Tall Tale Crops and Photomontage Postcards

The first five photo postcards are from Wm. H. Martin.  Can't find a thing about him.

 These later two are from A. S. Johnson, Jr.

 Some people are better at crafting a montage than others!!

I noticed the sign on the wall up above...the company was in Ottawa, Kansas.

Philadelphia Engravers for Seed Catalogs

Why chickens, you ask?




The Burpee seed catalog offered poultry equipment and birds!

These engravings were done by Erdmann who seems to be a chicken and duck specialist.  They seem a bit "folky", stiff and simplified....but nice!

Thiebault and R.A. Williams did the rest.  I haven't turned up any info on them yet.

I often see the "bespoke" engravings with no engraver's signature, but this one has been signed.

Corn Gems for Breakfast; The Burpee Strategy to Educate

Yes, the recipe is in this post :-)

W. Atlee Burpee was a
very good businessman as well as seedsman. 

If you don't know what to do with a vegetable, you certainly won't buy seeds to raise it!!

Burpee published many books, most of them on horticulture.

Horticultural Books

WHY WE PUBLISH THEM

In the success of the planter is the germ of our success. First, the best Seeds, Bulbs, and Plants; next, the plainly told practice of accepted experts in gardening and farming.

Books Free as Premiums. 

With the standard high and prices low we go further, -by allowing a credit of ten cents, on every dollar sent for seeds, plants, or bulbs toward the purchase of any book we publish that the purchaser may desire. Thus, a $2.00 order, with 10 cents added, can select any book offered for 30 cents, with 30 cents added, any book offered for 50 cents; or a $3.00 order can select entirely free any book offered for 30 cents; or a $5.00 order any book offered for 50 cents; and so on, we more than meeting our customers half way in our desire to give them FREE the best books for the Farm and Garden.      

It will be noticed that these premiums are entirely Free, and do not prevent the selection of $1.25 Worth of seeds in packets for Each $1.00 sent us for seeds in packets. If the purchaser's order is all for seeds by weight or measure, on which we do not allow this discount, he is still entitled to the selection of any of our books.

CORN GEMS from Mrs. Rorer's book

I pint of corn, 

3 eggs,

1 pint of milk, 

1 1/2 pints of flour,

1 tablespoonful of butter,

1/2 teaspoonful of salt,

    2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder.

Scrape the corn and press it out as directed on Page 40 (page 40 - Corn Fritters - Score the corn down the centre of each row of grains, then with a blunt knife press out the pulp, leaving the hull on the cob. Never grate corn, as in that way you get all). 

Add to it the milk, salt, yolks of the eggs and flour. Beat well and stir in carefully the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth and the baking powder. Bake in greased gem pans in a moderate oven thirty minutes; serve hot. These, if carefully made, are delicious breakfast cakes.

from How to Cook Vegetables, By Sarah Tyson Heston Rorer

Note: The term gem likely comes from the cakes being small and decoratively-shaped, like "gems". Another possibility is that the term came from a kitchen housewares company named Gem that sold baking tins which came to be generically referred to as "Gem pans".  http://www.castironcollector.com/gems.php

Beauty in a Line - Engravings for Seed Catalogs

Just look at those lines!  A sharp steel tool, guided by an experienced hand, plowed out the lines.  Where the metal or wood was removed you have no printing.  The ink is applied to the remaining raised areas.  

This post will look at some engravers who worked with the seed trade.  Engraving is a theme I keep revisiting, with its passing, and that of chromolithography, being the watershed of my interest in seed catalogs.  Before illustrations were used seed catalogs are useful as documentation to what plants were in trade, but they are usually dull visually.

The following is from America’s Romance with the English Garden -

Albert Blanc's work has caught my eye before, but this time I started looking at his work in view of the work of other engraver's images used in the same seed catalog.  I poked around in some Philadelphia seed companies, Burpee, Johnson & Stokes, and Dreer.  I see that the companies hired engravers to make images just for them...copyrighting the images.  Both firms also used engravings done and sold to the seed trade.  That sort of image might be found in many companies' catalogs...the 19th century version of clip art.   Special order, copyrighted engravings are often NOT signed by the engraver, but rather the company name.  You can play detective and make a good guess by looking at their style though.

You can spot A. Blanc signed in the shade on the ground under the begonia.   Initials and names are often done in the shadows.

Here are a few more of Blanc's cuts.

Just the initials here in this simple Burpee carrot cut.










Then his full last name in this fancier illustration.

Below is a nice scene in perspective that was in the Dreer catalog. He even adds he is from Philadelphia.

Look at the rope border on this Johnson & Stokes cut.  Think how long it took to do such an "unnecessary" detail.  The companies thought it was worth the additional cost to have their featured plants appear special.

The narcissus are in a scene that suggests how you would use them in your house.  I wonder, did engravers pick what flowers were popular and generic and did them as "clip art" they would license?  I'd like to know pricing.

That's it for today.  I have more to do on this but the house trim needs painting before winter and school starts Monday...things are going to slow down in my blog world I bet!