Photos, videos and docs of Alan Mays, with the keywords: "putti"

Aim Straight

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 18:47:53 +0000

"Aim Straight. A. Lanborn."

Cupid is aiming straight for the heart in the illustration on this nineteenth-century sentiment card.

May Love Light Your Halloween Lantern!

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 16 Oct 2017 04:30:10 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

"May love light your Hallow-e'en lantern! H.B.G."

A Halloween postcard illustrated by H. B. Griggs (H.B.G.).

For another Griggs card, see Have a Devilishly Happy Halloween.

Reward of Merit Presented to Oliver K. Ott

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Sat, 03 Jun 2017 01:57:50 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

"Reward of Merit presented to Oliver K. Ott, by William C. Weiss, teacher. An honorable testimony of approbation for industry, punctuality, & good conduct."

Probably the same Oliver K. Ott (1860-1944) who's listed on Find A Grave.

The Star Ice Cream Freezer, American Machine Company, Philadelphia, Pa.

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 21:28:38 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

"Star Freezer, American Machine Co., Phila. Thos. Hunter, lith., Phila."

This Victorian-era trade card features a group of winged infant children who are gathered around a goat-drawn wagon that's transporting a Star Ice Cream Freezer manufactured by the American Machine Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Depictions of winged infants--called putti or cherubs--were popular in Victorian and Edwardian advertisements and illustrations. These winged children are secular counterparts to biblical angels and mythological cupids, and their appearance doesn't necessarily signify religious devotion or romantic love. In this case, I believe that they were simply used in a lighthearted way to extol the virtues of the company's ice cream freezers. And they might have also appealed to the children who collected and pasted trade cards into scrapbook albums in the late nineteenth century.

For a list of "meritorious advantages" provided by this freezer, see the other side of the card:

I Surrender My Heart and My Love for Thee

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:50:46 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

Although this postcard--with a postmark dated February 13, 1911--is intended to convey a patriotic sentiment, the idea of Cupid kneeling down and holding up what appears to be a still-steaming heart makes it feel too much like a sacrificial offering to me.

To My Valentine
To the banner above
I surrender with glee,
My heart and my love;
Dearest Sweetheart for thee.

Too Small for His Britches?

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 20:30:15 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

"Roberts & Co., leading clothiers, 'glass front,' 797 Broad St., Newark, N.J. Copyright 1883 by J. H. Bufford's Sons."

A winged Cupid, who's wearing a shirt but no pants, waits patiently as two women use needles and thread to mend a gigantic pair of pants. Although pants seem to be an appropriate item to feature in an advertising trade card for a clothing store like Roberts & Co. (whose glass store front was apparently a selling point), I'm not sure why they're so huge or how Cupid is going to wear them. Perhaps this is just a silly scene intended to amuse the children who would paste cards like this in their scrapbooks in the late nineteenth century.

A Valentine Game of Hearts

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 22:25:24 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A Valentine's Day postcard dated 1909 on the front and postmarked Burlington, Vt., Feb. 13, 1911, on the back.

Cupids play football with hearts, as we see here (above), but they also use them in bowling (below).

And, of course, cupids need to maintain their stock of hearts, which may require sweeping, netting, weighing, and mending, as we can see in this selection of early twentieth-century postcards (below).

Wishing You a Lucky Halloween

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 15:20:04 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

Postmark on the back of this postcard: Worcester, Mass., Oct. 30, 1909.

Addressed to: Miss Ora Bickford, New Gloucester, Maine, R.F.D. no. 1.

Message: "With best wishes for a happy Hallowe'en. Love, Elva."

"A formerly widespread tradition held that young women gazing into a mirror in a darkened room (often on Halloween) could catch a glimpse of their future husband's face in the mirror--or a skull personifying Death if their fate was to die before they married." This explanation of what the women in this postcard is doing appears in Wikipedia's article on scrying, which is defined as "the practice of looking into a translucent ball or other material with the belief that things can be seen, such as spiritual visions, and less often for purposes of divination or fortune-telling."

Cupid's presence in this postcard is somewhat puzzling, but the publisher, L. R. Conwell, also included Cupid in at least one other Halloween postcard. See The Joys of Halloween Be Yours.

See below for additional examples of early twentieth-century postcards that depict mirror-gazing and other Halloween fortune-telling activities.

The Joys of Halloween Be Yours

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 15:20:06 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

An owl and a bat flap their wings through the nighttime sky as Cupid stands on a cloud and contemplates whether to shoot an arrow at the full moon, where a witch has replaced the Man in the Moon.

I can't help but wonder whether L. R. Conwell, the publisher of this 1909 postcard, recycled a Valentine's Day card to compose this perplexing scene, but a search for other Cupid cards didn't uncover any similar postcards.

Conwell also featured Cupid in at least one other Halloween postcard. See Wishing You a Lucky Halloween:

Philadelphia Carnival, April 18, 1881

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 20:50:40 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

"Philadelphia Carnival, Easter Monday night, April 18th, 1881, at the Academy of Music. A. M. J. Mueller, del. J. H. Camp, litho."

An elaborate trade card announcing the Philadelphia Carnival, which was held at the Academy of Music on the day after Easter in 1881.

To My Matchless Valentine

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 22:53:00 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

To My Matchless Valentine

Cupid's Matches. Warranted to kindle love's flame. Strike here.

Tho' you may have set these all alight,
My heart is safe you know;
For that has been aflame for you
Sweetheart, long long ago.

--------

Miss Violet Glossenger, Cortez, Pa.

Hello Violet, Your postal received and I thought I would answer it being so near to "Valentines Day." Have you had any sleighing over there? We have had a little bit. Well goodbye from that rascal of a Milton C.

Love's Cable, Handed in at Cupid's Court

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:50:42 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

"Love's Cable. Handed in at Cupid's Court. No code book is needed for these cables, true love deciphers them. St. Valentine. Bow and Arrow Avenue, Feb. 14. To my valentine, I cable to say, I am yours today, my heart is true, my love to you. If the accuracy of this message be doubted, it will gladly be confirmed on payment of twenty kisses."

This folded Valentine's Day greeting was a parody of a "cablegram" (often shortened to "cable"), which was a message transmitted over the submarine communications cables that were laid across the Atlantic Ocean and elsewhere as early as the 1850s.

So why would you need to use a code book to send a cablegram? Author Frank C. McClelland described how these worked in the following excerpt from his book, Office Training and Standards (Chicago: A. W. Shaw, 1919), p. 49:

How to use a code book. Firms with foreign connections or correspondents also find use for a cable-code book which helps greatly to cut down the expense of cable messages by shortening the number of words required to convey the message. A code book is simply a directory of code words arranged alphabetically, each word being the code for a certain phrase. For example, the word "Dardejante" may stand for "Draft has been presented for payment." and the word "Daricus" may stand for "Draft is correct; please pay." Nearly every kind of message is given in a code book.

Suppose we desired to send a cablegram to London reading "Merritt Brothers draft has been presented for payment for two hundred dollars Shall we pay for your account?" If we did not use a code book the cablegram would contain 18 words in addition to the name, address, and signature, which might bring the number of words up to 27. At 31 cents a word, the cablegram would cost $8.37. By using code words we would get this result: "(name) (address) Merritt Brothers Dardejante Morderesti Genageld (signature)," making only eight words, which would cost only $2.48, a saving of $5.89.

Reward of Merit for Punctuality, Industry, and Good Conduct

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 22:01:56 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

"Reward of Merit for Punctuality, Industry, and Good Conduct presented to Mary Geller by Virginia Fair, teacher."

With an illustration of a U.S. Civil War soldier in the middle panel.

Wishing You a Happy New Year, J. P. Baker, Traveling Agent, Harrisburg, Pa., 1896

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 21:02:08 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

"Wishing You a Happy New Year, J. P. Baker, Trav. Ag't, Harrisburg, Pa. Buckeye. 1895. 1896. Buckeye. J. H. Trezise, 1125-27 N. Third St., H'b'g."

This is a unique photographic New Year greeting that depicts Father Time--carrying an old-fashioned scythe and designated as "1895"--worriedly running away from an overdressed gent who's uttering the word "Buckeye" as he tips his hat and rides atop a newfangled "1896" mechanical reaping machine pulled by a bevy of Cupid-like putti.

The inset to the right of this imaginative scene is a photo of "J. P. Baker," who's identified as a traveling agent (salesman) from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Dressed in a hat, cravat, vest, and suit coat, Baker appears to be the model for the gussied-up guy riding the reaper.

Although I haven't uncovered any specific information regarding J. P. Baker, I suspect that he may have worked for Aultman, Miller & Co., manufacturer of Buckeye Harvesting Machinery, which had an office at 625 Walnut Street in Harrisburg, according to Boyd's Directory of Harrisburg and Steelton for 1895. The company sold a variety of agricultural equipment for mowing, reaping, threshing, and other tasks (to see a fascinating early silent film clip of a Buckeye machine in operation in Australia, take a look at Wheat Harvesting with Reaper and Binder -1899).

J. P. Baker evidently used this photograph to wish a happy New Year to his friends and business associates and to promote himself and his Buckeye machines to customers.

A Happy New Year

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 01:15:54 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

"A Happy New Year. Haddocks. Come to your milk now."

A Victorian-era New Year calling or greeting card with a hand-drawn sketch.

"Come to your milk" seems to have had a specific meaning in the nineteenth century beyond pulling on a calf's tail to try to get it to drink out of a milk bucket. Besides a few hits on the phrase in Google Books, however, I haven't uncovered any source that reveals what that meaning might have been.

Grand Social Banquet Ticket, Nashua, N.H., March 15, 1860

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 21:23:38 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

"Grand Social Banquet at the Central House, City of Nashua, N.H., on Thursday, March 15, 1860. Cards of admission, two dollars. Tickets, $2.00. 18155."

Programme and Engagements, Erster Grosser Ball des Harrisburg Mænnerchor, April 10, 1882

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 17:00:30 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

Dance card, inside pages for the Programme and Engagements. See also the front and back covers (below).

Programme. Grand march promptly at 9 o'clock, p.m.

1. Waltz--Plain. 2. Waltz--Schottische. 3. Waltz--Polka. 4. Quadrille--Plain. 5. Waltz--Plain.
6. Waltz--Polka Mazourka. 7. Waltz--Gallop. 8. Quadrille--Lanciers. 9. Waltz--Plain. 10. Waltz--Polka. 11. Waltz--Danish. 12. Quadrille--Plain.

Intermission

13. Cotillion. 14. Rhinelander. 15. Waltz--Gallop. 16. Quadrille--Glide Caledonian.
17. Waltz--Plain. 18. Waltz--Polka. 19. Waltz--Polka-Mazourka. 20. Quadrille--Plain. 21. Waltz--Plain. 22. Waltz--Gallop. 23. Quadrille--Plain. 24. Waltz--Racquet.

Engagements, 1 - 24.

Erster Grosser Ball des Harrisburg Mænnerchor, April 10, 1882

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 17:00:32 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

Dance card, front and back cover. See also the inside pages for the Programme and Engagements (below).

"Erster Grosser Ball des Harrisburg Mænnerchor in Shakespeare Hall, am Oster Montag Abend, den 10ten April '82."

Translation: First Big Ball of Harrisburg Mænnerchor in Shakespeare Hall, on Easter Monday evening, the 10th of April '82.

"Floor managers. Chief--Wm. Lawser. H. Wagner, John Brown, Jos. Schaleur."

Cupids Weighing Hearts

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 22:25:16 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

"To my valentine."

A Message of True Love

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 20:10:44 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

Cupid's driving a flowery automobile to deliver "A Message of True Love" on this valentine postcard from the early twentieth century.