Mitzi's Miscellany

Images of Santa Over the Years

Today I thought I'd share some vintage views of Santa Claus, beginning with what I believe to be the oldest and working my way forward.

In Victorian times, there are frequent examples of St. Nicholas dressed in colors other than the traditional red suit:

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving and share a few old Thanksgiving postcards with you today.  I hope you are enjoying the holiday!

Better Living Through Science

I love looking through old magazines, especially because of the ads.  If you do too, check out my old blog posts The Fabric of Our Lives and Sometimes It's Hard to be a Woman for some retro advertising fun.

This week I'm focusing on ads that raved about scientific advancements,
"modern" appliances and the latest chemicals that could make life easier, common themes in post World War II America.  Natural products, "green" living and organic farming weren't popular topics back then, to say the least.....

I think we've all heard of Bakelite, but what about Krene?  Krene was a flexible version of Bakelite that was made into shower curtains, table cloths, and faux leather upholstery:

Vintage Halloween Graphics: So Amazingly Creative, It's Scary!

When I look at the beautiful graphics from the "golden age" of postcards, I'm amazed at the creativity of the artists.  Each season of the year and each holiday presented a new opportunity for them to showcase their talent.  The beautiful colors achieved by the chromolithograph process used for postcards and trade cards of the time resulted in magnificently hued artworks.  Often embossed for texture with metallic gold or silver ink or even flocking added for extra embellishment, old postcards are wonderful little treasures.  And for many serious collectors, Halloween postcards are some of the most valuable and sought-after.  To read more about postcards, you can refer to my post HERE.

I've combed Pinterest and my own image gallery to share some of the most imaginative examples of Halloween postcards I could find.  There are so many great examples out there, it was difficult to narrow them down.  I'm going to refrain from commentary so you can just enjoy the images.....

McLaughlin's Coffee Trade Cards Free Downloads

I've seen many trade cards in my years as an antique dealer, and I would say McLaughlin's Coffee and Clark's ONT Cotton would be two the most prolific in terms of their production of trade cards.  Years ago, before folks like us used to put together family pictures in elaborate scrapbooks that have become so popular now, "scrapbooking" was a popular hobby during the Victorian era although the content of the scrapbooks was different.  People collected colorful advertising trade cards and diecut "scrap" and filled their books with these items instead of baby's first birthday and graduation pictures.  For more information about scrapbooking long ago, read my post Meet the Original Scrapbookers.

Today I want to share several McLaughlin's Coffee trade cards.  These all came from one scrap album.

Vintage Flash Card Silhouettes: Free Downloads

I bought a set of rather unique vintage math flash cards a while ago:  they are silhouettes of various animals and people.  I think they are so charming, and can envision various uses for them once you download the images.....

 

This Is Where Babies Come From

I have a curious set of old postcards I'd like to share with you today.  They depict babies and young children in comical situations.  Printed in the early 1900's, they are German-made.  I'm sure there are more in the series that I don't have.  Perhaps the notion that babies grew in a cabbage patch originated in Germany....

M.T. Ross Illustrations for Mother Earth's Children

Today I have a special treat:  I'm sharing the most charming illustrations from two of my favorite vintage books.  I own two titles by author Elizabeth Gordon, writer of The Flower Children and Mother Earth's Children.  They are special because of the illustrations by M.T. Ross, who created little anthropomorphic characters from various fruits, vegetables and flowers.  These books were published over 100 years ago, so they are out-of-copyright and the images are in the public domain and can be shared without worry.

First, we have some green pea children:

Amazing Graphics from Menswear Advertising

 One of my goals this summer was to get out all of my unframed prints and frame them with the large stash of vintage frames I've collected.  I've also purchased vintage glass that fit most of the frames so they have authentic old wavy glass.  Before I framed some of the prints, I took pictures of the prints to share with you.

I bought a series of great looking prints that were early 1900's menswear advertising.  The figures have a distinctive bold black outline that's often associated with the Arts and Crafts style:

Summer Finds

 Compared to other years, this summer hasn't been all that great for finding antiques.  The estate sales have been mediocre and there haven't been many great auctions.  I hope this situation changes soon, and it certainly might.  But I have found a few treasures here and there, and so has my brother, who gets to some auctions I don't attend.  He picked up the cast iron Southern belle doorstop for me recently, as a matter of fact.  I love old doorstops.....