Category: History

Authentic Saloon Decor

The Table Bluff Hotel and Saloon, Humboldt County, California. 1889

Seth Kinman (September 29, 1815 – February 24, 1888) was an early settler of Humboldt County, California, a hunter based in Fort Humboldt, a famous chair maker, and a nationally recognized entertainer. He stood over 6 ft (1.83 m) tall and was known for his hunting prowess and his brutality toward bears and Indian warriors. Kinman claimed to have shot a total of over 800 grizzly bears, and, in a single month, over 50 elk. He was also a hotel keeper, saloon keeper, and a musician who performed for President Lincoln on a fiddle made from the skull of a mule.

[Interior of Seth Kinman’s Table Bluff Hotel and Saloon in Table Bluff, California, 1889, found here.]

Apollo was a Frog

Coloured etchings by Christian von Mechel showing “stages from the frog to the profile of Apollo”, after the ideas of Johann Caspar Lavater, 1797

“The etchings above, commissioned by Lavater from the Swiss printmaker Christian von Mechel (1737–1817), put the physiognomist’s ideas into color and motion. Across twenty-four frames, the profile of an unassuming amphibian slowly metamorphs into that of Apollo (considered the epitome of masculine beauty). At its core, Lavater’s physiognomy relies on the belief that a creature’s true character and morality can be discerned from their “lines of countenance”, often revealed by analyzing silhouettes. In many ways, he spent his career trying to offer scientific proof of the ancient Greek concept known as kalokagathia — that goodness manifests as beauty, evil as ugliness — the focus of his greatest-known work, the four-volume Physiognomische Fragmente (1775–1778).”

[Etchings and description found here. The .gif was created in my kitchen of wonder.]

Hirschhorn, Germany

“Hirschhorn a. Neckar. Houses on the Town Wall”, 1931. From Deutschland by Kurt Hielscher. [F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1931]

The town of Hirschorn, on the bank of the Neckar River, dates to the mid 1200s AD. Top photo found here; recent photo from here. More photos by Kurt Hielscher here.

Remember 911

Remember.

Sola Busca Tarot (1491)

Considered the oldest complete seventy-eight card tarot deck in existence, the Sola Busca — named for the family of Milanese nobles who owned it for some five generations — was the first to be produced using copperplate engraving. It is also the earliest known tarot deck that illustrates the Major and Minor Trumps in the way that has become the standard, with characters and objects depicting allegorical scenes. In the Renaissance era this would have been revolutionary, while, today, some of these cards may seem familiar.

[Full size images and the history of the deck found here.]

Wave Hello To Honest Joe – Rubin Goldstein

“Nobody outside his family knew his real name. Dallas knew him as Honest Joe. For nearly three decades Honest Joe’s pawn shop was one of the central hubs of activity in Deep Ellum. He sold everything from gold watches to prosthetic limbs to automatic weapons. His two-story building was covered in hand-painted signs and hubcaps – or was it? It was covered in signage and hubcaps, but as for the two-story part . . . well, that’s another story . . .”

[Top photo by Thomas Hoepker (1963) found here. Second photo found here (with a must-read history); third here; fourth here.]

The Pillar-Biter

The Pillar-Biter (1509-1517), seen on the lower part of the choir screen of St. Bavo Church, Haarlem, the Netherlands.

A common motif in late medieval and early modern Northern European art is the “pillar-biter.” Usually, the pillar-biter is depicted as a man who clings to a column while biting into it, but there are also representations of men and women who embrace or kiss columns. In the iconographic literature, the motif is usually linked to religious hypocrisy and the dissimulation of piety.

[Image found here, caption here.]


[Update: Another pillar-biter from the same church, found here.]

French April Fool’s Day Vintage Postcards

“Back in the old days in France (up until 1564), the new year was celebrated on April first, based on the Julian calendar. That was before King Charles IX came along and decided that everybody should be following the Gregorian calendar, which starts the new year on the first day of January.

“Not everyone welcomed this change, or so the story goes, and some people continued to celebrate April 1 as the first day of the year. Allegedly, those people were mocked and referred to as April fools. Whatever the case, it became a tradition to do things such as pasting a fish on unsuspecting people’s backs on April 1, and calling them a Poisson d’Avril or an April Fish. The symbol of the fish may also have been connected with Jesus Christ.”

[These undated postcards were found in this fine collection. There is a small envelope attached to one of the fish, meaning unknown. The caption, along with more vintage French April Fish postcards, found here.]

DS Time

Because of two Acts of Congress establishing DST in the US.
[Poster found here.]

Pacific Northwest Tribal Masks

“An assemblage of anthropomorphic masks created by Pacific Northwest Coast Indigenous peoples on the continent of North America. 19th-20th century.”

[Found here.]