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Children’s Card Games (200)
For our 200th example of that curious, under the radar, often anonymous graphic genre, the children’s card game, please contemplate “Choice Thoughts by Longfellow,” an 1890 offering from Milton...
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Shakespeare’s Apocrypha Illustrated
Today is Shakespeare’s birthday, maybe; the exact date is uncertain. But it’s a good uncertain date to appreciate that Stratfordian ullage, Shakespeare’s apocrypha. Although the canonical plays have...
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Fortune Telling Cards (1)
Well, I’ve given you 200 children’s card games to eyeball, so now it’s time for a change. Here’s the first of a series of fortune telling cards. You can, of course, tell fortunes with ordinary...
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Fortune Telling Cards (2)
“The Military Fortune Tellers” was published by H. V. Loring, in Chicago, in 1917. The deck is 52 cards; but the four suits are stars, hearts, bells, and doves, and the face cards are Jack, Nurse,...
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Fortune Telling Cards (4)
Whitman’s “Zodiac Circle Playing Card Game” dates from 1931. There were Zodiac Cards, which were to be laid out in a circle, and the other cards were to be correlated to your sun sign. I haven’t...
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Fortune Telling Cards (5)
“Madame Le Normand’s Gipsy Fortune Telling Cards” bears no indication of date or publisher. Its previous owner has written the meaning of the cards over the simple black and white illustrations,...
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Spring
Spring is here. It’s been a particularly harsh winter here in NYC. I hope that this magic lantern panorama slide heralds better times. (Posted by Doug Skinner)
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The Salt Packets of Buenos Aires
When I travel, my favorite souvenirs are the small, overlooked items, particularly those sporting liminal, anonymous graphics. Here, for example, are some of the salt packets I collected on a trip to...
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The Trail Blazers’ Publishing Company
I found this stack of booklets recently; the first seven were published by the Trail Blazers’ Publishing Co., and the last two by W. H. Harper. I assume the two companies were the same. All are from...
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Instrument Strings
Strings for musical instruments are sold in stores, but not marketed as aggressively as other products. The packaging is relatively unimportant, and the graphic design tends to the generic. Here are...
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