Category: vintage

Potion Week Preview

September 24th, 2008

The arrival of my Azure Green catalog inspired me to do a *POTION WEEK* here at SheWalksSoftly. Each day next week I’ll feature bizarre and curious formulations with a note on their origins and use.

We’ll start with these:

Use in rituals to destroy curses, hatred, resentments, envy & any evil intention towards you or your home.

My favorite thing about Black Destroyer is the description on the bottle: “Alleged Powerful Oil.” Never underestimate the energy we bring to the products we use.

A formula developed during the time of the Black Plague, Four Thieves Vinegar is used to make your enemies go away (or any other person you wish out of your life).

It can also be used as a body wash…which is most likely responsible for its repellent effects. Tempting for those anti-social moods.
Mao Songs

September 22nd, 2008

Aw, isn’t this nice? The “I Am a Sunflower” collection of children’s songs. Wait a minute, are those…rifles?

Why yes! These are the children of Mao’s communist regime. You can join the children in singing the classic hits “Criticize Lin Pioa and Discredit Him Completely” and “Little Red Guards Attend a Repudiation Meeting.”

Someone REALLY needs to design an album of GW Bush era lullabies. Maybe I’ll do it. Song title suggestions anyone?
Lard: A Retrospective

September 19th, 2008

It all began with this image, which I intended to post by itself:

Clearly, in days of yore, the streets teemed with giant pig-drawn lard buckets, spreading the joy of saturated fat. Ice cream trucks were a way off yet.

Unnervingly, the pigs mange to display the entire range of class division. The aristocrat on the right, no doubt schooling his piglet on the virtues of capitalism. Move up, and we find the bourgeois passengers, and the working class “drivers.” On the ground, poor laborers, harnessed and whipped into submission. And let’s not forget the ultimate unfortunates: the ones who actually ARE the lard. This is not just an ad…it’s a complete HOG SOCIETY (which I find sad, since one redeeming quality of hogs is their lack of class division).

But I digress. The ad above prompted me to go on a “vintage lard” google image odyssey.

Silver Leaf appealed to refined, distinguished types. But they had some competition from Snowdrift.

Some took a slightly less dainty approach.

And sometimes the need for lard was OLYMPIC!

Here’s a dish that would thrill the modern cardiologist: hot dogs, bacon and processed cheese, lovingly sealed into blocks with…you guessed it…lard.

I’ve saved the best for last. The ultimate irony: man uses a pig to make lard, and subsequently uses lard to make a pig.

I can almost hear the anguished spirit of the pigs cry out “We were already pigs! No rendering and rebuilding necessary! Why on earth did this seem like a good idea to anyone?”

On Wiki, you can find out more about lard than you ever cared to know.

You’re welcome. 🙂
Elephant Skin

September 9th, 2008

Apparently this photo (taken in New York, 1933) has been making the rounds lately, but it was new to me.

The disturbing nature of a giant elephant skin slab is compounded by the appearance that the elephant has literally just deflated; as if the insides merely evaporated.

In doing an “elephant skin” google search, I was faced with the grim reality that certain people feel entitled to wear the skins of exotic, endangered animals. Even more infuriating is the fact that exotic animals had to die for fashions this hideous.

People never cease to amaze me.
The Visible Man and Woman

September 8th, 2008

I believe I had a Visible Woman Model Kit as a toddler, but was far too young to appreciate just how awesome it was.

They are still sold, and the model has gone surprisingly unchanged for the past 40 years.

The models are intriguing to look at, though I can imagine young children would be rather put off by them.

There is a small gallery of Visible Model Kits through the years here.
Antique Poison Bottles

September 3rd, 2008

Antique Bottle Collector’s Haven has a great Poison Bottle Hall of Fame.

Though all of Reggie Lynch’s acquired bottles are the real deal, I’d settle for owning reproductions.

All of my own collections are rather haphazard and piecemeal, based solely on what intrigues me. I really admire the dedication, thoroughness and requisite compulsive tendencies of true collectors like Reggie.
Surgical Stitch Sampler

September 3rd, 2008

One of my all time favorite blogs, Bioephemera, dug up this little treat. The Surgical Suture Sampler.

Though surgery is still a harrowing experience, I’m certainly thankful for the advancements we’ve made since the creation of this sampler.

The likeness to a craft tutorial is mildly unnerving. Perhaps the surgical patients of yesteryear left the hospital resembling colorful decorative quilts.
Science Redesigns the Human Body

September 2nd, 2008

The irony of poking fun at this 1956 piece of retrofuturism is the proliferation of heinous cosmetic surgery that media culture now embraces.

The article that accompanies this ambitious recreation of human form poses compelling questions such as

“Why is it necessary to have individual ribs? Why can’t man’s internal organs be protected with a device resembling a giant clamshell which can be opened easily for surgical purposes, be flexible enough to permit breathing and which would protect the vital organs a good deal better than the present lattice-work arrangement?”

I must give them credit for attempting to place function over form. Current cosmetic procedures just suck, pull, tighten, snip, inject, laser, poison, and fill everything with plastic bubbles. Function of the human body is rarely improved, despite a somewhat android appearance that should…by all means…indicate superpowers.
The Fuzzy Wonder Goat

September 1st, 2008

(click for full size…you don’t want to miss the text)

I have no idea where this comes from, or why someone thought it would be a good idea to market an oddly bisected goat placed atop what looks like some terribly inefficient machinery (though they suggest its use in burlesque performances).

In case the diagram fails to convey the unparalleled fierceness of the animal, the ad states that “a wild western bronco is tame compared to this goat.”

For a mere $10 extra, you can substitute a horse, donkey, tiger or camel body.
Snugglepot and Cuddlepie

August 30th, 2008

During the 1920’s, May Gibbs wrote a series of books: The Gumnut Adventures, featuring amazing (and mildly disturbing) characters such as “Snugglepie and Cuddlepot:”

And Obedelia:

May Gibbs (1877-1969) emigrated to Australia from England with her parents when she was four years old. Part of her childhood was spent at a farming homestead in Western Australia where Gibbs’ love of the unique species in the Australian bush developed. The nuts, leaves and flowers she discovered as a child provided a lifetime of inspiration for her iconic and imaginative illustration work.

Children everywhere couldn’t help but wonder when they saw such things, whether Gumnut Babies really did live there, especially when they could actually see their scribbly writing on the trees. Gibbs took what every child could easily find and gave it a fantasy life of its own.

I can’t help but wonder if this series resulted in hordes of very paranoid, frightened children.

You can actually buy the book on Amazon.

Source and more pictures/info.