Years ago I visited a well-known tool collector and was completely charmed by a series of 1910 postcards that adorned his stairwell. Each postcard featured a modestly dressed woman posing with a tool. The surface of each postcard featured some low-level pun: “Its perfectly plane that I love you.” (Yes, they made a grammatical error there.)
At the bottom of each postcard was written: Copyright 1910 by F. Bluh.
The tool collector had amassed the postcards during many years of searching (before eBay existed). I thought these postcards would make a nice shop decoration and made a note to search some out.
Then life got in the way. John and I had started Lost Art Press, then I quit my job and forgot about the postcards. Earlier this year, Suzanne Ellison stumbled on one of them, she sent it to me and it reignited my desire to collect them.
I now have 12 of them (there are more, but 12 is enough for me). I’m going to frame them this week and decided that you might like to have them for your shop as well. So I scanned each at 300 dpi, did some mild repair and sharpening, and have bundled them in the following .zip file that you can download.
These images are entirely in the public domain. Feel free to print them on photo paper and hang them in your shop or stairwell.
Of the postcards, I have two favorites. The oil can postcard and the handscrew postcard. The oil can postcard says: “If sympathy can’t soothe you, perhaps oil can. What.” What does “what” mean? “What” the heck? The handscrew postcard is just creepy. The woman has a half-lidded “Ringu” expression on her face and the text reads: “I like to be squeezed.”
— Christopher Schwarz, editor, Lost Art Press
Personal site: christophermschwarz.com
Thanks Chris much appreciated
I thought this ought to include Kari’s work. I couldn’t immediately find her original (and better!) piece, but this is very good as well:
http://villagecarpenter.blogspot.com/2011/06/chris-schwarz-enegger.html
OMG that is so bad it’s wonderful.
There is another floating out in the ether that is far, far better.
Scary.
Found it. WARNING: This can NEVER be unseen.
http://villagecarpenter.blogspot.com/2010/07/friday-fun-with-photoshop.html
I really wish I’d heeded your warning. (Which by the way is very accurate.)
Hey, thank you for the postcards. I’ll print them on photo paper and frame them. My wife thought they were funny.
Rick
Fantastic!
Awesome! Fifty shades of sepia.
They ARE fun … clearly aimed at a large audience and not just tool nuts and trades people. Cheesecake postcards were out there almost as soon as photo prints on paper came onto the market just before the American Civil War, and surprisingly many were far from as tame as these!
The look on her face in that handscrew picture makes me think she’s about to start screaming, “You’ll float, too! YOU’LL FLOAT, TOO!”, like the possessed kid in the ‘It’ remake.
Those exposed knees and ankles are driving me wild!
#willsomeonepleasethinkofthechildren
google “post card back templetes” to find vintage address fonts like this:
http://omgdiywedding.blogspot.com/2011/06/post-card-back-from-my-save-date.html?m=1
Print your own cards and send them to someone you haven’t saw very oftener
Love these! Thank you for sharing!
I just want to know where I can find those stylish & fetching shorty overalls…
My local print shop thinks I’m weird. Apparently you are what you print…