the Dixon area in April of 1908.

The addressee on this card is likely the same as appearing with her parents and siblings on the 1910 Federal Census, taken in the Santa Rita precinct of Alisal Township (Salinas today) California. The family is as follows: Henry H. Hollenstein, occupation farmer, born Denmark about 1836; his wife Maria M., born Denmark about 1853; their children Andrew B., born California about 1879; Henry H., born Arizona about 1884; Harrietta? C., born Arizona about 1882; Mabel E., born Arizona about 1887; and Cora M., born Arizona about 1890.

The card is postmarked from what must be Dixon, California (located about 23 miles from Sacramento, in northern Solano County) since Ellen is saying “it is warm up here…” Dixon is about 150 highway miles north of Salinas. The postmarked date is April 16, year is probably 1908.

As to the sender of this postcard, Ellen appears on the 1900 Federal Census taken in Dixon, with her parents. The family is as follows: Andrew Anderson, occupation farmer, born Sweden in May 1857; his wife Hilda, born Sweden in November 1865; and their daughter Ellen V., born California in January 1889.

Sources: Year: 1910; Census Place: Alisal, Monterey, California; Roll: T624_89; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 0002; FHL microfilm: 1374102. (Ancestry.com)

Year: 1900; Census Place: Dixon, Solano, California; Roll: 113; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 0145; FHL microfilm: 1240113. (Ancestry.com)

Bunnies Pulling Chick And Eggs

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Annieoakley

Divided back, unused with writing postcard. Publisher: Wolf & Company. No. 461. Made in the U.S.A. Date unknown, circa 1910 – 1925.

Price: $4.00

Another from our Alice Ellison Collection….

A pair of white bunnies are harnessed to a wicker two-wheel cart being driven by a chick perched on top of some Easter eggs. This is very cute – the chick holds the reigns in her beak and holds a pussy willow branch for a riding crop. “A Happy Easter” is the caption in fancy blue and red lettering, and is signed, “Grandma.” On the back is written, “Jean from Grandma.”

Bunnies Painting Easter Egg

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Annieoakley

Undivided back postcard, not postmarked but with writing. Dated by the sender March 29, 1906. Card has tape yellowed with age in three of it’s four corners. Publisher: Raphael Tuck & Sons.

Availability status: SOLD

A wonderful Tuck’s scene of three brown bunnies; one is up on a ladder painting a large egg red; a second is stirring the pot of red paint, while the third looks on. The egg is nestled in grass and forget-me-nots, and the cursive Easter Greetings appears in the left top corner.

Our wandering sender, at that time in Los Angeles, dated this card March 29, 1906 and wrote, “Dear Mama McGinn. What is the matter. You never write. You are surely not angry. With best wishes. Good by. Daniel [?]” On the left side is written, “I am wandering again but I am going to stop it pretty soon.”

The card is addressed to “Mrs. J. W. McGinn, Stent. Cal., Tuolomne Co.”

The signature on the card is hard to read; it certainly starts with D-a- and the third letter is likely an n – when comparing the other n’s in the handwriting. Of course, it may be impossible to say for sure, but possibly the sender is Daniel McGinn, who appears as the son of John and Bridget McGinn on the 1870 Federal Census taken in Tuolumne County, Township 3. (Name spelled McGin.) John McGin, a miner, born Ireland about 1820, his wife, Bridget (Mrs. J. W. McGinn on the postcard?), born Ireland about 1829. Their children, ages 11 to 2 and 1/2, are Martin, W. A., Daniel, Edward, Mary, John, Margaret, Ann, M. C. and C. J….The 1900 census shows Bridget (widowed), Michael, William, Daniel, Edward, John and Annie. The older boys are all mining quartz, and the youngest boy on this census, John, is farming. The McGinn Family is one of the oldest in the district, according to a 1909 publication (Tuolumne County, California: Being a Frank, Fair and…) The 1910 census, Tuolumne County, 4th District shows Daniel (single) and living on his own, mining quartz. (So, did the wanderer settle down?)

The town of Stent was originally called Poverty Hill, and started out as a placer camp in the early 1850s. Later it became prosperous as a hardrock mining center, and also served as a supply center for many of the area’s mines. The name Poverty Hill was ironic, since it ended up producing over 15 million dollars in gold. The celebrated American author and poet Bret Harte (1836-1902) wrote about Poverty Hill, and the town is also known as the site of the famous Jumper mine, known for it’s specimen (nugget type) gold. Most accounts about Stent list the fire of 1906, (there were actually two fires in Stent’s history) but the details vary for exactly how destructive the well known ’06 fire was. A September 1, 1906 account in the Los Angeles Herald shows:

“Stent Destroyed by Fire – SONORA, Cal., Aug. 31. – Every business house in the town of Stent, three miles from Jamestown, was destroyed by fire this afternoon. Thirty-three structures were burned to the ground. The loss is estimated at $75,000. Stent at one time was one of the leading mining centers of California.”

It’s interesting to see that our postcard here was sent just about six months prior to the unfortunate ’06 blaze. Below is a photo and wonderful description and history of the town of Stent, too good not to include the whole paragraph, appearing in the aforementioned 1909 publication with the very long title (Tuolumne County, California: Being a Frank, Fair and…)

“Stent. To the Argonaut far away from and unfamiliar with the happenings in the county he once called home this name means nothing. Say ‘Poverty Hill,’ and the veil is lifted. Some of the old-timers will tell you to-day that the change from a historical name to a meaningless one was what afterward caused the star of ill fortune to twinkle malignantly over the town. Poverty Hill was a great camp in the early days, but its placer diggings were shallow and soon worked out. Then came the long lethargic period of depression that the few inhabitants withstood as best they could and which was occasionally broken by far separated reports of good ore being found in some of the quartz mines. But this rekindling of the fires of hope brought on only a bright flash, invariably followed by the flame dying down to a mere flicker. Early in the ’90s, however, came the big boom in Mother lode mines. The great Jumper, a short distance out of town, was soon ‘coughing up’ a stream of gold, other claims were paying, people flocked in, buildings were hurried up and soon a lively little city was on the map. Then came the serious mistake of formally re-christening the place Stent, after a mining man who apparently occupied the topmost position on the wave of prosperity. Later the step was regretted. Twice the town was visited by disastrous fires, the two very nearly wiping it out. It is now but a shadow of its former self, but the people still there are of a good class and will be early on the ground when the next boom hits Stent, as sooner or later it must.”

Sources: http://www.malakoff.com/goldcountry/stent.htm

http://tchistory.org/TCHISTORY/Jamestown.htm

http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19060901.2.11

Los Angeles Herald, Vol. 33, Number 336. 1 September 1906. (California Newspaper Digital Collection) http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19060901.2.11#

Tuolumne County, California: Being a Frank, Fair and Accurate Exposition, Pictorially and Otherwise, of the Resources and Possibilities of This Magnificent Section of California. J. A. Van Harlingen & Co., Printers and Publishers, Sonora, California. Copyrighted 1909 by the Union Democrat, Sonora, California. (Google eBook)

Ancestry.com. California, Voter Registers, 1866-1898 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Great Registers, 1866–1898. Microfilm, 185 rolls. California State Library, Sacramento, California.

Year: 1870; Census Place: Township 3, Tuolumne, California; Roll: M593_93; Page: 365A; Image: 129; Family History Library Film: 545592. Year: 1900; Census Place: Township 6, Tuolumne, California; Roll: 116; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 0130; FHL microfilm: 1240116. Year: 1910; Census Place: Township 4, Tuolumne, California; Roll: T624_111; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0168; FHL microfilm: 1374124.(Ancestry.com)

Brown Bunny In Flowers

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Annieoakley

Beautiful bun looking out from a bouquet of lilies, forget-me-nots and lilies of the valley. “Easter Greetings” is the caption in silver lettering, the bouquet is tied with a pink ribbon, and the card has a lavender-mauve border (more of a mauve color on the left owing to some color fading.)

This postcard may be related to the one put up directly prior to this one, as it is addressed to “J.[?] A. Barker Jr. Oakland Calif.” and dated “March the 18th, 1913. From Grandma Thomas.” (The prior was from Allen Barker.) This one, like the other, was never postmarked.

Divided back, embossed, unused with writing postcard. Dated by the sender March 18, 1913. Publisher: Samson Brothers. Series 414 C. Made in the U.S.A.

Price: $8.00

Where Did I Put That Powder Puff?

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Annieoakley

“Where did I put that powder puff?”

Another adorable bunny; a reproduction of an original work by Noel Hubert Hopking, a British artist (active 1921 – 1940) known for his beautiful illustrations of animals and birds. A book by children’s author Enid Blyton (1897 – 1968) entitled Enid Blyton’s Nature Lovers Book, contains sixteen engraved illustrations by Hopking. This book can be found for sale online, and quite a number of other Hopking illustrations can be found online or referenced at auction houses, etc.

The Medici Society was founded in 1908. The company logo shown here was their earlier logo; their website states they recently changed logos, but does not state when exactly. The date for this postcard might be from the 1940s through the 1960s. I’ve not yet seen any clarification for the date this card would have been produced, nor the date the original work was created. If found, this post will be updated then.

Divided back, artist-signed, unused postcard. Publisher: The Medici Society, Ltd., London. Art Publishers by Appointment to the late King George V., Copyright. Engraved and printed in Great Britain. Pk. 137. Circa possibly 1940s – 1960s.

Price: $5.00

Sources: http://www.medici.co.uk/index.html

http://www.artprice.com/artist/93997/noel-hubert-hopking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_Blyton

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