Jan 01
Forget the date? Use this handy calendar!
Happy 2009! Except for the detail inside the rectangular illustration, everything on this card has been embossed. According to my (incomplete) notes, I picked this card up in a shop somewhere for a buck. The card was published circa 1910, but let’s imagine that it was published in time for New Year’s Day 1909 so that we can say it’s seen exactly one hundred New Year’s Days.
Dec 25
Forget the date? Use this handy calendar!
This embossed card of German manufacture was sent to Great-Grandpa Phil from one “Lila”; it was postmarked at Vanderbilt, Pennsylvania on December 24, 1910 at 5 PM. As fast as the postmen used to be back then, I’m pretty sure that Phil didn’t receive this until the morning of December 26. In case you’re wondering, Lila is not my great-grandmother.
To my readers and fellow collectors: have a very merry Christmas!
Lila wishes you a merry Christmas too!
Dec 17
A Joyful Christmas
This card was given to Great-Grandpa Phil by Ida M. Schobert on “Dec. 17 - 09″, which either means 99 years ago or one year from now, depending on whether or not this card can get up to 88 miles per hour. When I say “given”, I mean it was apparently hand-delivered, given the lack of address or stamp. The “stamp” in this case is a very highly embossed Santa Claus face, cut by hand from something else — perhaps even from another postcard. Ida clearly put some time and thought into this card, but no, she’s not my great-grandmother.
All of the items around the main picture are embossed, though the main picture is not. I’m not sure what the items in the upper left corner are supposed to represent. Any ideas?
Merry Christmas from Ida Schobert
Dec 15
A symbol of good luck -- well, it used to be
This birthday card was apparently hand-delivered to our lucky birthday boy or girl on “Sep the 6 1910″ by one Miss Rosa Cochran. It’s embossed and made of relatively thin card stock. It has apparently had something spilled on it at some point; notice the discoloration at the top, which is more easily noticed on the back side.
The most interesting thing about this card, however, is the use of the swastika in each of the four corners. For over 4,000 years, the swastika had been used as a symbol of good luck; it seems to have originated with the Indus Valley Civilization in modern India and is still used among Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains. It was used by ancient Greeks and Chinese emporers. It was very widely used among Western countries in the early 20th century for this purpose, which explains its use here.
Unfortunately, some crackpots came along and decided that the Proto-Indo-Europeans who used this symbol — “Aryans” as they had been termed in the 18th century — were some Nordic-Atlantean “master race”, decided that they were their descendants, and adopted their oldest symbol as their own. And that’s why we don’t use swastikas in Western culture anymore.
Dec 13
I haven’t posted in a few days because I’ve been busy Christmas shopping. And look what I found! These two Christmas ornaments seem to have started life as copies of vintage Christmas postcards (presumably copies, anyway, since there were duplicated designs in the store display). A little glitter, a couple of beads, and some silvery pipe-cleaner-type garnish later, you have something suitable for the Christmas tree. (We don’t put up a tree at the house, so these are living on the fireplace mantle instead.) Very nifty.
Christmas ornament: Santa Claus leaves a gift for a sleeping child
