Don’t You Think We’re Fine

We’re a few months past the World’s Ugliest Dog competition, but back in the early 1900s this little guy could’ve been a contender. When I first saw this card, I immediately liked it because of how goofy this dog looks, and the family still loved him so much that they took him to a studio to get his portrait. I also like how he is all white and matches the child’s white outfit, with a darker bow matching the darker shoes.

The card isn’t mailed, but is addressed to an aunt with the message “Don’t you think were (sic) fine.”

South Jersey Postcard Show TOMORROW!

Tomorrow is my club’s annual postcard show in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. It is our second year at the Aloft Hotel (Fellowship Road & Route 73). The show will start at 9 A.M. and admission is FREE!!

Come get some Christmas shopping done! 😉 And vote on your favorite board in our contest.

York Postcard Show Recap

More than two weeks have already passed since York happened, crazy! I got home that night, scanned everything in, and then left for Florida the next day.

Rarest find- The Court of the Golden Fountains, Hippodrome, New York Hold to Light. There was a dealer who had a lot of Koehler HTL cards, so I took a look for Chicago (which I did find the Stock Yards HTL card), but this one caught my eye. The colors on it are so bright and the picture here doesn’t do it justice. According to the dealer, it is the second rarest Koehler HTL card. I ended up buying it even though it will go to my miscellaneous section, and I’m glad I didn’t leave it there. Upon some Googling, the only other one I found was the one Leonard Lauder donated to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston here.

Best bargain- There was a dealer there who is also a stamp guy that had a lot of 20 WWI & WWII soldier’s mail cards for $5. I obviously couldn’t pass it up. 🙂

Most exciting- I finally completed my Dwig Fortune Teller series by finding the above card postally used (finally).

Cutest find- I got the above puzzle set when I saw it being displayed on someone’s table.

York Postcard Show Prep

In the spare time that I’ve had to work on postcards, I have been prepping for the York postcard show. I have never been to it before, and I believe it is the largest in the world. I’ll just be going for one day, and have to get all my checklists ready!

The focus will be on Dwig and Kewpies, and harder to find cards like Quaddy, Bull Durham, my F. Earl Christy College Kings & Queens. Have any of you ever been to York? Any tips?

Mayer Shoes

A few weeks ago when I was antiquing I saw three postcards in a case that were for F. Mayer Boot and Shoe Co., in Milwaukee. What caught my eye is that the cards could be cut out and turned into paper dolls. They seem to be different nationalities- Gretchen is Dutch, John is from the U.S., and Gladys looks potentially Scottish?

Before I made the purchase, I went on to eBay and only found one of these listed, a Chinese girl named Yum Yum, for $125. So I bought these three cards at $22, and the next day was looking online for more. I found Yum Yum and an Eskimo card from this series for a total of $15 on Etsy. 🙂 I am not sure how many cards are in the series, but I have 5 and have seen another, George, that I don’t have on Google images.

Ocean City Zoo

I was on the boardwalk in Ocean City a few weekends ago, and there is actually a collectibles store there amongst all the souvenir stores. The first postcard in the boxes I looked at was this one- a real photo card of the “Zoo” at 716 Wesley Ave in Ocean City, NJ. Even though there are a lot of fake animals on the lawn, this still fits into my category of “RPPC People with Dogs,” since there are two real dogs on the porch and a man in the upper right corner.

Animals in the zoo include birds, dogs, cats, a penguin, frogs, snakes. What else do you see? My favorite is the penguin-

Princess Theater, Chicago

The Princess Theater in Chicago had its grand opening on June 1, 1908. “A Stubborn Cinderella,” with the great actor John Barrymore, was the opening show. In the theater one could find new scenery, flowers, and pretty women in costumes “that would shame everything but a rainbow.”

From Chicagology.com, it sounds like the best part about the new theater was the air system-

“By means of a ventilation system the air in the theater is changed every three minutes. It is drawn through cloths and purified as it is brought in, then run through a series of pipes, which heat or cool it, according to the atmospheric conditions.”

The theater was demolished in 1941 to house a parking lot in the spot.

This card was mailed in May 1912 from Chicago to Lincoln, Nebraska. It is part of the “I Will” series, number 183C. The sender noted that he “had a fine time last night with one of these choir girl of this theater but was not like (the recipient).”

Early Rare Dwig Series

This postcard is part of a very early Dwig series from 1902. The publisher is H.T.C. & Co., and unfortunately I can’t find very much information about them. The front of the card has print and was also written on, as this was an undivided back card. It happened to be mailed not until 1906.

“The beauty of a woman’s mind/Is chief among her graces;/Yet minds are not made up, we find,/So readily as faces.”

The woman is putting makeup on, using a stack of books (including Darwin & the Bible) as her stand. A love letter and some money has also fallen out from the stack.

I happened to find this card in an eBay suggested listing of a lot of 3 women postcards. This is the only mailed one I have seen from this series- a few were listed on eBay unused for $40/each.

Funny Message: Grape Juice

“Dear Sis:- Please send me your recipe for grape juice, at once. Arrive in town today, will write more later. All are well, would like you all to visit us soon. Lovingly Anna.”

I was looking through a 25 cent box at a postcard club meeting recently and actually laughed out loud when I read this message. Who would have thought that there could be such a sense of urgency around a recipe for grape juice?

Grape juice was invented in 1869 by Thomas Bramwell Welch as a substitute to alcoholic wine in church services. Perhaps Anna’s sister made a better batch.

Indian Motorcycle Dog Card

My real photo cards of dogs with people are divided into multiple subcategories, one of which is dogs with bikes. Something caught this dog’s attention further away in the field, but I liked the card below because not only is the younger boy on a bike, a man and a woman are in an Indian motorcycle with a sidecar. Plus, their shirts are also Indian motorcycle shirts. Looks like a crew that you wouldn’t want to mess with. 🙂