Time On Our Hands: Old Book

Time On Our Hands:

A Wonderful Childrens' Book

At the Expo Center in Portland I recently attended the Palmer Wirff's Antiques Show.  I bought a couple of photos that I will post later but my prized purchase that day was a book called Pedlar's Ware by Mary and Margaret Baker.  It was published in 1925 and my copy was a library book for its career.  There are four stories in this book and each is written by one sister and accompanied by silhouettes painted by the other sister.  

Here are two examples of the silhouettes.  

There is a silhouette on nearly every other page.  Many are people--a juggler, three fancy ladies with fans, a dancing couple, a leprechaun, a beggar maid.  Some are fairies and some brownies.  Some are cats and some children.  There is a house, a woman with a child and a leprechaun.  They are all so wonderfully done.  

The stories aren't that great, frankly, but these silhouettes are the reason I bought the book to begin with.  I wonder about these sisters and how they spent their days.  Did the artist do her silhouette work hour after hour?  Did she paint them after the stories were written or before, to shape a story around?  

They published other books as well.  Together they wrote the stories and made the pictures for The Black Cats and the Tinker's Wife as well as The Dog, the Brownie and the Bramble Patch.  

I've studied the pages of this book until they are falling out of the binding.  I want to thank the Baker girls for doing this work so that a woman 87 years later could enjoy them.  What a great find!

Time On Our Hands: Shirtwaists

Time on Our Hands: 

Girls in Shirtwaist Dresses

I bought this photo recently at a favorite antiques store where I used to work.  When I first started collecting these school group photos, they were priced high.  This one was only $6.00 which was a bargain, or so it seems to me.

The shirtwaist dresses make me think this was taken in the early 1950s but I'm not sure.  At that time I was less than six so not a fashionista by any means.  But these dresses look familiar,  like they are something I saw as a girl.  A collar, a pair of puff sleeves, some buttons up the front, a belt and swing skirt.  They look very tailored and nice but, from what I remember, they were terribly uncomfortable.  Maybe that was just my problem because I wasn't built with my waist in the right place!

Moms might have made these dresses.  That was a thing stay-at-home moms did back then.

I love the hairstyles, too.  Very much like those I grew up with, at least in grade school.  Say until 1957 or so.  The girls have such sweet faces and fresh smiles.  One pair of glasses in that whole class! I find that pretty amazing.  Oops, just found another. Do you see her?  She's just a little blurry.

The boys in this picture are better dressed than the boys in many of the other ones I have.  The economy must have been good for their families.  They're all so clean cut.  And happy, I might add.  These boys look happy and cheerful.  Not shy and not afraid.

I wish I knew where this school is/was.  As far as place goes,  I haven't a clue to go on.  The boys have sweaters, the girls don't.  Can't be too cold, can it?  These kids have a stance that shows pride and assuredness.  They don't look beaten by the times or starving.  Their clothes aren't full of holes or dirt.  Their hair is combed, their hands look clean.

Would you like to go to this school?  Why?  Who do you think would have been your best friend in this class?  Where would you be in this picture, do you think?  Would someone near you make you laugh?  Who would that be? That little boy in the front row with the L on his sweater?  I think he's saying something very humorous.  There is a lot of joviality in that group of three boys, don't you think?

The teacher is a man, something new in my pile of class photos.  He has a three piece suit and a Hitler mustache.  He looks nice if you ignore that little bit that resembles a torturer.

My favorite person in this photo is the little girl straight up from the middle with a large square white collar, her head tilted slightly.  I would like to know her.