The Copycat Collector

THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: Texans Incorporated Lamps

2012-03-11T16:48:00.000-07:00

Television light, for which Texans Incorporated was famous

I found this fascinating website, Texans Incorporated: The History of a Lamp Company, through Collectors Weekly. Lovingly created by Mark Stevens, it is a wonderful source of history and photos of this amazing, but now sadly closed, lamp company. Located in Central Texas, in the small town of Bangs (which, surprisingly, I spent some time in, in the early '70s), Texans Incorporated seemed to be the epitome of mid-century modern cool meets mid-century pop. Table lamps that were often sleek, and sometimes campy, and television lamps that were always sophisticated and fun, Texans also benefitted from the design talents of the renowned ceramic designer Howard Kron.

I can't tell the story myself, but I can show you some interesting photos from Mark's website. Please check it out, it's well researched, interesting, and a pleasure to look at!

Mid-century catalog page

Texans also produced lamp shades. Here's a rare original lampshade.

Popular, but delicate dancing couple TV lamp

I'm pretty sure this Siamese cat design graced our own TV in the '50s.

Juvenile lamp designs

Howard Kron (r) and colleagues

COLLECTION #182: Vintage School Geography Books

2012-03-09T17:47:00.001-08:00

Sometimes categorizing school books can be a bit difficult. It's pretty obvious which books are music books, and which books are readers. I don't have a problem figuring out what book is a speller, and which one is arithmetic. But sometimes, they are not so obvious. PLUS, subject names change. (Arithmetic vs. math, for example). One of these confusing categories is geography, as opposed to social studies. By the time I was in grade school in the late '50s, early '60s, there was no such subject as 'geography'. That which had once been the study of people and places was lumped together into 'social studies', which included geography, history, and social science.

But in the olden days, geography was pretty much the study of people and places. I have a lot of books that are more 'social studies', in that they also contain a lot of history too, OR are more location focused, such as books about South America, California, etc. But my books today are what I consider geography, especially since many of them are called 'geography', either part of the title, or subtitle.

I'll not bore you with too many details: publishers, copyright dates, etc. But they are fun to just catch a glimpse of, so I'll just post a few photos without further ado!

This is pretty much as interesting as they get... maps, and photos of fascinating things like industry and commerce.

This little book, however, is full of fun! (Just look at those monkeys!)

Here's an inside page from the above book, about a lucky little boy named Bobby, who was taken on a trip around the world by his uncle, 'the Colonel'. The illustrations are so charming!

This is Our USA, A Gay Geography. Not a school book per se, but it's definitely about geography. Also, far from politically correct! Take a look at those illustrations!

Another page from A Gay Geography. You can click on these photos for a closer view!

COLLECTION #181: Vintage Fruit Crate Labels

2012-03-08T11:31:00.002-08:00

It's pretty hard to be a Californian and not either collect, or love vintage fruit crate labels. These lovely works of art were commonly used on produce of all kinds, and certainly not just California produce! But in California it's easy to find these vintage prints in just about every antique mall and flea market.
I have a small collection, which I love! I seem to have 2 themes that I prefer: western, and scenery.

Most of the collectible labels were produced from the late 1800s to around the 1960s. Generally, these labels are fairly common, and can be purchased for under $20. But there are highly desirable labels that can sell for many times that amount. For me, I collect the labels I can afford, and that I like. Simple as that!

I've thrown in here a few 'blanks'. I found these labels at a lovely antique store in Carpinteria called Whimsy Antiques . I blogged about them a few months ago on my other blog, you can read about it here.
The fun thing about blanks, is that you can digitally alter them to add your own fun detais: name, title, dates, etc. Here's an example of how I took a kinda bland blank, and zipped it up with some color changes and personalization. Eventually, when I stop being so lazy, I will have it printed, and framed for our kitchen.

If you would like a full-resolution image of any of these labels, please send me an email, and I'll be happy to send it to you. (You can find my email address on the right side of this blog).

COLLECTION #180: Vintage Mirror

2012-03-07T11:37:00.001-08:00

It's Orphan Wednesday again, and once more, I have something interesting for your viewing pleasure. This is an antique mirror that I acquired many years ago from a friend of a friend. She was an antique dealer of sorts (actually, I think she was more of a professional garage-saler!). We've hung this in our various houses throughout our marriage, and I've often wondered exactly how old it is, and what style. I recently added this on Collector's Weekly, as an 'unsolved mystery', so if I get any responses, and learn more about my mirror, I'll be sure to edit this post and clue you in.

My guess is it's at least 100 years old, and may be much older than that. I've photographed the details, and the back side too. If you're an expert on American antique furniture, feel free to leave me a comment with your ideas!

COLLECTION #179: Chatty Cathy Dolls

2012-03-06T13:40:00.000-08:00

I never intended my collector blog to be a place full of unpleasant surprises, but I'll tell, you, I got one this morning. For Toy Tuesday this week I decided to feature my Chatty Cathy dolls. I love Chatty Cathy, and I was lucky enough to be part of the Chatty Cathy team in 1997, when I was working at Mattel, to bring the original Chatty back on the market as an authentic reproduction doll. I worked for many months on Chatty, researching her, and becoming as much of an expert as was possible back then, before eBay. I relied heavily on Kathy and Don Lewis' books on Chatty Cathy, and her extensive family of talking dolls of the 1960s. I met Kathy several times during the months that I worked on the project, and she was so helpful to me on the technical aspects of the doll.

So, back to my unpleasant surprise! I knew all of my Chatties would be very dusty, because I keep them on display in my home, and due to their large size, they are not behind glass. After all, these aren't really priceless dolls, even though they are very valuable to me! So, As I took them down, and brushed them off, and dusted their sweet little faces and freckles, and did a double take! Both of my reproduction Cathys had the scariest looking eyes! The one with the blue dress and blue eyes, was now a scary pink-eyed ghoul! The one with the red dress and brown eyes, now had frightening looking red eyes! Argh!!!! What happened to my babies? I never leave them in direct sunlight. Their pretty little dresses were not the least bit faded. Their hair and skin, although dusty, looked fresh and sweet. But those eyes! It's obvious that we selected an eye vendor, most likely in China, that produced poor quality eyes.

My original Chatty Cathy from 1961 (I used to know EXACTLY which one I had, but I'm now too lazy to go back and research her again) has startling blue eyes, just as she is supposed to. Although I don't have original clothes for my older Cathy doll, I love the cute little vintage red and white overalls she wears. Isn't she adorable?

So, here you are. Chatty Cathys gone over to the dark side. (But they're still cute!)

COLLECTION #178: Old Folkie Books

2012-03-05T14:12:00.001-08:00

No, that's not 'old fogey' books, although it could be argued that these books are something only old fogeys like me would appreciated! In honor of Music Monday, I'm sharing my somewhat pathetic collection of books about old folk singers. (My friend Jean is probably laughing her head off at my little tiny collection. But I say, if she wants to start a collector blog to share her enormous collection of everything folk music related, I'll be the first to sign on as a follower!)

I've loved folk music since I was a pre-teen in the late '50s, early '60s. When the wave of 'nouveau' folk music, popularized by the likes of the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, Judy Collins, the Weavers, and Joan Baez hit the pop charts, I was on board. In those days, every kid with a guitar could play "Where Have All the Flowers Gone", "Puff the Magic Dragon", and "500 Miles". (I mentioned 'nouveau' folk music.. this is to separate it from the earlier wave of folk music which was popular from the 1920s through the 1940s, epitomized by the likes of Woody Guthrie, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, the Carter Family, and others).

From Woody Gurthrie: A Life

So, I have a few books about folk musicians, including a couple of song books. This isn't the extent of my song book collection, but since these are specifically about folk singers, I've included them in this collection.

My absolute favorite female folk singer is Judy Collins. She has morphed through the years of her career, from a straight-up folksinger, singing traditional and modern folk songs, (but rarely her own), to a polished singer of show tunes, pop songs, and ballads, but with her roots firmly in the folk music traditions of her youth. She has written a few lovely songs, and performed them admirably, but in my opinion, she does best with the songs of others. Her voice is rich and pure, with an incredible range and color. I can't hear "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" or "Suzanne" without a lump coming to my throat.

Suzanne, folk classic written by Leonard Cohen

Bob Dylan is arguably the greatest influence on modern folk music, much like Woody Guthrie was on Depression era folk music. His songs have been recorded by a Who's Who of musicians, from folk to rock to New Age, to.... well, just everyone. I particularly loved 'Nashville Skyline', his album recorded in the late '60s, with a country vibe I'd never known he had.

From Nashville Skyline

From the Bob Dylan Scrapbook

Who the heck is Tom Paxton, you might ask? Well, even if you haven't heard of Tom Paxton, his songs have been recorded by nearly as many artists as Bob Dylan's songs. He wrote the children's classics "Going to the Zoo", and "the Marvelous Toy", as well as folk classics "Ramblin' Boy", "Last Thing on My Mind", "I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound", and "Bottle of Wine". My above mentioned friend Jean introduced me to Tom (literally and figuratively) in the late '70s, when she took me to several of his concerts at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. I've probably been to half a dozen 'Tom Concerts', with her, and due to her personal friendship with Tom, we've had several pleasant conversations.

One of the more humorous folk music stories, is the legendary "Alice's Restaurant", song and book, written and performed by Arlo Guthrie, son of Woody Guthrie. I felt that I had 'arrived' musically, back in the late '60s, when I mastered Alice's Restaurant on the guitar. (Ha ha!) This cute book was illustrated by Marvin Glass, who is best known as a toy entrepreneur.

Last but not least, here's a layout I did about myself, featuring a photo taken during those 'folk music loving days'.

THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: Coin Collecting Boards

2012-03-03T18:10:00.001-08:00

You've all seen those little boards with round slots in them for coin collectors, right? My brother was an avid coin collector back in the '50s, I can still remember his stacks of coin folder albums, with their blue covers, filled with Mercury dimes, Indian Head nickels, pennies, quarters and half dollars. The silver coins really were silver back then, and pennies were worth at least a penny! Although I wasn't a coin collector myself, I did have a few silver dimes and quarters squirreled away.

Click on any of the images for a closer view

David Lange has been a collector of coin collecting boards for many years. He has turned his long-time hobby into a specialty. Not only is he an expert on his particular niche in the coin collecting realm, but he has written a book, entitled: Coin Collecting Boards of the 1930s and 1940s. He has written seven books on coins, and serves as Research Director of NGC (Numismatic Guaranty Corporation), and writes a column for the Numismatist, the monthly journal of the American Numismatic Association. David is busy writing a multi-volume series of books on coin folders and albums.

Thanks to David for sharing his board photos with us! You might also enjoy seeing where he stores all of his albums. (Seeing his neat shelves makes me think in my next life, perhaps I'll collect something small!)

COLLECTION #177: Vintage Singer Prose and Poetry Readers

2012-03-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

These cute readers, published by the Singer Co. in 1960, are a fun addition to my vintage school book collection. Modern, whimsical, and colorful, the emphasis is on stories and poetry.

I have all seven books (in ascending order of difficulty): Story Wagon, Story Time, Story Train, Story Carnival, Along the Sunshine Trail, Across the Blue Bridge, and Aboard the Story Rocket.

I hope you like looking at the fun covers, and illustrations!

COLLECTION #176: Artist's Mannequins

2012-03-01T06:45:00.001-08:00

I just love my mannequins! As I was getting ready to photograph them, I pulled the realistic doll one from the shelf, and noticed that the brand name was on the stand: "Art S. Buck". It reminded me that back in my art school days we called these 'artist bucks', thus the play on words. But when I went to do an internet search on the term 'artist buck', I couldn't find anything! (Well, except for Buck Owens, paintings of bucks, etc) Odd. I guess that term has fallen out of favor. But, that's just a diversion, because here are my four lovely artist models. I rarely use them now. The dark one I purchased a few years ago, when I was working on some fashion doll projects. It was great to have something the right size and scale to help me with my drawings. But it, along with the wooden ones, just sit on the shelf in my studio, collecting dust. They range in size from 5" to 16".

I had a lot of fun photographing and posing them. I think it might be fun to have one printed and framed for my studio wall.

COLLECTION #175: Vintage Doll Crazy Quilt

2012-02-29T12:32:00.001-08:00

I call this a vintage doll quilt, but I'm not sure if this was made for a doll, or was actually a doily or wall decoration. But I like to think of it as a doll quilt. This little piece is tied to the antique doll dresser I shared with you two weeks ago, it was given to me by the same elderly lady, and was also owned (and in this case, made) by her mother. As I was photographing this quiltlet, I became curious if it actually was made by Florence's mother. I only had a year (1885) and initials (CDS- at least I think it's an 'S'). So, I fired up Ancestry.com, and quickly learned that it was indeed made by Florence's mom. And how did I do this? Since Florence never married, I was able to search quite a ways back to discover her as a child living with her parents in the 1900 census. (She was living in a small town in Upstate New York). To make a long story short, I discovered that Florence's mother's name was Cora D. Allen. That's her married name, not maiden name. I'm still working on discovering that little factoid. But at least I now know that she did indeed make this little piece.

Isn't it cute? I love crazy quilt piece work, and this one is really pretty. Lots of velvet, lace, embroidery and applique, plus the sweet added embroidery of date and initials. Some of the fabric has disintegrated, revealing some interesting fabrics underneath. I say it's a keeper!

COLLECTION #174: Vintage Photos of Children Going Places

2012-02-28T08:18:00.000-08:00

It's Toy Tuesday! I have in my collection of vintage photos, a few cute ones of kids and their 'big toys', or riding toys. Wagons, pedal vehicles, sleds, velocipedes. I even have a couple from our own family, so I'll add those too! Sorry, I really don't know much about these photos, except what might have been written on the backs... which isn't much! I'll just let you enjoy the fun!

Love this li'l guy's bloomers, and straw hat!

I don't think I've ever seen a sled wagon, but looks like this one was from Canada!

He must have been the envy of every kid on his block!

I wonder why so unhappy? Maybe it's because they're dressed alike?

Don't let cold weather keep you from having a nice excursion!

According to a note on the back, this car was built by the little girl's grandpa

(Excuse the filter) This is my Mom & her sisters & neighbors, 1918 (Mom is on the left)

They must have just hopped off their tricycle to pose for this photo! These are my sisters.

COLLECTION #173: Early 45 Record Albums

2012-02-27T09:29:00.000-08:00

I remember the time, when as a small child, there were 3 types of records available: 78s, 45s, and 33s (which were also known as LPs, or long-playing). 78s were the older types of records, which had been around for about 50 years, and were phased out by the early 1950s. The numbers denote the record speed: 78 was 78 RPM, or revolutions per minute. The turntable spun around quite fast on a 78! These 78 records generally consisted of one song per side, and so since many recording artists wanted to record more than a couple of songs, multiple records were placed in 'albums'. This was generally a bound cardboard book of sorts, with paper sleeves for the records. You can see an earlier post of a few of my old 78s here.

In the late 1940s, a new type of record, and new speed was developed. These records were recorded and played at 45 RPM speed, and were much smaller. They had a large hole in the center, and required new record playing equipment, that could accommodate the slower speed. New players were developed that could play both 78s and 45s, but the new 45s had a larger hole in the center. So, these players had to either add a removable insert onto the spindle, or the purchaser had to acquire some little adapters that they could put into the hole to make them fit onto the spindle. 45s were 7" in diameter.

My two favorites: Porgy and Bess, and An American in Paris, from 1949.

Like the original 78s, these 45s were also a single song per side. At the beginning, the manufacturers sold them in albums, just like the 78s. But as time went on, and new recording artists came along who were trying to get established and sell records, they began to be sold alone, or as 'singles'. The name stuck, and consumers, especially teenagers, went wild for the inexpensive, practical 'single'. When I was a teen, we used to go to Dolly's Records after school, to buy the latest Beatles singles. I had dozens of records of Herman's Hermits, Petula Clark, Chad & Jeremy, Peter & Gordon, the Turtles, and countless others '60s greats. At that time, I recall, the singles cost a dollar. (Hmmmm, isn't that what they cost on iTunes today? The only difference is a single actually had two songs on it, one on each side, so it was a real bargain!)

Isn't this red record awesome? An American in Paris.

Porgy and Bess. Note the insert inside the hole

Back to the 45s. These early 1949-1950 45 albums, were actually sold in small boxes, rather than the format of the bound album of the 78s. Mine belonged to my husband's grandparents, and we inherited them with my late Mother-in-law's estate. I don't know if these are particularly valuable or rare, I honestly haven't done my homework on them, but I'm sure the Porgy and Bess, and An American in Paris are sought after. I thought you would enjoy seeing this little slice of recording history.

THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: Dave's American Clocks

2012-02-26T15:24:00.000-08:00

I just love old clocks... and Dave Weisbart does too. He got into collecting antique 19th century clocks by accident, you can read all about it in Collector's Weekly, here. Dave has his own site, called Dave's American Clocks. His site is full of photos and information about these fascinating clocks of years gone by. Some ornate, some simple. All awesome!

Here are a few images from his website:

COLLECTION #172: Children of Foreign Lands

2012-02-24T18:39:00.001-08:00

I love a good mystery! And these little books are not mysterious at all on their face, but I think I've found a little mystery anyway.

Sometimes I don't realize exactly what I have until I start researching. These adorable children's books, from the 1930s, got me scratching my head a little bit. Although these books about children from other lands aren't specifically school books, they were often used in the classroom as supplemental reading material, and were considered educational. Published by Platt & Munk, with copyright dates from 1935 to 1942, they were illustrated by Roger Vernam and Ninon MacNight. There are two hard-bound books: Children of Foreign Lands, written by Elizabeth F. McCrady, and Eight Little Indians, written by Josephine Lovell.

The Children of Foreign Lands hardbound book contains 8 stories of different children from, you guessed it, many lands! I also have a sweet boxed set, which contains soft bound individual books of the exact same stories. The boxed set and hardbound book were not sold together. The stories are: Abdul of Arabia, Ching Ling and Ting Ling, Wilhelmina of Holland, Maria and Carlos of Spain, Olga of Norway, Chula of Siam, Manuel of Mexico, and Kala of Hawaii. It's interesting how much geography has changed in just the past 70 years or so- at that time Hawaii was not a state of the US (it was a territory), there was a country called Arabia, and Thailand was called Siam.

From Ching Ling and Ting Ling

From Wilhelmina of Holland

The Eight Little Indians book, also has 8 stories (which is a play on the old children's rote song "Ten Little Indians"), each story is about a different Indian child of North America, representing different tribes. I also have a soft bound book called Morning Star, A Little Pueblo Girl. There must also have been a boxed set of these books too, but I have yet to find them. I have found all eight volumes of the small books online, just not the actual boxed set.

From Gray Bird- A Little Plains Indian

When I opened my box today to photograph and document the volumes, I discovered that there were actually 9 books inside. (The original 8, plus the Morning Star volume). So I went online to see what I could figure out about these books, and I discovered that there was a boxed set available that included one book that mine did not. But what was it? Obviously Morning Star didn't belong, but that still left 8. The box says 8. I was a bit puzzled. So what was this mystery book? I discovered that one volume was titled Matsu and Taro of Japan. Hmmmm. So which was the extra one? It seems that the earliest editions of this boxed set included Matsu & Taro, and did not have Manuel of Mexico. But why would this have been? The copyright date on the Manuel volume was 1942, while the other ones were 1935, 1936 and 1937. Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to surmise that what had changed was in 1942, the United States was at war with Japan. Perhaps during those years, they substituted Manuel for Matsu due to sensitivity to American's feelings toward Japan.

From Manuel of Mexico

The one thing that puzzles me, is that the hardbound book of Children of Foreign Lands has a copyright of 1936 and 1936, and contains the Manuel story. This was long before the War, so I can't see why Matsu and Taro was not included. The other thing about the Manuel book, is that it is poorly illustrated, and no signature can be found on the illustrations, unlike all the other books. Perhaps this book was hastily added to the set and hardbound book, without changing the copyright date of the book. It's a little mystery to me. Not earthshattering, but curious.

COLLECTION #171: Blue and White Plates

2012-02-23T14:50:00.000-08:00

I love blue and white dishes of all kinds, and you might have noticed in past posts here, here, here, and here. But today, I thought it would be fantabulous to feature just my plates. Each one is a little different, and together they look wonderful, if I do say so myself!

I have two Christmas plates from the early '70s: a Royal Copenhagen from 1973, and a Bing & Grondahl from 1972. I have another B&G from 1973 but it is packed away. (There's just not room, if you can believe it!) I also have a cute souvenir plate from Washington DC, a fun heart shaped plate, a calico plate, a souvenir plate from Texas, a reproduction souvenir plate from Nauvoo, a fun snowman plate, a sweet little white plate with a blue and white flowered border, and a vintage looking Currier and Ives scene plate, that is part of my very first china I purchased for myself in 1976.

You might also like to see where they live (most of them), here you go:

COLLECTION #170: Vintage Craftsman Sideboard

2012-02-22T14:26:00.000-08:00

It's Orphan Wednesday!

I'm not a furniture collector, although I wish I were. Generally, beautiful antique pieces of furniture are out of my price range, and the more affordable shabby pieces, require restoration skills I do not have. (Some day!)

A few years ago, one of my favorite antique malls closed, and had a huge sale- everything 50% off. I didn't go there with the idea that I would buy any furniture, I wasn't looking for large things at all. But then I spotted this lovely small Arts & Crafts style sideboard for only $100, I snapped it up in a minute!

It didn't require anything more than a little dusting and polishing. When I removed the lower drawer to clean the interior, I spotted a handwritten signature and date. It said, it lovely swirly pencil: "Alex Stevenson GPO" and the date, "5th June 1914". I have no idea who Alex Stevenson is, what GPO means, or anything else about him. I don't know the origins or designer of the hutch. It doesn't seem to have been made by one of the established Arts & Crafts furniture manufacturers. My guess it might have been made from a kit.
The drawer pulls are wonderful. They are a rising sun design, and the patina is marvelous. There's a small little drawer in the top (where I keep my vintage matchbooks). It makes a nice platform for some small pots and photos I like to display. Isn't it beautiful?

COLLECTION #169: Wind-Up Toys

2012-02-21T11:31:00.000-08:00

I just LOVE wind-up toys! I love the noise they make when they jump, shimmy, spin, hop, bang, clang, and shake! I have quite a variety of wind-up items of every type and variety. Some old. Some reproduction. Some US made. Some Japanese. At least one German. Many of these have been shown in previous collections here and here!

I only included a few robots from my much larger collection, because I didn't want the photo to become too cluttered. This gives you an idea of the types of wind-ups I have. Most of these are tin, a few have fabric on a metal frame, and one is entirely plastic except for the mechanism. (The harness racing jockey).

I love my Unique Art Li'l Abner Dogpatch Band. It's from the late '40s, and is probably the oldest item in this collection. It's not in great condition, but it's one of my favorite antique toys. It still works: Li'l Abner clogs, Mammy Yocum leads the band, Pappy Yocum plays the drum (without his drumsticks), Daisy Mae vigorously plays the piano.

Dogpatch Band by Unique Art

Here are some more photos of my fun wind-up toys:

Japanese repro plane

Hopping birds

German Schuco violin-playing clown from the late '40s or early '50s.

Fun twirling airplane carousel

Hopping Dog

COLLECTION #168: Vintage US Presidents Book

2012-02-20T14:13:00.000-08:00

It's so fun to have a collector blog! It's great to choose which collections to feature, how to present them, how to photograph them, and what to say about each item or collection. It's also fun to do whatever I want to do, which means occasionally breaking my own rules. I mean, who really cares? I do enjoy following my rules most of the time. It gives order and cohesion to the blog so people can find things, enjoy groupings of items, and keep my stuff organized. But once in awhile, I think it's fun to shake things up a bit. I don't ever want my blog to be boring!

Since today is President's Day in the US, I thought you might enjoy my fun book called Our Presidents at a Glance, by Rolf Benjamin Vinmont, published by Grosset & Dunlap in 1933 (revised with an update about Franklin Roosevelt in 1941). This book has a double page spread on each president, from George Washington to Franklin D. Roosevelt. A nice portrait is on the left, and a series of small line drawing illustrations and anecdotes about the President is on the left. (Speaking of left, did you know James Garfield was the first left-handed US President?)

Back when I was a kid, we celebrated two Presidents with holidays: Abraham Lincoln on February 12, and George Washington on February 22. That made February lots of fun, with two days off school, and Valentine's Day in between! We spent a lot of time studying both of these great men, learning what made them great. But somewhere along the line, the powers that be decided that one holiday was better than two (BAH! I say!), and it was much cooler to celebrate ALL the presidents, instead of arguably the two greatest Presidents of all. But what ended up happening, was that instead of celebrating all the presidents, the day only watered things down to the point that it became merely a day off from school, and a day the banks & post offices were closed. AND, a special day to participate in fabulous sales at car dealerships and electronics stores. If those of you in the education field spend a lot of time in February teaching your students about all the Presidents, let me know and I'll alter my poor opinion of this holiday change.

Regardless of how I feel about President's Day, I think it's fun to read about our presidents, and learn a few factoids about their lives. I hope you enjoy these pictures of my book!

THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: Baseball Card Blog

2012-02-19T20:59:00.000-08:00

I had two collections as a young person, that if I had today, would be worth a gazillion bucks. The first one was my Beatles collection. As a young teen in the '60s, I was nuts for the Beatles. I collected records (many of which I still do have), magazines, buttons, cards, dolls, and other miscellaneous treasures. What took my collection from ordinary to extraordinary (in my eyes), was that I had a pen pal from Scotland in those days, and she occasionally sent me Beatles stuff from the UK that were not available in the US. I put all of my treasures into an old suitcase. It was a cool 40s suitcase with a handle that looked like plastic amber. Awesome! I stashed the suitcase in the storage room in my garage, and wouldn't you know it, sometime when I was away at college, my Dad saw fit to pitch my future wealth in the trash. He never liked the Beatles, anyway. If the collection had been Tommy Dorsey or Benny Goodman, I'd still have that awesome suitcase today.

My other collection was baseball cards. I was the only girl I knew who collected baseball cards back in the early '60s. I loved baseball. Especially the Dodgers. I bought bubblegum by the boxful to get those cards. I kept them in a shoebox in my closet, just like every other would-be baseball card collector, and like most of them, my Mom pitched them when I wasn't looking. I can still see those cards in my mind: Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Ted Kluzewski, Ron Perranoski, Ernie Banks....

My Sandy Koufax autographed card, just to show what a great Dodger fan I was!

I know almost every kid who collected baseball cards, lost those cards. If we all had our cards, then those who collect valuable and rare cards today wouldn't have anything valuable or rare. That's just how it is!

I found a fun blog today about baseball cards. It's actually written by three guys: Ben Henry, Mike Kenny, and Travis Peterson. They share their various baseball cards. Ho hum. But what makes their blog awesome is not the various photos of cards (which are after my time, and during that 30 year period when I didn't pay a bit of attention to baseball). What makes it awesome is their hilarious writing. It's not even worth my time to pick lots of interesting card images to post here. You just have to read the blog to catch the flavor of their wit.

So, please visit the Baseball Card blog, and see what I mean!

Please read the blog entry about this card...then you'll see why I put my Sandy Koufax photo in.

Why is there a Jim Henson card? You can find out here.

COLLECTION #167: Vintage School US History Books

2012-02-17T05:54:00.003-08:00

When I was growing up in the 1960s, we studied California history in the 4th grade, and US history in the 5th grade. I don't know if that's still how it's done, but most of my small cache of school US history books, look to be about the 5th grade level. Several might be middle school, and one might be high school. I don't really collect high school books, but occasionally pick one up if the photos and/ or content are interesting to me! These books are all from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.

Without further editorializing, I'll just present my books, with a few selected pages of interesting illustrations & stories shown.

Story about Gilbert Stuart, American artist

Story of Andrew Jackson

Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross

Famed naturalist George Washington Carver

A section about slavery prior to the Civil War

COLLECTION #166: Vintage Road Maps

2012-02-16T11:27:00.002-08:00

I love old maps of every type: globes, atlases, and of course, road maps! There's just something so fun about looking at old maps to see the highways, cities, streets, and points of interest of long ago- and not-so-long-ago.

I've discovered young people today barely know how to read maps. Perhaps I'm an old fuddy-duddy, but I don't think a GPS has quite the charm of a road map or atlas. In my humble opinion, learning how to read maps helps develop spatial relationships, logic, and a sense of direction. Although I do love my iPhone GPS, and rely on it often, I just have to 'see the whole picture' when I visit a new area, or travel out of my local comfort zone.

I love the graphics and info on this map... look at the architecture & cars! And a radio log too!

This map of Los Angeles, shows an area that's completely changed today. (North of LAX) The big blank area on the left side is now Marina Del Rey, and there is no such place as Barnes City District. Today it's parts of Marina Del Rey, Playa Vista and Westchester.

These road maps are from the Western US (since that's my home turf, I tend to collect things that I'm familiar with), and date from the late '30s, to the early 80s. I love the maps of Los Angeles, and California. The California one was published in 1939, and the LA map is from the early '40s, although it has no copyright date. It's fun to see that there are no freeways at all on the California map, and the LA one only has the 'Arroyo Seco Parkway' (Pasadena Freeway), and a small section of the Hollywood Freeway. All of the other highways were regular streets and boulevards. These maps were all given away by gas stations. That was how we got our maps back in the day. (Back when gas stations were called 'service stations', because you actually got service!)

The Colorado map was published in 1952, and is almost like a book... full of fun, stylized illustrations, and information about points of interest, in addition to the maps.

COLLECTION #165: Vintage Doll Dresser

2012-02-15T14:55:00.000-08:00

It's Orphan Wednesday! Since my usual toy post (Toy Tuesday!) was hijacked by Valentine's Day yesterday, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to feature an orphan toy. [For those who don't have a clue what I'm talking about, generally, I feature a collection of three or more items each day. However, a few weeks ago, I decided to do a weekly feature of an 'orphan' item- something that I only have one of, rather than entire collection. These 'orphans' are worthy of a blog post, because generally they are very special to me, or are particularly unique or interesting.]

This is one of the oldest things I own. Close in age to my antique steam valve prototype, this is a child's doll dresser, 10" tall, from the late 1860s. It came into my hands in the early 1980s, when our little family was living in Hollywood. We were friends with an elderly neighbor, who had also been close to my Grandparents. (We bought Grandma & Grandpa Clark's house when Grandpa died shortly before our marriage). Her name was Florence Allen, and she had never married or had children. Miss Allen was 98 when she passed away in 1983, having given me a number of small and sweet treasures through the years. This little doll dresser had belonged to her own mother, and since Florence had never had children, she wanted me to have it. Of course, I never allowed my daughters to play with it, but it has always had a place of honor in our homes.

I still have the little 'provenance' card Florence wrote for me. On the other side was a return address sticker with her name and address on it. She said her mother received it in 1873. (How I wish I had some details about her mother!) If you look carefully, on the back of the dresser is the stamped information: PATD [patented] FEB 5 1867.

COLLECTION #164: Happy Valentine's Day from the Copycat Collector!

2012-02-14T17:15:00.000-08:00

As you might have noticed in the past couple of weeks, I'm a big fan of Valentine's Day. In honor of the day, I thought you might enjoy seeing the totality of my Valentines collection.

Mostly vintage, but a few reproductions, and some fun newer stuff sprinkled in. Just lots of hearts, lace, sweetness and light. I hope you have a great Valentine's Day!

COLLECTION #163: Vintage Western-themed Valentines

2012-02-13T13:25:00.000-08:00

I love western themes: Cowboys and Indians, wide-open spaces, horses, cattle, cactus, Mexican Senors and Senoritas. Western themes were really popular from the 1920s through the 1950s... from silent movies to Roy Rogers, Stage Coach to Gunsmoke. I have lots of Western themed collectibles, and these cute li'l Valentines are right up there with my other faves.

I love my giant sized Mexican boy & girl on a burro. The sombrero folds over to what used to be a 'tissue ball' hat. (it's now pretty mushed and torn). My guess is this one is from the late 30s or 1940s.

The others are probably from the 1940s or '50s, but the cute li'l roping cowgirl and cowboy is definitely 1930s vintage.

I hope you enjoy my western Valentines, and don't mind that I've roped you into another one of my Valentine collections. I'm not horsing around, and I won't steer you wrong, (I think it's time I ride into the sunset before you brand me 'loco'!) Yippeee yi ki-yay!

THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: The Vintage Traveler

2012-02-11T19:58:00.000-08:00

The Vintage Traveler is an awesome website by Lizzie Bramlet, who shares her extensive knowledge of vintage fashion as it pertains to travel, sportswear, outerwear, and general fashion pop culture. She collects, archives, and shares her vintage finds, and educates us on the details of her 'stuff'. Although most of her treasures are what we would consider 'vintage', she also blogs about interesting things she finds in the world of fashion today.

Here are a few of Lizzie's finds, pop by her blog and see what other fascinating subjects she shares with us!

COLLECTION #162: Valentines and Vintage School Books

2012-02-10T16:52:00.000-08:00

I remember so well the excitement and anticipation of Valentine's Day when I was a little girl in grade school. The fun of making or buying cards, picking which ones would go to which person, finding a 'special' one for that little boy I had a crush on, and best of all... receiving a bunch of cute Valentine cards from all of my friends. The process went something like this: bring the signed & sealed Valentines to school on Valentine's Day. Place them all into the special, previously decorated Valentine box or bag. Wait an eternity until time for the Valentine party. Someone who was previously designated as the postman, hands out all the cards, walking around the room, up and down the aisles, torturing us with his or her slowness and capricious way of distribution. Then, when they are all passed out, the opening begins. Some of the cards are handmade, obviously a lot of time and thought went into these cards. (Some children made them themselves due to financial considerations, but in my book, the handmade ones were awesome!) Some cards just had a name scrawled in childish letters on the back. Others might include a little note: "to my best friend", or "I like you". Some weren't signed at all, but had a cryptic message: "guess who?" or "an admirer". In my school it was encouraged for the children to give a card to each student, so that no one would be left out. So, it was rare for a child to go home with fewer than 20-25 cards on Valentine's afternoon. Usually, after the cards were given out, there would be a Valentine's party, complete with pink, heart shaped cookies and punch or milk.

I would gaze at my cards for hours, looking at the cute images of cowgirls, birds, kitties, and the like. One memorable card was from my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Owen, who gave me a Mickey Mouse card. What I loved wasn't the card, but her beautiful handwriting. The way she wrote my name made me feel so special.

Even at that early age, I preferred the cards printed on heavy, matte stock, to the cheaper, shinier cards.

Since Valentine's Day was celebrated so colorfully at school, I thought it would be fun to feature some of my school books that contain Valentine stories, songs, and activities. I even have one school primer, by Lyons and Carnahan, called Valentine Day. It was published in 1934. I adore the sweet illustrations.

I think one of the reasons I collect vintage Valentines today, is because of those happy school memories. I don't collect sophisticated, grown up romantic cards- only the cute cards designed for school children. They are the happiest cards of all.

COLLECTION #161: Valentine Containers

2012-02-09T13:24:00.000-08:00

I love heart shapes. I know that's sappy and girly, but I can't help myself. As is the case with many of my collections, I never purposely collected Valentine shaped boxes, bowls and containers. But lo and behold, here they are. Not very old, not very rare or valuable. Not very many. Just nice.

My two favorites are the clear glass candy bowl, and the red leather box. The candy bowl was a wedding present back in 1978, and I've always loved it. The red leather heart-shaped box sits in my studio in a place of honor. I keep some special little treasures in it.

The others are part of my general Valentine's collections, and I set them up this time of year. I love filling the candy dishes with special Valentines treats. Sorry, none there to share with you right now! Perhaps there will be some Valentine's Dove dark chocolates soon, or perhaps some Hershey's kisses. I'll save you a few!

COLLECTION #160: The Valentine That Chaged the World

2012-02-08T18:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, maybe it didn't really change the world. But it certainly tilted the earth on its axis for my family. This sweet little Valentine postcard from 1908, marked the beginnings of a long-distance relationship. From Idaho to Minnesota, this little postcard Valentine traveled, from a man named William Ward, to the lovely Martha Gruetzmacher of Owatonna, Minnesota.

The sweethearts met on a train. Isn't that romantic? It was the summer of 1907, and Martha traveled from Minnesota to Portland, Oregon, to visit a cousin. Somewhere between here and there, either to or fro, she caught sight of a handsome man outside the window of the train, which was standing at a station. He was pacing back and forth, occasionally glancing into the window of the train. Just before it started again, this same man walked down the center aisle, and stopped next to her. "Is this seat taken?" he inquired. Well, it certainly wasn't taken. And neither were any of the other seats in the nearly empty car. Martha was puzzled why he wanted to sit next to her, but in the next few hundred miles, they got acquainted. He asked for her address, and when she returned home, they began a correspondence. I have no idea how many letters or postcards passed between them between 1907 and their marriage in October 1909. But it doesn't matter, this is the one I have. His written words are rather casual and impersonal. But the printed words on the Valentine surely expressed the feelings of his heart.

You might have guessed by now that these strangers who met on a train, were my own grandparents. My Mom's mother and father, who took a chance on love, and changed our world forever.

A layout I created about my grandparent's courtship

COLLECTION #159: Vintage Animal-themed Valentines

2012-02-07T20:47:00.000-08:00

Without further ado, my vintage Valentines with Animal Designs. (Not to be confused with vintage Valentines with Animals Playing a Supporting Role)

Long-necked Love

Love Birds

Puppy Love

Love you, Ducky!

It's either a dog, or faux Mickey Mouse!

Monkey Love

COLLECTION #158: Vintage Music Valentines

2012-02-06T16:28:00.000-08:00

It's Music Monday! And today I am sharing my music-themed Valentines! Aren't they cute! I love the two simple ones- one with a fun vintage record player, and one with a banjo... one can't have too many banjos in life!

Love the cute little harlequin playing a saxophone, and the two little singers with their songs of love.

But my favorite is the little pop-up campers, singing around the cooking fire. I'm not sure if the little boy is playing a banjo or mandolin, but he looks like he's putting his whole heart into it!

THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: The Cedar Chest Blog

2012-02-05T19:33:00.000-08:00

It seems that many of the collector blogs and websites I discover are about ephemera: that is, paper collectibles, such as postcards, letters, brochures, Valentines, old photos, and printed material of every kind. Since we're in February, I'm always on the hunt for more vintage Valentines.

I discovered the Cedar Chest Blog, where I found lots of fun ephemera you will certainly enjoy. I was immediately attracted to the Valentines, but discovered lots of other fun stuff. I hope you take some time to stop by and check out what's in the Cedar Chest! (You can also find a link to her Etsy shop, where you can purchase some of her fabulous finds!)

COLLECTION 157: Vintage Valentines- Sports Themes

2012-02-03T18:54:00.000-08:00

I have about a zillion vintage Valentines... I thought it would be fun to share them with you by category, rather than bunching them all together. It was fun to discover that I had six of them with a sports theme! And how much fun is that? I even have a bowling one! So, two football players, a baseball girl, a bowler, and two jockeys... one male, one female.

Bowling for Love!

Oops, looks like someone's getting her butt kicked!

I hope you enjoy my little sporty Valentines!

COLLECTION 156: Valentine Hankies

2012-02-02T20:55:00.000-08:00

I love Valentine's Day! I probably spend almost as much time decorating for Valentine's Day as I do for Christmas. (Ok, that's a slight exaggeration... it doesn't take me 3 days to put my Valentines up, but still....) My favorite way to decorate is to display all of my vintage Valentines and stuff. I've been collecting Valentines for many years, and love the nostalgia of those sweet, or funny, or goofy cards. The fact that most of them were given by and to children makes them even more wonderful.

But my collection today isn't Valentines cards, but vintage hankies. Sewn or printed with hearts and love, they just brighten my day. I love finding a Valentine hankie on my foraging trips, but they seem to be harder and harder to find.

This one truly makes me laugh!

So, from now until Valentine's Day, I will post a different Valentine's collection every day. I hope you enjoy my stuff!

COLLECTION #155: Vintage Lifesavers Display Rack

2012-02-01T17:35:00.000-08:00

I haven't been able to find out the age of this candy rack, but it's probably from the 1950s.

It's Orphan Wednesday again! (Remember? I started doing that last Wednesday- sharing my odd stuff, onesies, singles, 'why would anyone want more than one of these?' kinds of things). Today I'm sharing my vintage Lifesavers display rack. I have had this thing for years and years. I wish I could remember exactly where and when I bought it, but it had to have been at least 30 years ago. I bought it with the idea that I would display/ store my art supplies there many years ago, and I more or less stuck with that. But I never really felt that I used it to its potential until I put it on my drawing table years ago, and used it to display lots of fun and useful things.

I do have to laugh about something kind of funny. I thought I might do a quick Google search and see if I could find out anything about this rack... how old, if anyone else had one, etc. I was looking through the Google images, when I spotted a photo of my very own rack, filled with my toys and stuff. Although I had photographed it for this blog post, both empty and full, I hadn't yet composed my posting, and I certainly hadn't added my photos. It kind of spooked me for a minute! I mean, how did this happen? How did my own (just taken) photo jump into the Google images archive? (Insert Twilight Zone music here....) Then I clicked on the image. It took me right to a post I did several months ago where I gave a virtual tour of my collections. Lo and behold, I had already photographed it, and posted it. I hadn't even remembered taking the photo!

I thought you might like to see it empty and clean, and then stocked with all of my toys, critters, games, and fun stuff.

COLLECTION #154: Fisher-Price Toy Fest & Commemorative Toys

2012-01-31T16:36:00.000-08:00

When I worked at Fisher-Price in the early 1990s, I began collecting the wonderful reproduction limited edition toys F-P released each year for their annual Toy Fest. Actually, Toy Fest was not a Fisher-Price event, but was put on by the community, through the Toy Town Museum. Fisher-Price has been located in beautiful East Aurora New York for over 80 years. East Aurora has been informally called 'Toy Town', for much of that time.

Me and my four kids at Toy Fest 1992. The theme that year was the Molly Bell cow- notice the kid's T-shirts.

Molly-Bell, 1992

Each year, a special toy, chosen from among Fisher-Price's vast archives of amazing, traditional and colorful wooden toys, was authentically reproduced by Fisher-Price, and was the 'theme' of that year's Toy Fest. Giant floats, gifts, T-shirts, posters and other souvenirs were emblazoned with an image of that toy. The toys were available for sale for a limited amount of time, and then ceased production. Unlike a lot of 'limited and numbered' collectibles of the 80s and 90s, these toys have maintained a fairly high value. I believe this is due to the fact that they are simply awesome!

Snoopy Sniffer 1990

Jingle Elephant 1993

Grand-Pa Frog 1994

Squeaky the Clown 1995

Unfortunately, Toy Fest ceased in 2008. I'm sure there were a lot of reasons for stopping the tradition, but it's still sad. Along with the year's featured toy, there were several other limited edition toys created during the 1990s-2000s. I have the Snoopy Sniffer from 1990, and the Dr. Doodles from 1995. Dr. Doodles came on a lovely wooden stand. Including these two, I have a total of nine Toy Fest toys. I hope you enjoy my collection!

Dr. Doodle 1995

Close-up of the plaque on the wooden base.

Raggedy Ann & Andy 1997

Elsie's Dairy Truck 2000

Woodsy-Wee Zoo 1996

COLLECTION #153: The Illustrations of Maurice Sendak

2012-01-30T15:01:00.000-08:00

I can't think of a living artist other than Maurice Sendak, who has captivated me, from an artistic point of view, from my very young childhood until today. Maurice Sendak began illustrating children's books around the time I was born/ early toddler years, and is still active and grabbing my attention today. I read his books, and bought them for myself as a child. I bought his books when I was a young adult for myself, and I bought them for my children when they were little. Today I have given them to my grandsons, and my children have bought his newer work for me. So, you can see why I feel Maurice Sendak is a significant influence on my life.

I still have my Nutshell Library I bought when I was in the 6th grade. I suppose by that time most children might have outgrown his child-like artistic style and simple prose or poetry. But not me. I fell in love with the four tiny books, and memorized each one. I can still recite all of "Chicken Soup with Rice".... In January it's so nice, while slipping on the sliding ice, to sip hot chicken soup with rice... sipping once, sipping twice, sipping chicken soup with rice.... Aren't you impressed? I guarantee I can do each month! But I digress!

When Where the Wild Things Are came out in the early '60s too, and I was aware of its enchanting story, although I didn't buy it for myself for another decade. I bought In the Night Kitchen in college, and in the years before our marriage, bought several others that inspired me, building up my children's book library for our future children.

Awesome Wild Thing collectible figure

When I worked for Hasbro in the 1980s, a group of us went to the Rhode Island School of Design to hear Maurice Sendak speak. He was known as a bit reclusive and didn't lecture often, so we jumped at the chance. He didn't disappoint.

From the Maurice Sendak Poster book

From the Miami Giant

Although I don't consider myself anything close to a Maurice Sendak collector, I do have a fair smattering of titles, and a few have somehow slipped away (Kids? You borrow any of my books? Ian? Annie?) I used to have Higgelty Piggelty Pop, and In the Night Kitchen, and the Juniper Tree, and the Bat Poet. (Hint hint, I'd like them back!) But this is what's left of my collection, for what it's worth.

I hope you like Maurice Sendak as much as I do! (Click on any of the images for a closer view).

THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: Radio-Guy

2012-01-29T18:36:00.000-08:00

This has to be one of the most fascinating and eclectic sites I've ever featured! Radio-Guy is Steve Erenberg, collector, designer, creative director, sculptor and expert on many things related to antique medical devices, odd vehicles, unusual radios, vintage lighting, and countless other eccentricities. You must visit his site Radio-Guy to see more examples of his fascinating collections. He also has a blog called Industrial Anatomy that is a must-read.

Radio-Guy was selected to be in the Collector's Weekly Hall of Fame a little over a year ago, you can read the wonderful interview here.

Although Steve is known for his medical devices, masks and other unusual mechanical objects, he's also involved with industrial lighting, and has an outlet called Early Electrics where you can purchase fun and funky light fixtures.

COLLECTION #152: Houghton Mifflin Vintage Readers

2012-01-27T13:14:00.000-08:00

Here is my collection of some of the 1957, 1962 Reading for Meaning series of school readers by Houghton Mifflin Company. These sweet little books have charming illustrators, some of which are done by favorite Corinne Malvern. I have two of the pre-primers, and 6 of the possible 9 readers. I also have a second copy each of the pre-primers (not shown) with different artwork on the covers.

Adorable illustrations by Corinne Malvern in The Big Show

COLLECTION #151: Vintage Children's Bingo and Lotto Cards

2012-01-26T20:03:00.000-08:00

Love these fun cards- the Lotto cards look to be from the early 20th century, and the animal Bingo cards are probably from the 1930s. The "lotto machine" can be found in this earlier post.

COLLECTION #150: Antique Valve Prototype

2012-01-25T18:23:00.000-08:00

Now that I've reached 150 collections, I'd like to start a new feature here on the Copycat Collector... one I've been thinking about for awhile. When I first started this blog, my idea was that if I had at least three of something, then I considered it a collection. That was sort of based on the original inspiration for the daily collection, and just my wild idea that I had so much stuff certainly I could dig up three or more of any type of thing. Although I certainly still have a lot of stuff that fits into that 'more than three' criteria, as I've gone through the 'putting things together' and 'photography' steps, I've also noticed that I have quite a few things I'd like to share that are simply loners. Single items (or maybe two) that don't fit into any other category, odd stuff, or orphans, as you will.

I think I have convinced my readers that I am a collector. So, now that I have posted 149 collections, it's time to expand into a weekly feature that I'll call "Orphans". I'll probably do this every Wednesday for the time being. I'll post a weekly collectible that I think is interesting and newsworthy, but I just have one.

My first Orphan is this marvelous antique steam engine valve prototype. Isn't it wonderful? It was given to my husband and I as a wedding present, back in 1978, by one of my oldest and dearest friends. (We've known each other since kindergarten!) And it's obvious she knows me well... I mean, who do you know that would give this type of amazing wedding present? Not me!

Click on the layout for a closer view

It has been lovingly displayed in every home we have lived in, in nearly 34 years of marriage. I even did a layout about it (above), and wrote about it in my other blog a few months ago.

This model is the type of prototype that would be submitted to the US Patent Office for patent issue. In my research, I learned a little bit about Mr. William G. Pike, which you can also read about on my other blog. I took quite a few shots of some of the interesting parts of the model. It stands about 7" tall, and 7" wide, but the long rod that sticks out of the side makes it about 13" wide.

My favorite thing, other than the beautiful craftsmanship is the handwritten sign that came with the valve. To think that it was written by Mr. William G. Pike back in 1867! That was just three short years after the Civil War ended! (The tag on the valve is dated December 5, 1867, but the separate tag is dated January 14, 1868, just about 6 weeks later).

So, I think you can see why this is an 'orphan'. Nope, don't have any other antique steam engine valve prototypes hanging around this house!

COLLECTION 149: Vintage Children's USA Puzzles & Games

2012-01-24T14:29:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Toy Tuesday! There's just something about maps that I love! I especially love old maps, with their fascinating shapes, names, highways, cities...and I love maps of the USA. Maybe it's because I'm unashamedly in love with my country, just seeing these old map puzzles makes me feel proud and nostalgic. (Click on any of the photos for a closer view)

Oregon, where art thou?

These are my collection of vintage USA puzzles, plus one map game: The Game of the States. One of these map puzzles was my own as a child, the one shown below. I'm so glad that I never lost a piece, and that I somehow managed to hang onto it all these years.

Mostly, I just put them up on a high shelf as part of my greater toy collection, and rarely explore further. When I was cleaning these off to photograph, I opened the box of the one on the bottom right side- in the orange box. I thought it would be fun to see if all the states were there, and I was surprised to find two Texas pieces! What? They were completely different, and I quickly realized I had two map puzzles! (well, mostly two, several of the states were missing, but enough to see what fun puzzles I had.) The second puzzle was quite different from the first. The older puzzle, was rather boring and ordinary, but the second one had cool late '50s or early '60s graphics with cute, stylized illustrations of sheep and cows and trains and the like.

Also included in my collection is the old Hasbro Teach-A-Toy map, which includes little flags you can put on the map with the names of capitals and other important cities.

Most of these maps were created before 1960, when the last of the two 50 states were added. But they were sometimes included because they were territories at the time, and considered part of the USA. On one map, the Philippines is included.

I hope you enjoy my little map puzzle collection!

COLLECTION #148: Vintage Song Booklets

2012-01-23T17:31:00.001-08:00

A few of these booklets have been in other collections, but I thought it would be nice to put all of my song booklets (except for holiday ones or religious ones) into one grouping. These are all soft-bound books, and most of them are from the 1930s to 1950s.

They range from a little song folder from an ice cream company (Hendler's Ice Cream) to the Amsco Music Company compilation of Cowboy Songs. Several of them are published by textbook companies, to be used in the school, one is a simple mimeographed and stapled booklet published in the 1940s by the State of California: Songs of our Latin American Neighbors.

One book is a combination of square dances and folk songs, several include guitar or autoharp chords. The cute book in the back is a nursery rhyme song book. and I've included a few vintage cowboy illustrations to make you sing 'yippee ki-yi-yay'!

THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: Postcard Collector

2012-01-22T23:14:00.000-08:00

I found an awesome website for postcard collectors. It's amazingly called Postcard Collector! It's a great place for postcard collectors of all kinds to share their cards, discuss different types of cards and collections, and exchange information about sales and shows. It's fascinating how many different types of postcards there are out there... not just souvenir postcards of different locations, but postcards made from real photos (surprisingly called 'real photo postcards'!), postcard comics, postcards made from wood or leather, naughty postcards, romantic postcards, holiday postcards, postcards about pickles, commercial postcards... there's really no end!

Here are a few images I snagged from their website, I hope you take a few minutes and check out all of the wonderful things you can find on the Postcard Collector!

A lovely collection of vintage ladies

Novelty postcards for every occasion!

A 'real photo' postcard with a mystery... who is that man?

COLLECTION #147: The Ginn Basic Readers

2012-01-20T14:08:00.000-08:00

More readers! There is never any end to them, and I have tons more to go! But the Ginn Basic Readers, as well as the Alice and Jerry books, and the Scott, Foresman readers (Dick and Jane), were extremely popular readers across the US from the 1940s on. I'm sure there are current versions being used by American schools today, but I don't keep up with those.

I have nearly all of the 1957 edition of the Basic Readers, missing is the 6th grade one. One of these days I'll discover its title, and add it to my collection. These are wonderful books, using a variety of illustrators. There are about a dozen different illustrators who worked on these volumes.

You can identify the books by their grade level, by observing the spine... on the later, revised edition (1957-1961) on the right, there are dots and lines. Two dots and two lines means the book is second grade level, part two or semester two. The fourth through sixth grades only have one book per school year. I assume this is because less emphasis is placed on basic reading in the upper grades, and new subjects have come to take their place: science, arithmetic, social studies. The books on the left- the earlier 1948 editions, is the same way, but since I have fewer of them, it might be hard to identify those grade levels. If you look really closely, you can see that there are a few books that don't have such dots and lines. These books (Fun and Fancy in the early edition, Open the Gate and Ranches and Rainbows on the later editions, are considered 'enrichment' books. These were designed to help children who weren't quite ready to advance to the next level, OR to give to those who read more quickly, to give them extra reading practice while the rest of their classmates were catching up).

I have two different pre-primers, two of the same title. These are all from the 1940s, and use the illustrators from the early books above. They are charming, but not nearly as wonderful as the later books.

1948 edition of On Cherry Street

1957 edition

I've also included a few pages from early editions vs. later edition to see some differences in the illustrations. They are all wonderful!

1948 edition of the Little White House

1957 edition

One of my favorite illustrators, Corinne Malvern, is one of the primary illustrators of the mid-grade books of the early editions. In those books there is usually just one or two illustrators for the whole book, as opposed to the later editions that have as many as a dozen different illustrators.

Example of Corinne Malvern illustraion in the 1948 edition of Around the Corner

I hope you enjoy reading a little bit about Susan, Tom and Betty, and seeing these wonderful mid-century readers.

Around the Corner (1957 edition) with its Do and Learn Book

COLLECTION #146: Turquoise Pottery

2012-01-19T09:53:00.000-08:00

I'm never sure whether to call it 'turquoise', or 'aqua', or 'blue-green'... but here are a few pieces of pottery from my collection that are that beautiful azure color....as is the case with most of my collections- something old, something new, something inherited, something blue....

The Poppy Trail pitcher came from my Grandmother Clark. The bowl is a Baur, and the rest is either unmarked or unreadable. I love the tiny little vase... we bought it on one of our recent trips, but I can't read the potter's name.
Just some fun things to look at today!

COLLECTION #145: Old Seed Packets

2012-01-18T17:52:00.000-08:00

I've had these old seed packets for years, and love them! There's just something cool about the graphics - I love the illustrations and the fonts, and the colors. My guess is these are from the early 20th century, but there's no copyright date on any of them except one: the flower packet has a date of 1916. I've got my eye open for more. If you see any, let me know!

COLLECTION #144: Old Photos of Children & Their Toys

2012-01-17T14:58:00.000-08:00

For Toy Tuesday, I thought it would be fun to share my photos of children playing with their toys. These are photos of people I don't know, folks probably long gone, but remembered through the magic of Kodak. I don't know anything about these photos, some of them are labeled on the back, but there's really not enough information to give us any significant family details. I hope you enjoy looking at them. Click on any of the images for a closer look.

Look at the beautiful smocked dress this little girl is wearing! Love her little toy.

I love these little photos... the one on the top right shows a birthday party and one little girl clutches her doll. The photo below that shows another birthday party, with a little boy & his car.

I believe this is the same little girl as the one at the top, only slightly younger. Love her little doggy toy.

So sweet... a little girl and her stuffed doggie

Another sweet little girl- this one with her sand pail.

I shared these Christmas toy photos in December, these show children and their Christmas toys.

I found these photos all together on a single photo album page. Love this cute little girl with her little doll and stuffed bear. The little trike is pretty cute too!

COLLECTION #143: Vintage Mormon Song Books

2012-01-16T15:51:00.000-08:00

Not to be confused with my vintage hymn books (Mormon or otherwise), these are vintage song books, some of which do contain hymns, but they are mostly youth religious or fun songs. These books are from the 1930s-1950s.

I remember well the little book called The Children Sing. It was the song book we used when I was a child, and I spent about an hour this morning, going through it at my piano, plunking out some of the long-forgotten children's songs. It really brought back so many happy memories of singing in Primary and Junior Sunday School back in Glendale and South Pasadena.

A few years before my Dad passed away, I remember he and his younger brother Kent getting together (both well into their 80s), and singing their childhood favorite, "A Mormon Boy". I never knew that one, but it's nice to know that some of these songs remain in our memories our entire lives... no matter how old we get to be!

THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: Ray & Charles Eames

2012-01-15T23:03:00.000-08:00

If you love mid-century modern chairs, and design of all kinds, you will love the website EamesCollector.com. It's chock full of fun facts, interesting photos, and things you've probably never seen before, such as Charles Eames' oil paintings, building toys (one of my childhood friends owned these cards in the late 1950s, I was in awe), radios, and other fascinating subjects.

For the uninitiated, Charles and Ray (Bernice) Eames were successful and innovative (married) designers and artists in the mid-twentieth century. They are famous for their chair designs, but designed and created a plethora of useful and beautiful household objects and furniture.

The Eames collector website is beautifully designed, and easy to navigate. Without leaving the homepage, you can easily explore photos, magazine articles, interesting links, and what is called "Eames Moments". You'll definitely want to check it out!

COLLECTION #142: Alice and Jerry Readers

2012-01-13T15:13:00.000-08:00

I've written about my Dick and Jane readers. I've blogged about Bob and Judy. I've discussed Billy and Jane. These are all wonderful books, with adorable illustrations and sweet stories for school children of the 1930s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. But of all my vintage school readers, my absolute favorites are the Alice and Jerry books. Illustrated double-handedly by sisters Florence and Margaret Hoopes in the 1930s, these books are beyond adorable. They are just perfection. These talented ladies, who illustrated dozens of school readers, as well as other children's books, could draw and paint about anything. Animals, sweet-faced children, adults, cars, (not so easy!), houses, and landscapes. Their colors are yummy, their design sense- impeccable, their rendering skills are first rate. The Alice and Jerry readers were published by the Row, Peterson and Company.

Late '40s, early '50s editions

Two editions of Here and There- from the late '30s and early '40s.

Two of the pre-primers, early 1950s edition

I took so many photos of their books, I think I'll just post them and let you enjoy the superb work of these talented ladies. They are both long gone, but their artistic legacy remains. Click on any of the images for a closer look.

Late 1950s editions of the Alice and Jerry books... fantastic book design. Modern yet nostalgic.

Could this be any cuter?

Late 1930s version of Here and There.


This is Skip Along, one of the earliest pre-primers. It uses rebuses in place of some of the harder words.

COLLECTION #141: Twin Falls, Idaho

2012-01-12T06:55:00.000-08:00

I thought I would do something a little different today... I have a frame full of special treasures from a special town: Twin Falls, Idaho, and I wanted to share them with you. This is my Mom's home town. Mom is going to be turning 100 in a couple of weeks, so in her honor, I wanted to feature some special things about Twin Falls. Mom graduated from Twin Falls High School in 1930, so these photos and cards are from the 20s and 30s.

I love the photos of Mom. They were taken during her adolescent years, and reflect a girl with confidence, style, and character. The one on the top left, with her looking rather pensive, looks so much like my niece Tracy, Mom's oldest granddaughter. I enjoy seeing these family resemblances so much!

There are two photo postcards of downtown Twin Falls. After her graduation from high school, Mom worked downtown, as a telephone operator. She walked these sidewalks every day. In fact, it was on the sidewalks of Twin Falls that she saw my Dad for the first time. So these photos are especially meaningful to me! There is a postcard of her high school, a photo of Mom in her graduation gown, and another photo of the TFHS class of 1928, that I found in a magazine. It might not be Mom's class, but I'm sure she knew many of these kids, and it's pretty representative of the era.

COLLECTION #140: Brock Harvest Pottery

2012-01-11T07:06:00.000-08:00

This fun set of pottery was given to me by my sister Leslie a few years ago... knowing how much I love western themes and vintage pottery, she thought I would love these dishes, and I do. They were made by the Brock Pottery Company (also known as the Southern California Pottery Company) in the late '40s or early '50s. The company was only in business from 1947 to the mid 1950s, so at least I've got it narrowed down that far. I've found other Brock pottery patterns online, and this is by far my favorite. I LOVE the tree shapes... they look just like California eucalyptus trees, and make me feel right at home.

I love how the pattern 'progresses' from simple to more complex. On the cups and salt & pepper shakers, there's just a barn, windmill and a couple of little trees. Then on the salad bowl, the big foreground trees are added, along with some fields and trees in the background. On the large plates, we see the whole scene: large barn, trees, farmer and wagon, fences. I love the browns, yellows and greens.

COLLECTION #139: Sailor Bears

2012-01-10T16:09:00.000-08:00

How random is this collection? Not sure how it started, but I have amassed quite a little collection of (mostly) stuffed sailor bears. Maybe I should say, sailors in general, because four of my collection are not bears at all, but one pig, one bunny, one sailor girl doll, and one sailor boy doll.

They aren't valuable, rare, or old (except for the adorable sailor boy doll, probably from the 1930s or 1940s) so, I'll just post the photos and let you enjoy!

COLLECTION #138: Guitars (and baby guitars!)

2012-01-09T16:21:00.000-08:00

It's Music Monday! Today's collection is my fun guitar and guitar-like instruments! My 'real' guitars consist of my main playing guitar, the jumbo Taka guitar (a Gibson knock off, and it's awesome!) a Harmony Sovereign guitar, currently being played by my daughter Annie, and a fun Silvertone cowboy guitar from the 1950s.

The Taka was purchased for a song in 1979, when I was pregnant with our first child. My husband was working for the Sunset-Gower movie studio at the main desk, and someone came in who wanted to unload it in a hurry. (Suspicious, anyone?) He told Bruce he'd sell it to us for $65, and I hurried right down with cash in hand and asked no questions. It's been a dreamy instrument to play, great sound (if imperfect action) and pretty styling. It looks like a Gibson J-185, but I'm not expert enough to know exactly which jumbo version it was modeled after.

Photo found online, I don't have the box or songbooks.

The Sovereign (an H1203 model) was given to me by a friend a few years ago, and I've given it to Annie to learn to play. She's teaching herself (via You Tube) and it sounds pretty good. (Could use some new strings!) I adore the fun cowboy guitar by Silvertone (Sears' own brand) from 1958. It is a 3/4 size guitar, and was packaged in a fun box with fifties graphics.

The other mini guitars are a motley crew: there's a Russian mini guitar (the one with the birds), a Mexican souvenir guitar (the one with the flowers). I also have my original, first instrument ever: a Harmony ukulele, which I bought with Green Stamps when I was 12. It's in pretty rough shape, but I can't bear to part with it. The last instrument is a toy guitar or ukulele- it's made of tin, painted red, and has a cardboard fretboard. I love it, it's so cute!

That's it, I hope you enjoy my stringed buddies!

THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: Kodak Girl

2012-01-07T20:43:00.000-08:00

This weekend's featured website is The Kodak Girl, or Kodakgirl.com. Martha Cooper, our Kodak Girl, is an amazing photographer and expert on many things Kodak and photography. She specializes in vintage (pre-1930) images, especially advertising images of female photographers. In the early days of Kodak advertising, well before the turn of the last century, Kodak often used illustrations and photos of women behind the cameras. Not amateur or hobbyists, but women who looked competent, adventurous, professional. They might be mothers taking photos of their children, or they might be on safari. Skiing or sailing. In long skirs, or trousers. They looked at home behind the camera. Most of these images are Kodak, but not all. Martha doesn't really mind who made the cameras, she loves the images of females taking photographs. Back in the early days of these advertising images, Kodak called their female photographer "Kodak Girl". The name stuck, although images of these independent, and talented women disappeared after about 1930. After that, women were most likely seen as the subject of the photographer, not the photographer herself.

In addition to her fabulous website, you can also read an interview with Martha in the Collector's Weekly. It's really fun to read about how she got her start in photography, and collecting. She has quite a story, I hope you take the time to read it! Martha was good enough to send me some nice high res images, and the endpapers (below) for her upcoming book, Kodak Girl. (What else would it be titled?) I hope you enjoy visiting Martha's fabulous website!

COLLECTION #137: Vintage School Science Books

2012-01-06T15:22:00.000-08:00

Science was not my favorite subject in grade school. I didn't mind learning about sprouting seeds and magnets in the early elementary school years, but I didn't care much for learning about space travel and beginning physics in the later grades. I did take biology in high school, but avoided physics, chemistry and earth science.

I think I have nearly as many school science books as I do school music books. That is, a LOT! I prefer the early books: seeing sweet illustrations of little children playing in the snow, learning about the seasons; and photos or illustrations of them learning about baby animals or watching seeds grow, just makes me nostalgic for those days gone by.

I'm not going to give you much detail about my books, I'll just post the illustrations and let you draw your own conclusions. I'll insert a note or two when appropriate. These books are from the 1930s to the early 1960s- think it will be obvious to you which books are the oldest. In several cases I have two different versions of the same book- just different publish dates. Often these books have newer, more 'modern' illustrations in the later version. Enjoy!


Sweet pages from the Science Stories, above. These were published by Scott, Foresman, who published the Dick and Jane books. They also published Art Stories.

Later edition of the books shown above.

Awesome illustration from We See, above

The science books are published by Heath, the one on the left is a later edition of the one next to it.

A page from the earlier, 1950s edition.

The same page from the later, early 60s edition.

Science for slightly older children.

Space was a big deal to the children of the Sputnik era

Books for older elementary age children, late 1950s.

A nearly complete set of science books by the Winston Co.

All the books from the series, including the earlier editions.

Love this one... those magnets!!!

It's nice to know that girls can build!

COLLECTION #136: Light Blue Pottery

2012-01-05T08:00:00.000-08:00

I just love how restful light blue is... it just makes me want to pull out a hammock and take a nap next to the blue ocean.

My pretty blue things came from a variety of sources- from Target to Wedgewood to Fiesta Ware. The cute little striped set came from Target.

The large blue salt and pepper shakers with the sweet flowers on the handles, belonged to my parents, and I believed they had them their entire marriage. (they were married in 1939). The pitcher on the top left is Fiesta Ware, as are the salt & pepper shakers. I'm not sure about the other two pitchers.

The Wedgewood mini plate was given to me by my brother Gene, when he was living in England in the late '70s, early '80s. It's the Tower of London. Isn't it sweet?

COLLECTION #135: Nancy Drew Mysteries

2012-01-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

When I was a little girl, I loved reading Nancy Drew mysteries. They were my introduction to the mystery genre of books, which I still prefer to this day. Reading about Nancy, and her beau Ned, and chums Bess and George, brings back so many happy memories. In a way, these books also transported me to another time, because they were somewhat old-fashioned, and set in a time when popular girls drove roadsters, and wore their skirts below their knees. I read all my sister Lynne's Nancy Drew books, then bought a few of my own, from a more modern edition.


End papers from the 1956 edition

1937 edition

End papers from the 1937 book

I've managed to collect a respectable number of Nancy Drew books, most of them belonged to one young girl, who kept them in pretty good shape. Well, except for writing the number of each book on the spine. And the pages. These books are all from the 1956 edition. I also have a nice, old one from 1937, which still has the dust jacket. Just for good measure, I bought a modern reproduction a few years ago, to add to my small collection.

Did you read Nancy Drew mysteries too? (Or maybe you loved the Hardy Boys!) I'd love it if you'd add a comment if you did... it's nice to know that others out there share some of the same happy memories!

COLLECTION #134: Keystone Fire Department and Service Station

2012-01-03T14:38:00.000-08:00

These two awesome vintage Keystone boy's playsets are from the late 1940s. Finding these toys is partially the reason I became a toy collector back in the mid '80s. We were living in Rhode Island, where I was working for Hasbro. My husband and I had a side business that involved some light assembly and storage work, and Bruce rented some space in a self-storage unit to do the work. He got acquainted with the owner of the units, and at one point, the owner needed to clear out units when the owners defaulted. In one of these abandoned units, they found a chache of old toys, including these. We were able to get these toys, and my collections were up and running!

I especially love the Fire Department toy.. this one is slightly larger than some of the others I've seen online and in person- with three doors and three vehicles. It has a working 'siren', and fun little levers on the back of the station where you can pull them back, and then let go, and the fire trucks come roaring out of the front.

It also comes with it's own 'burning building'. How fun is that! The 'flames' can be swiveled out so the fire can appear and disappear. The hoses connect to the flaming building.

The Service Station looks a lot like a gas station must have back in the late '40s, early '50s. It comes complete with a car wash, 'elevator', ramp, oil change bay, 2 gas pumps, air dispenser, and a few other features. It's a little rough looking, but it's really fun to look at. Unfortunately, I don't have any of the vehicles it might have come with.

I hope you enjoy these wonderful playsets... I'm sure the little boy who owned these toys had many years of imaginative play!

A 1950 Toy Fair ad featuring Keystone toys, including these playsets.

COLLECTION 133: Vintage John W. Schaum Piano Books

2012-01-02T14:57:00.000-08:00

Some of my collection of vintage John W. Schaum books, published in the 1940s. I studied piano from 1957 to 1965.

I admit it. I was not such a great piano student. It was a combination of a few things: a teacher who didn't enforce good piano habits (fingering, sight reading, practice), and a student (me) who cheated every step of the way. I was very naughty. Poor practice habits, a desire to improvise and memorize rather than sight read, and sloppy fingering and note reading, which led to much frustration as my lessons and books became harder and harder through the years. Simply put, I played by ear.

From the Pre-A book, a simple tune.

I began taking piano lessons when I was about 6, and quit when I was 14. That's an awful long time to be 'faking it'. Although I had others fooled: I performed difficult pieces in school talent shows and recitals, I could play sections of classical numbers that sounded really impressive- but could rarely play them all the way through. I can still play parts of many of these pieces today, but find that if I try to read the music, I can't really do it well.

The customary way a piano book was marked by the instructor, was to put a date the piece was to be performed for the teacher, usually at the next lesson. Any notes (like 'Watch fingering!') were added, sometimes with exclamation points or grades. Often piano teachers used encouragement stickers, not unlike school teachers, to praise or help the piano student. I didn't get a lot of those!

A quiz I took in book D, when I was 10 years old. It's fun to see my old handwriting!

A rare "Excellent" sticker.

These books were mine as a child. I think I hung onto them all these years because they were stowed safely away in my parent's piano bench. Years after I was married, they decided to sell the piano, and I rescued all of my books. There were lots more, and I have most of them. Of course, a few are missing. My books A & B are long gone, which makes me really sad. Perhaps one of these days I'll find them at a flea market, or buy them on eBay.

A difficult piece in the last book I used... it's no wonder I finally gave up!

THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: Charles Phoenix

2012-01-01T19:57:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! And incidentally, this is the 6 month anniversary of my collector blog, and yesterday I received my 10,000 page view! I'm not sure how that compares with the average blog, but since my blog hasn't gone anywhere near viral, I'm pretty happy with it!

If you haven't heard of Charles Phoenix, you are in for a treat! Although he has moved waaaaaaay beyond simply being a collector of mostly California pop-culture to being a cultural icon himself, I wanted to feature him because his website is just fun! The holidays are when he really shines! Charles has lots of fun features: festive (and totally wacky) food preparation videos, a weekly slide feature (he has lots of fabulous mid-century slides that he has acquired through the years), and links to info about his Southern California tours, slide shows, clips of his television appearances, and information about the books that he's written. I have a couple of his books myself, and they are chock full of awesome photos and information about popular culture of the 1950s- 1970s.

Charles is colorful in every way- always smiling, impeccably dressed, and very campy and entertaining. You might even want to join him on Facebook, with all of his other Americana Geeks!

COLLECTION #132: Vintage Noisemakers!

2011-12-30T15:38:00.000-08:00

Bring on the New Year! These vintage tin noisemakers were probably used on countless New Year's Eves to commemorate the twelve midnight hour! I love the fun colors and patterns! Everything from clowns to spacemen to partying adults! One of my noisemakers was long-ago painted. Love the color, but hate that I'll probably never know what whimsical artwork is underneath! My guess is these noisemakers are from the 1940s and '50s.

Happy New Year from the Copycat Collector!

COLLECTION #131: Vintage Lyons & Carnahan Readers

2011-12-29T15:35:00.000-08:00

Generally I post my vintage school books on Fridays, but I have something else in mind for tomorrow. So, today I have my vintage Lyons & Carnahan readers to share with you. These books are all from the 1954 publication date of their Developmental Reading Series. As I've said in previous posts, although the Dick and Jane readers are what most people think of when they think of these mid-20th century readers, many other companies besides Scott, Foresman & Co. successfully published school books of every type. Lyons & Carnahan had many wonderful readers, health books, and social studies books that were every bit as beautifully done as the Dick and Jane books. Most of these particular books were licensed to the state of California as part of their California State Series books. (Since I live in California, these are the ones I'm most likely to find in my area.)

The 'heroes' of the early primer and pre-primer books were Jane, Billy and Ann. (Simple names, similar to Dick, Jane and Sally). The illustrations are lovely, and they are beautifully designed and well written.

I hope you enjoy my sweet little readers!

COLLECTION #130: Vintage Children's Board Games

2011-12-28T16:17:00.000-08:00

I have quite a few games in my vast collections, and a number of children's games, or 'kiddie games', as they are sometimes called. Designed for the young folks, these games were usually simpler and more colorful than adult board games, and often had a theme or license of comic book, movie, toy, book, television show, or other entertainment or pop culture icon. It's fun to find these old games, and learn more about what was popular or trendy in each generation. The ones I have are generally more 'universal' or traditional... I don't really have many games that are the most popular character licenses like Disney, Barbie, or the 'hot' television shows of the era (except perhaps my TV game show games, as shown here). I love the fact that my games are so sweet: Candy Land (literally), Winnie the Pooh, Raggedy Ann, Uncle Wiggily. Even Pollyanna was sweet... her famous 'Glad Club', was full of sweetness and light. The Candy Land, Raggedy Ann, Pix Pix, and Winnie the Pooh games are from the 1950s, the Pollyanna game is from 1940, and the Uncle Wiggily game is from 1949. They are from Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers and Whitman Publishing.

The Pix Pix Pick Up Sticks game (A Hunting We Will Go) was featured in an earlier post, so I won't show any photos of it in today's collection, but since it's a children's game, I did add it to the group photos.

Most of my children's games were long-running games, and had a multitude of editions and covers. The Candy Land game is still popular today, but has undergone quite a face-lift and modernization. Pollyanna and Raggedy Ann are long gone, but I'm sure you can find a modern Winnie the Pooh and Uncle Wiggily game if you look hard enough.

I hope you enjoy my collection of children's board games!

COLLECTION #129: Shirley Temple

2011-12-27T15:30:00.000-08:00

I wish I really were a Shirley Temple collector... I just love Shirley Temple, and all things about her.... dolls, books, movies, songs. She was an adorable child, and I understand that she was really a good kid- not a spoiled little brat as we might expect. Although she was in show business from the time she was 2 or 3, she was always a real sweetheart. She grew up to be a wonderful person too!

When my mother-in-law Betty was a little child, Shirley Temple was all the rage. There were tons of little girls whose mothers put their hair in curls, enrolled them in dance classes, and some even took them to Hollywood hoping 'their little darlings' would be discovered. Betty's parents, who lived not far from Hollywood, thought their little girl looked an awful lot like Shirley Temple. They put her hair in curls, and took her to a Pasadena photo studio to have her adorable face photographed. The photo was entered in a Shirley Temple look-alike contest, and lo and behold! Little Betty won the contest! The prize was Betty's very own 22" Shirley Temple doll, dressed in a cute plaid dress from the movie "Bright Eyes". They proudly posed Betty with her prize, and I have these photos today.

A few years before she passed away, Betty presented me with this beautiful doll. Her eyes have that crackle in them that many of the old glass eyes got with age, and the ribbon and pin are missing from her dress. But she looks marvelous, don't you think? Betty obviously took loving care of the doll, and her hair, although dusty and matted, still has every curl in place. Her dress still looks crisp and clean, and she still has her slip, panties, shoes and socks.

I created a layout about Betty and the doll back when I first started digital scrapbooking. I still love the layout, because it evokes a feel for that time in the 1930s, when Shirley Temple was the princess of the silver screen!

I have a few other items- a cobalt blue pitcher (not sure if it's authentic or a reproduction), some sheet music, a book, and a modern reproduction of some vintage paper dolls (not shown).

Perhaps some day I'll be an authentic Shirley Temple collector! For now, I'm happy to share the few things I do have!

COLLECTION #128: Antique Hymn Books

2011-12-26T21:56:00.000-08:00

I have several old hymnbooks from various churches and church groups. My friend Robin gave me a very old hymnbook from her family, and it's my oldest and most treasured one. It's called the Sabbath Bell, and if my memory of Roman numerals is accurate, the copyright date is 1857. One of her family members documented the provenance of this book, and it's fascinating to see how the book was passed down from generation to generation.

A couple of these books were in my family for a few generations too. The Deseret Songs is an LDS hymnbook that belonged to my Grandfather Clark. It was copyright 1909. I also found the MIA Sociability Songs in my Grandpa's things.. this was a soft bound book that was used by the youth of the church for their non-religious activities. There's no copyright date on it, but it looks to be the 1920s.

I've acquired a few other religious song books through the years, including the Hymns of Praise, published by the Hope Publishing Co. dated 1922. There are also a couple of other church song booklets: New Songs of a Christian Number Two, published by Von Kampen Press in 1947, and Hymns for Christian Youth, published by Society of Christian Endeavor in 1927.

THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: Merry Christmas from the Copycat Collector

2011-12-25T19:43:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all! In honor of this, the most wonderful season of all, I'd like to share with you some photos of our home, and our holiday decorations old and new. Featured are some of the vintage Christmas items I've been sharing with you these past few weeks. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate, full of love, family and cherished traditions.

On behalf of the Copycat Collector, I would like to thank you for reading my blog! I hope you enjoy this last wrap-up of the decorations of the Christmas season!

The Reason for the Season

Vintage 1950s cardboard creche

Our cherished Fontanini creche figures

New this year- a gift from our daughter

Willow Tree Nativity, also given to us by our daughter

A group of snowmen

A glass lid display case holds vintage photos, postcards, and other ephemera

Vintage Christmas items mix with modern vintage-looking decorations

A place to display an old book and magazine, as well as my Roy Rogers fabric!

Vintage Santa toy holds a modern Santa pen

Santas old and new sit atop the mantel

A modern Lori C. Mitchell figure stands next to a basket filled with vintage Christmas goodies

My 1950s Santa fabric-covered bulletin board holds a grouping of vintage ephemera

Christmas dollies sit in a vintage child's trunk


Pretty greenery and vintage Christmas cards welcome our visitors

COLLECTION #127: Christmas Odds & Ends

2011-12-23T15:27:00.000-08:00

This is my last Christmas collection for you this season, but never fear, I will have more photos of my Christmas stuff over the weekend for my Weekend Collector feature. (I do have more collections to share, but there's just not enough days to show it off!)

This collection is really not a collection at all.. it's just some odds & ends that I have that don't quite meet the criteria for a collection. So I put them all together into one mishmash, because they are special and I wanted to share them.

The first one is the lovely pink angel. I begged my Mom for this angel from our family collection for years, and she finally gave it to me about ten years ago. We bought it back in the mid-fifties in our 'pink Christmas' stage. I adore it! I love how the skirt is made of plastic bristles, and how cute her little wooden face it. There used to be quite a lot of glitter on it, but it's mostly gone now.

So wrong, somehow!

The second is the cute li'l Christmas elves which spell out the word 'NOEL'. They are candle holders, and I actually still have the original candles for them, with little holly leaves and berries sculpted in. But they are mishapen and fragile, so I keep them packed away, and use regular little white candles now. These were also our family's decorations from the late '50s. When we got these, my oldest sister had a guy friend that used to hang out at our house. His name was Leon, and so every year I turned the elves around to spell 'LEON'. It became a family tradition. Mom put them up correctly, I switched them around. I managed to snag these for our own home many years ago, and since our own family had another dear family friend named Leon, we did the annual switcharoo. It seems odd to see them spell the word NOEL. It just looks wrong, somehow!

Much better!

Isn't that fabric adorable? Mid-century modern Santas on turquoise just seem perfect, and that Roy Rogers fabric! I have quite a lot of the Santa fabric, and a few years ago, I covered a bulletin board with it, to display my vintage Christmas cards. I'll show you a photo of it over the weekend.

There are a couple of little Christmas boxes: one is actually from the early 20th century, and held Christmas gift tags. The other is a fun 1950s match box. You can see them in the top photo.

Last is the fun Glass Wax Christmas stencil pack. These are actually from the 60s, but they were very popular in the 50s and 60s. Back then, Glass Wax was a product for cleaning glass. Someone, sometime discovered that the thick substance could be used to create patterns on windows and mirrors, and Glass Wax took full advantage, developing holiday stencil packs and patterns so that children could easily create works of art in their homes. I've included a great photo from the early '60s of my husband Bruce's home... note the fabulous aluminum Christmas tree and the Glass Wax stencils on the windows.

Here's a layout I did showing a little of my own family's 1950s Christmas. The small photos were taken the Christmas of 1956 at our home in South Pasadena, CA. The photo of Santa and me was taken at the Broadway department store in Van Nuys, CA, Christmas 1957.