A very Victorian Christmas

Over on the Paper With a Past Facebook page, I've been counting down to Christmas with daily posts of Victorian cards from my collection. It suddenly dawned on me that the images ought to be posted here, too, for those not on Facebook. Enjoy …

MERRY CHRISTMAS. The final card.
Published by Boston's Louis Prang in 1881.

Not a moment too soon … 1st annual Christmas poster

© Sugar Plum Tree

I so wish that in July, someone would dump snow into my studio and pipe in continuous holiday music. That way, I might get on schedule with my holiday greeting cards, tags, etc. But, no, here it is Dec, 6, and what am I doing? Designing a new card, and, "wait," she thought, "why not turn it into a holiday poster, too."

So, I have. Both the card and poster debut this weekend at the Showcase of Art at the Woman's Art Club of Cincinnati, which opens this morning at - gulp - 10!

For the design I used one of my favorite Christmas images in which tiny children dance around a ginormous Christmas tree laden with all kinds of goods from the practical (soap, coffee, furniture) to the whimsical (candy cones, fish, toys).

The tree is adapted from an engraving a black-and-white engraving in the January 1882 issue of St. Nicholas, a popular American children’s magazine published by Scribner’s. The pastries are from “The Trade’s Cake Book,” by T. Percy Lewis (MacLaren & Sons Ltd, London, 1912). I altered their colors substantially to make them more fanciful.

The 11" x 17" poster is titled "Sugar Plum Tree," and is a limited edition of 25 signed copies. It's printed with archival ink on Legion Paper's Somerset Enhanced Velvet 100% cotton rag paper. It may be the first of an annual series of Christmas posters. And, who knows, maybe next year's will be designed earlier.

Holiday madness!

Just posted this Studio Schedule on the Open Studios page, but thought I'd post here, too …

Additional holiday hours at Paper With a Past studio

12:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday Dec. 11

12:30- 9 p.m. Friday Dec . 12  *see below

10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Saturday Dec. 13

12:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday Dec. 18

10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Saturday Dec. 20

* "Stuff I Can't Bear to Cut Up" Special Event

12:30-9 p.m. Friday Dec. 12
(before, and during Open Studios)

Antique and vintage paper from the archives

that is artful enough on its own to be framed and hung on a wall,
from maps, fashion plates and children's book illustrations
to magazine covers, advertisements and anatomical engravings.

Some are matted, some are not.

All have insanely low prices.

Stop by to browse the print bins for that perfect present.

Santa's on his way ...

It's no secret that I'm smitten with Santa. He's appearing on all manner of paper goods from stamped gift tags - using my favorite image - and collaged tags to collages and prints.

I'm just finishing new Santa collages for this weekend's Showcase of Arts at the Woman's Art Club of Cincinnati (10-4 Saturday Dec. 7, noon-4 Sunday Dec. 8 rain, sleet, ice or snow … so they say).

Here's a peek at them … the first three are on 6"x 6" hardwood panels, and are ready to hang with a hanger on the back. They're sealed, and the sides are varnished. The second three are on covered book board - 4" x 7.75" - and hang from vintage seam binding threaded through the grommets at the top of each.

Hope to see you this weekend, but, please, be careful out there ...

Available for the first time ...

"Seed Bombs," above, is one of the reproductions of original collages that will be sold for the first time at the annual Tiger Lily Press sale. It's printed with archival-quality inks on 100% cotton rag paper. It will be available in two sizes: 7"x9" (matted in an acid-free mat to fit 11"x14" frame) and 8"x11" (matted to fit a 12"x16" frame). All the prints are of collages that are no longer available.

There will be other first-time prints at the sale, too, including the debut of Sweet Petite Prints. These are repros of Sweet Petite collages no longer available, such as "Day Dreaming" (below). Like the originals, they are matted to fit a 5"x7" frame.  

And look for the first cards in my new "Lux" line of holiday greeting cards ... also printed on 100% cotton rag paper ... here's a preview (the image is adapted from a 1920 postcard, I know, kind of sentimental for me) ... if I say so myself, they are gorgeous!

Look what turned up in the mail:an Edwardian holiday beauty

I get the best mail! A few weeks ago, I posted an item about some Dennison Halloween stickers that I had nabbed and in it, mentioned how red hot Halloween is among paper collectors. Well, all collectors. A few days later, a plain, No. 10 business envelope arrived in the mail. It was from my friend Laura Chapman.

Laura had recently given me a nice cache of paper from her collage-making days that included food labels, French newspapers and signs from the 1950s, paper sample booklets and more. Now, she was sending me some holiday postcards - pretty much the only postcards I collect. I thumbed through them and when I got to the one on the bottom of the pile, I gasped. Really. It was the marvelous 1912 postcard above.

Anyone who collects postcards will recognize it immediately as one of New York publisher John Winsch's and as the work of illustrator Samuel Loren Schmucker (1879-1921). Happily, it has the Winsch copyright in the bottom left corner. Winsch's company wasn't around long - just five or so years - but it was the heyday of postcard publishing and the company made quite an impact.

The illustrations of "beautiful women" that Schmucker created for Winsch - and for the Detroit Publishing Co., earlier - are among the most collectible postcards. His gorgeous, rosy-cheeked "girls" almost as iconic as Charles Dana Gibson's "Gibson Girls." His wife, Katharine - considered a great American beauty - was his initial model.

I don't have many Winsch/Schmucker cards; they're usually outside my price range. Yet over the years, I've managed to snap up some at bargain prices. Two seasonal ones are below; the Thanksgiving card is from 1911 and the Christmas one from 1910. Oh, and two more beautiful Christmas women are in my exhibit case in the dining room of the Taft Museum of Art as part of its annual Antique Christmas exhibition.