Mutoscope Arcade Cards

Mutoscope Arcade Card

Mutoscope Cards were sold from coin-operated vending machines in arcades and amusement parks during the 1940s. They are a distinctive size (5.25″ x 3.25 inches or 13.3 cm x 8.25 cm) and carry the inscription “A Mutoscope Card”. The subjects of the cards are “pin-ups” or cartoons (those by Jimmy Hatlo being the most prized). Noted pin-up artists included Zoe Mozert,Earl Moran and Gil Elvgren.

The International Mutoscope Reel Company is only one of the companies producing cards sold in vending machines. However, this firm also manufactured the Mutoscope motion picture device and the “flip-book” reels that went inside. The arcade cards are not the same as the cards used in the mutoscope reels. Mutoscope cards are a recognized category of collectible paper.

More on Real Photo Postcards

Real Photo Postcards were popular from the very early 20th century to as late as the 1950s.  Negatives of family photos would be sent out to photography houses which would print them up as postcards. Thus, they could be mailed to distant family and friends. The real photo postcard trend was not limited to family photos. In the early twentieth century free-lance postcard photographers roamed the world taking photos of all kinds of places and things and were paid by postcard publishers for their negatives. Some of these photographers had their own small postcard publishing businesses. These commercially-sold real photo postcards often have white hand-written captions identifying their subjects. The white writing is part of the photograph (the result of the photographer’s using a black marking pencil on the negative, which gets reversed and becomes white in the positive print).

Real Photo Postcard-Freelance Photographer

Though family portraits are probably the most common type of real photo postcard, the most valuable real photo postcards contain images of unusual and uncommon glimpses into early twentieth century life:

• people engaged in occupational activities such as working on roads, in blacksmith shops, on ships, or in any walk of life
• people in uniform– particularly military
• unusual images of animals
• images of early farm equipment such as tractors
• images of transportation including horses and buggies, early cars, boats, trains and airplanes
• images of post-disaster damage including famous tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes
• images of sports including teams, players and game being played

Postcard Backs-Clues for Dating

I’m planning a series of articles on postcard collecting and last week’s article on real photo postcards was the first of the series.  Today, I want to show you how to take the clues from the back of the postcard to help you determine approximate dates.

Postcard Back

• Card has  printed stamped government postals with space on one side for the address only — This is likely from 1861 (when postcards were first authorized) to 1898.  Privately printed post cards were not allowed, though in 1893 full color postcards were printed on the reverse side of the US government printed side.
• Card has  printed logo on one side “Private Mailing Card”  —  This is likely from the period 1898 to 1901.  Only the address was allowed on the address side, but the card was printed privately.  Often the image side was printed to allow space for senders to write a message.  Messages were not allowed on the address side.
• Card has the words “Post Card” or “Postcard” on the address side with no divider —  This is likely from 1901 – 1907.   Only the address was allowed on the address side and space was still frequently left on the image side for messages.
• Back has a divider —  1907 or later.  The address, and the message were now on the same side, allowing for the image to take up the entire front.  Most cards were printed in Germany, and the lithography processes there were so advanced that most cards from this period are spectacular.  Postcard sending and collecting became a mania, and this collecting frenzy was only slowed by WWI which cut off the supply of the quality produced cards from Germany.  Every home had its postcard albums, and communication by postcard was “the norm.

Fashionista Alert…Couture Auction

One of the best ways to keep track of the value of items is to see what similar items are anticipated to sell for at a premier auction house.  I ran across this auction of Couture Fashion items that is  starting tomorrow 4/19/09.  The online catalog includes photos, brief descriptions and anticipated price ranges.

I browsed the catalog and found 341 items of couture fashion clothing plus scarves, purses and  jewelry lots.  There are 615 lots total.

Vintage Couture and Accessories
9:00 AM PT – Apr 19th, 2009
3 days
offered by
Leslie Hindman Auctioneers

1338 West Lake Street
Chicago, IL 60607

Such fun to look! and you can register to bid if you just can’t resist trying for an item you can’t live without!

Postcard Video

If you enjoy looking at postcards, you’ll enjoy this!

Buying Vintage Flatware

Many of us have nearly complete sets of flatware.  But something has happened to one or two of the pieces, or you never acquired a complete set from your wedding gift list.   Everything is fine if you have a pattern that is still being manufactured.  Just pop into your favorite retail store carrying your brand or do a search for online sellers of that brand.

Farberware, fork

But what if the pattern is discontinued?  How will you ever fill in that gap?

The foremost retailer of discontinued patterns is of course, Replacements.com.  I love Replacements.com because they have a very complete selection and they offer a free identification service if you aren’t sure what the pattern name is.  Just follow the directions and email an image to them and they’ll find the name for you.  However, the down side is that they sell based on their service and completeness of inventory, not on price.  If you don’t mind paying the premium price, you don’t need to read any farther. 

However, you can find other less expensive sources.  Use Replacements to make sure you have an accurate identification of the pattern name and manufacturer, then do one or both of the following:

• enter the pattern and manufacturer name into an eBay search.  If someone is selling it, you should be able to find it.  Be sure to do an advanced search and look in eBay stores as many sellers list at auction once and then place their offering in their eBay store at a fixed price.  eBay store inventory isn’t always listed on your initial search and you may have to look for the eBay stores listings.
• Google the pattern name and/or the manufacturer name.  There may be a website or company site that will have your pattern.

How to Handle Records

Vinyl Records, LPs, 45s and 78s are very susceptible to damage. Here are some tips I found online to keep your collectible records in great shape!

Hold by Edges

• The oils on your hands can damage the playing surface. So Avoid Touching! Hold your disk by the edges and on the labeled surface only. Or wear thin, clean cotton gloves.
• Avoid creating scratches by not dropping the record and by making sure that the stylus (needle) is clean and free of dust. Also don’t drop the stylus on the record or shake the turntable causing the needle to skip over the grooves. Scratches are permanent and degrade the sound of the record.
• Make sure that your needle is the correct one for the record. Don’t play the record with a dull needle. Dull needles cause damage that cannot be repaired.
• Keep your turntable clean and free of dust by keeping the dust cover closed and remove dust promptly.
• Avoid stacking records on a turntable (the use of a spindle to stack albums and 45’s was commonplace in the 50’s and 60’s). Or placing on any other surface without a protective sleeve
• When done playing your record, give it a quick brush to remove any dust and static. Return it to its sleeve. If you plan on listening to your vinyl for any decent period of time, invest in a carbon fiber record brush
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Collecting Paint by Number

Paint By Number Kit

Paint By Number Kits were first produced in the early 1950s by premier manufacturer Craftmaster. The first artist was Dan Robbins. Paint By Number became a craze and thousands of painting kits were manufactured and sold. By 1960, the craze had burned out. In the following decades, paint-by-number paintings fell out of favor and were thrown away or were stored in attics, barns and basements.

In the mid-1980s, a few collectors began to emerge. Galleries exhibited collections of PBN paintings, usually tongue-in-cheek. In 2001, the Smithsonian Museum held an exhibition of PBN paintings, and a catalog was published. William L. Bird, Jr. was the show’s curator, himself a paint-by- number collector. Since the close of the Smithsonian exhibition, prices are beginning to escalate for certain works.

Knowing which images to collect is important. Clearly, the first generation of CraftMaster pictures have surfaced as the most collectible. The 36 original designs of Dan Robbins are the most sought after. Additionally, there are the works of Adam Grant, another CraftMaster artist and a specialist in figure painting. “Love Ballet”(18″ x 24”) and “Ballet Intermission” (12″ x 16) are two of his most popular first generation CraftMasters. Grant’s works today can bring anywhere from a few hundred dollars to maybe as much as $800 or more for his super CraftMaster masterpiece, “The Red Shoes”(27″ x 36”).

Picture Craft, a competing company, made some very appealing pictures, also printed on canvas. The very popular image, “Oriental Cat”, is one of those odd ’50s juxtapositions of content, miniature dancing Siamese figures, incense burning and a big white cat. Another very popular title was “Mediterranean Scene”, a beautiful picture in very controlled colors. Both date to the early ’50s.

Collecting today is often subject specific. There are collectors of birds, tropicals, dogs, cats, children, horses, flowers, etc. Some ’60s vintage pictures can be bought for two or three dollars. Some can run into the hundreds for nudes and French scenes. The “Blue Heron” is from the ’60s and is superbly colored. It will usually sell for $40-$60.

Paint by Number-Deer by Stream

As is the case with so many collectibles, the most valuable are the very first generation of works produced. But some really great later pictures are very worthy of collecting. For reference I recommend the Paint By Number Museum online and the book Paint by Number: The How-To Craze that Swept the Nationby William L. Bird Jr.

Collecting Vintage Scarves

Designer Silk Scarf

Vintage scarves bring back a fashion statement from the past.  The most desirable fabric is silk. Collectors look for well-known names like Hermes, Vitaliano Pancaldi, Salvatore Ferragamo, Vera Newman, Chanel, Pucci, Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. However, a vintage silk scarf does not have to come with a designer label to be a beautiful work of art. Vintage silk scarves in excellent condition are highly desirable to many collectors. 

Designer scarves were originally made for a more affluent crowd and are still fairly expensive. Vintage Vera scarves were more affordable then, and are a bargain today (and easy to find). Snag a Vera for $15 to $75; a vintage Hermes can be as much as $350.

Vintage Vera Scarf

When you shop for a vintage scarf,  look for crisp color lines, hand rolled and hand stitched edges and a signature.  Then look for the relationship to the vintage fashion of the period.  For example, mod designs from the 60s are collectible, even if they’re not silk.   Many designs from that era were printed on cotton or poly, weren’t signed, and are still collected for their irrepressible exhuberance.

Hand Colouring

Hand Colored Print

I recently posted a hand colored print on eBay and began to wonder how these were made. So, you know me, I got online and started searching for information. Here’s some info that I found on WikiPedia about hand coloring.

Hand-colouring refers to any of a number of methods of manually adding colour to a black-and-white photograph or other image to heighten its realism. Typically, water-colours, oils and other paints or dyes are applied to the image surface using brushes, fingers, cotton swabs or airbrushes. Some photographic genres, particularly landscapes and portraits, have been more often hand-coloured than others, and hand-coloured photographs have been popular enough that some firms specialised in producing them.

There were three mediums used to create hand coloring:

1. Dyes   When hand-colouring with dyes, a weak solution of dyes was preferred, and colours were built up with repeated washes rather than being applied all at once. The approach was to stain or dye the print rather than to paint it.
2. Water-colours   Water-colours had the virtue of being more permanent than dyes, but they were less transparent and so more likely to obscure details. Hand-colouring with water-colours required the use of a medium to prevent the colours from drying with a dull and lifeless finish. Before the paint could be applied, the surface of the print had to be primed so that the colours would not be repelled. Since different pigments have varying degrees of transparency, the choice of colours had to be considered carefully. The more transparent pigments were preferred, since they ensured greater visibility of the photographic image.
3. Oils     The use of oils was particularly a professional practice, as the conventions and techniques involved demanded knowledge of drawing and painting. When hand-colouring with oils, the approach was more often to use the photographic image simply as a base for a painted image. As with water-colours, the choice of oil colours was governed by the relative transparency of the pigments. It was necessary to size the print first to prevent absorption of the colours into the paper.

Hand-coloured photographs often combined these media, with dyes, water-colours and oils in turn being used to different effect in different parts of the image. Whichever medium was used, the main tools to apply colour were the brush and fingertip. Often the dabbing finger was covered to ensure that no fingerprints were left on the image.

Today there has been a resurgence of interest in hand coloring using photoshop and scans of old black and white photographs.  There are a number of tutorials on how to do this.