Category: Uncategorized
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Catch of the Week 9: Napoleon before the Sphinx
Adam, Victor-Jean (1801-1886), ‘Napoléon devant un sphinx’, (Napoleon before the Sphinx), pen and brown ink over black pencil, 20 x 19 cm.
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Catch of the Week 8: Oriental toothpaste
Nicholson, J., and sons (Bradford), ‘Oriental tooth Paste’ for J&E Atkinson’s Perfumery (London), ca. 1882-1900, chromo lithograph, advert card 9 x 14 cm. As ‘an unrivalled preparation for cleansing, beautifying & preserving the teeth and gums,’ this trade card promotes the use of toothpaste: in this period it did not come in a tube but…
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Catch of the Week 7: Perfect Love
Owen, Bernard,‘Now is the hour’ (detail) for Bols, 1/3 page ad from Gourmet, 1959, ad: 7,5 x 29 cm, complete page 21,2 x 29 cm. This week we have to talk about love. Although the name Valentine’s Day indicates an early Christian origin (Saint Valentius ending up in death row for marrying Roman soldiers with…
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Catch of the Week 6: Cleopatra as persuasive picture post card
Ephitimios Freres (Port Said), ‘Cléopatre’ ca.1900, photographed and coloured post card, no 97. Béhar et fils, ‘Cléopatre mordue par le Serpent’ ca.1900, photographed postcard no 8 from the series ‘Egypt’ ‘People no longer speak to each other when sitting together in public spaces’, journalist G.R. Simms expresses his concern of the new behavior of his…
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Catch of the Week 5: Eat this!
Liebig Publisher’s Antwerp, ‘Oedipus & the Sphinx’ 1897, lithograph, 16,5 x 11 cm. menu card for Liebig Company, Beef Extract M45 Series of three menu cards (A gift to the guest, as stated on top) depicting the three stages in the riddle of the sphinx. On the top right, backed up by the Liebig meat…
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Catch of the Week 4: Sphinx-Siren fusion
Balluriau, Paul (1860-1917), ‘Le Sphinx’ 1895, two color lithography on news paper, 34 x 23 cm on 40 x 27,5 cm. In: Gil Blas: Illustré Hebdomadaire. Paris 5, no.24 (16 June 1895), p.5. While Mazade desribes the sphinx in the poem as a seductive, nocturnal creature with angelic features but a demonic character, illustrator…
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Catch of the Week 3: Blue plate special
Related to the recently published catalogue on ceramic by the Friends of the Museum of Ceramics, de Prinsessehof (see Books/catalogues). (Not to mention blue Monday tomorrow: might this variant cheer you up!) A porcelain platter designed with a ‘Greekianesque’ motif of a meandering border (a stencil was used, but not a 100% fitting one as…
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Catch of the Week 2: Let’s Gossip
Orientalische Tabak und Cigarettenfabrik Kwannon (S.F.W. Brueggemeyer cigarets), ‘Gossip’, from 1897, lithographed tin box containing about 50 cigarets, ca. 13,5 x 7,5 x 3 cm. Detmold (Germany). CA Egyptian Tobacco was especially popular in Germany. Here also tin boxes were manifactured, decorated to show the appealing land of origin.
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Catch of the Week 1: Salute of the Sphinx, or: Happy 2015
Victorian greeting card, 1879, lithograph On this website I also start a blog on my remarkable finds, related to my research, the Sphinx. Although I focus on (late) nineteenth century painting, popular culture is also a very interesting source. In its parallel development, the iconography of fine art was often used as a starting point.…