Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Aster Pie?


The other day I went to the market for soy milk and came away with a huge pot of asters.  The flowers are small, white, and dark centered...and there are millions of them!  With my glasses off the whole mass blurs into one gigantic aster.  The unexpected treat was that asters attract honey bees!!, not to mention bumble bees and lots of small waspy looking insects that seem to be having just a lovely time in the flowers.  Did you know bumblebees sleep clutching a flower stem?  (I go to work before bumblebees awake in the morning.)

It seems  asters were a much bigger deal 150 years ago.  Doing a quick check by looking at Burpee and White Flower Farm and Google images I see that the simple small, more daisy like asters are what are offered.  That is what I bought.   I must be missing something as these awesome asters from the later 1800s and turn of the 20th century  must be available.  I just don't know enough yet.  Weird though that so little showed in Google images... 













 


This poorly hand colored  plate is from Mrs. Jane Loudonn's The ladies' flower-garden of ornamental annuals (1849)



And, just so you don't forget what asters look like...
...to the left is "Purple Henry" and to the right is an unknown sort that is just so cute I had to post it!!!

  

Monday, September 22, 2014

Wonderful Old Photo: Proud Elder With Her Dahlias

"Autumn now wears her crown of dahlias, with as much pride
as Summer her wreath of roses..."

1833 - The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle

20th century photo


Sunday, September 21, 2014

Happy Image from 1922 Ferry Catalog, plus Monet





In 1898, Claude Monet designed a  porcelain dinner service for his own use in his house at Giverny.  He loved a good yellow and  blue combination.  (I don't think this sour image below is quite accurate as to  the exact color...see the yellow room in the link above.)


Saturday, September 20, 2014

Architectural Vignettes on Seedsmen's Stationery and Other Stuff





Teeny, tiny printed worlds  are so appealing to very nearsighted children.  I remember slipping into the engravings on stamps, back when stamps were a tour de force of engravings of historical events.  My interest here is an echo from those days long gone. My eyes changed with age into the normal range for close objects...I mourn the loss of my microscope eyes!




Excellent Links:

Short Guide - Traditional Shopfronts - a concise,
well illustrated helpful introduction

                                                                                                                    Fantastically informative PDF by Robert Biggert,
Architectural Vignettes on Commercial Stationery 


The above image is also at the end of this post in full size so you can walk around better :-) It is in Germany. I wonder if this was to show English and American buyers the size of their firm.





 These two are from the Robert Biggert Collection at Columbia.







Above: Philadelphia then
Below: Now





Friday, September 19, 2014

Don't Fall Off the Tomato!!

Library of Congress image

While not a grower, Githens & Rexsamer are super merchandizers and this sign is too cool not to share!  I think they were from Philly.  I read last night in a 1913 article that they sold "high end staples, at fancy prices" :-)  Also, when they adopted trucks (5 ton and 2 ton Wilcox power wagons) their trade increased so much they had to add more salesmen on the truck to handle business.   They covered 60 miles in a day selling vegies.
 I am guessing they branded many things and sold them under their name on the East Coast.  A classy little bottle molded with Gothic arches once held their gherkins.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Turn of the Century Proud Alaskan With Her Tomatoes

This is Mrs. Frank Clark proudly showing off her Alaskan tomatoes in one of the magical summers in the 20th century before World War I.

Library of Congress image

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Old Photo: Sweet Pea Proud




And just for fun, here is a sweet pea illustration in the process of being scanned by Google.  Fingers in images are not that uncommon if you cruise digital books, but they always bring me up short, like finding someone else's crumbs in a book I am reading.