From the Sublime to the Sublemony

Be jabers indeed, and all of American Ireland fights its washboard battles. From the wonderful Flickr stream of the Boston Public Library, currently with 74,345 images of one kind or another (inspect them all!). As usual, click the image to see magical growth right on your screen.

French Postcards from the Early 20th

Famous, a cultural meme before we had the word, sexy postcards printed in France (maybe) and sold under the counter in the U.S. Here are some from recent listings of eBay seller  papercharm. Click for larger versions.

The last two or three seem stylistically similar enough that they may be part of a set. Overall, they are mostly intended to present images from famous classical artworks, or at least appear to be so. The third one is not like the others, but then it doesn't actually show that much, either.

Eagle, 1896

From Johann Friedrich Naumann, Naturgeschichte der Vogel, published in 1896 by Gera-Untermhaus in Germany. Addall.com shows numerous copies for sale, starting at $300, with anything from 20 to 30 colored plates. I have a few more of these but the margins of this blog are too small, and besides it's late night and my fingers are tired. Click, drill.

Golden Eagle, Aquila chrysaetus

More Trade Cards

These are from the recent listings of .

As always, click to display larger versions.

Trade Cards

The chromo printing that people saw the most were the "trade cards" handed out as advertising and for publicity. Here are some examples (as always, click to enlarge):

At one point I went off and collected almost two thousand images of trade cards from various seller listings on eBay. Most of those are now online; go there and get lost in the colors.

Over-Chromo on the Flower Front

Over the top...

From the July, 1900 issue of THE MAYFLOWER, a gardening magazine about flowers:

September, 1892:

December, 1894:

The cover from the February, 1900 issue:

A good customer for colored inks, this magazine. Click for bigger versions.

Cigarettes and Papers

Four advertisements Photoshopped by Mariangela Buch. I believe she found them among eBay sellers' offerings, and cleaned them up for our benefit.

Click to make bigger.