Monthly Archives: November 2013

Salinas, California Couple

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Salinas California Couple

Old photo mounted on cardboard frame, circa 1880s – 1900.

Price:  $7.00

Size:  About 2 and 3/4″ x 3 and 3/4″ and about 5″ x 6″ including frame.

Lovely (despite “foxing”) studio portrait of a couple who must surely be husband and wife, and who presumably lived in Salinas. Studio stamp on the cardboard frame is “Butler. Salinas, Cal.” There are a couple of possibilities for the photographer:  Edward Payson Butler (1834-1923) who was active in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties, and George R. Butler (1861- c.1935.) If this is the work of either one of these gentlemen, I believe it to be more likely that of George R. Butler, as he did have a photography studio in Salinas, while no record has been found of a studio or home address in Salinas for Edward Payson Butler. See the two separate posts on this site in the photographer category.

Front Porch Scene

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Front Porch Scene

Old photo on cardboard matting. Circa 1890s.

Price:  $5.00

Size:  About 3 and 1/2″ x 3 and 1/2.”  Size including frame:  About 5 x 5.”

Old photo of woman and young girl, possibly her daughter, on (their own, one assumes) front porch. Found in Salinas, California, and possibly local. Nothing on the back. It could even have come from the same family as the next post, as they were found in the same bin.

Old House Real Photo Postcard

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Old House pc (1)Old House pc (2)

Nice Real Photo Postcard of an old house, possibly built around 1910 – 1920s, location unknown. Found in Salinas, California but this could be from a variety of states. After looking at different house descriptions online, and having bought a book entitled A Field Guide to American Houses, I would say this is a Craftsman style bungalow.  A broad range of dates for this CYKO stamp box would be around 1904 – 1920’s, but with the divided back, and the style of house I’m guessing the photo is from around the 1910s or early ’20s.

Real Photo Postcard, divided back, unused with CYKO stamp box. Circa 1910s – early 1920s.

Price:  $6.00

Source:  McAlester, Virginia, and Lee McAlester. A Field Guide to American Houses. 1984. New York:  Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. Print.

Happy Girl on Avalon Annex Porch

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Happy Girl on Avalon Annex Porch pc1Happy Girl on Avalon Annex Porch pc2

Real Photo Postcard, unused, divided back. AZO stamp box. Circa 1907 – 1918.

Price:  $7.00

“This is my very first picture. Don’t you think it is good.”

Great (even though blurry) photo of little girl, about 7 or 8 years old, standing on the porch of the Avalon Annex Apartments, smiling for the camera. We wonder if the writing on the back referred to the first picture taken of the girl, or the first picture that was taken by the photographer…The location is unknown. Maybe this was taken on the porch of a hotel annex, that had furnished apartments for rent. We can see that the number on the sign looks like 217, but research with this number for Avalon hotel, apartment, etc. is not coming up with anything concrete. The AZO stamp box with all four triangles pointing up is circa 1904 – 1918, and being that this is a divided back postcard, we can estimate the date then between about 1907 – 1918, but guessing it would be closer to 1918. More research on the style of the girl’s dress, boots and hat may help to narrow down the date.

Beautiful Birmingham UK Woman

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Beautiful Birmingham UK Woman cdv1Beautiful Birmingham UK Woman cdv2

Carte de visite type photo of beautiful unknown woman taken by photographer Joseph Norris. The back of the card shows his address at this time as 52 New Street, Birmingham. The 1883 city directory for Birmingham, England shows both the former address of 5 Union passage and 52 New street, so it seems that Joseph Norris moved his business in that year. City directories for the 52 New Street address are found online for as late as 1892. Going by the city directories then, we can estimate that this photo was taken sometime between 1883 and 1892. The brooch the woman is wearing appears to be a horseshoe, and that looks like a rose, fastened below the brooch. (Many people hold to the practice of always displaying the horseshoe with the ends up, so the good luck won’t run out, but many other old photos can be found online with the horseshoe being worn ends down, so perhaps it was not a common idea at that time, among brooch-wearers. In either case we wish them all – and all everywhere the best of luck!)

Size:  About 4 x 2 and 1/2″

Price:  $10.00

Sources:  1883 and 1892 Kelly’s Directory of Birmingham. Online at:  Ancestry.com. UK, City and County Directories, 1766 – 1946 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

White Sewing Machine Trade Card

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White Sewing Machine tc1White Sewing Machine tc2

Trade Card for White Sewing Machine Co. of Cleveland, Ohio.

According to authors, Dan Ruminski and Alan Dutka (Cleveland in the Gilded Age), Thomas H. White began making sewing machines in Phillipston, Massachusetts. He moved his company to Cleveland, Ohio in 1866, in order to seek a broader territory. The then-named White Manufacturing Company became the White Sewing Machine Company in 1876.

Source:  Cleveland in the Gilded Age:  A Stroll Down Millionaires’ Row by Dan Ruminski and Alan Dutka. Published by The History Press, South Carolina. First published 2012. Online source:  books.google.com

Cheap Ocean View

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Cheap Ocean View1Cheap Ocean View2Cheap Ocean View3

“Ocean Views. 12 for 10cts.”

Just a little card that must have once been part of a set. The ocean view part was glued onto the card. It wasn’t meant to be opened all the way, and at some point the ocean view part broke off at the hand. Someone had gone to the trouble to cut out a picture of a flower and glue it to the back.

Size:  1 and 3/4 x 3 and 1/4″

Boats on Sea Shell Souvenir

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Shell pc1Shell pc2

Divided back, used, embossed postcard. Postmarked June 27, 1911, Kewaunee, Wisconsin. Posctard front shows copyright P. Sander, N.Y. #237.

Price:  $12.00

Beautiful and unusual embossed postcard showing drawing of a “souvenir” sea shell displaying a sailboat in the foreground and another boat of some type in the background.

Addressed to:  Mrs. Fred Ollhoff, Gladstone, Mich., Box 312. Sent from Kewaunee, Wisconsin.

“Dear Cousin:  Rec’d your card and was glad to hear from the squaw point people. Mrs. Vogel from St. Paul is visiting with us for a few day But will leave for Manitowoc to-day. We are busy haying now. You wanted to know Bohn..?..Hay’s[?] address, Here it is. 819 Thomas St., St. Paul, Minn. Your cousin Emma Schwartz”[?]

Gladstone is a city in Delta County, (Upper Peninsula) Michigan. Squaw Point is a geographic point of land located in Ensign County across the bay from Gladstone.

Ship With Colorful Sails Christmas Card

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Ship With Colorful Sails1

“With Heartiest Christmas Greetings and best wishes for the New Year”

An odd kind of Christmas card and the worse for wear, but the colors are great. It was either from, or to Ruth Cochran. Nothing on the back except for someone’s arithmetic.

Size:  About 5 x 4″