In this vintage photo, two children play with water and a tin lithographed pail. You can see Swee’Pea and Olive Oyl from Popeye The Sailor Man.
This is the vintage pail in color, along with some other vintage Popeye sand toys.
The photo was found in a 1956 magazine from Sweden, confirming that this was likely a European-made tin litho sand or water toy.
When I stumbled into this auction for original Katzenjammer Kids art, I was excited to read the story behind the piece:
Grapefruitmoon Gallery just acquired an important collection of pen & ink original illustration art comic drawings from many of the leading Golden Age of Illustration comic strip illustrators that were received by a persistent young girl named Emma Pratt Hall who lived in Mansfield Mass. She wrote many fan letters requesting doodles from her favorite comic artists of the era, nearly one hundred artists honored her requests. These are all from the years of 1939 – 1940 and many have letters that accompany the drawings. It really is amazing the response she received this collection is outstanding. I would guess she was a persuasive letter writer and by the personalized content of many of the letters she was likely a young girl. Her comic art collection gained her some recognition as she received a press newspaper mention from a Sheffield England newspaper that is not included in this auction – but we included a scan of it the bottom of the listing as reference and provenance.
The date of the newspaper clipping is unknown to me, and I’ve no idea what percentage of Emma’s total collection this is, but there’s a wide variety of pieces, subjects, artists, and styles.
Beyond the incredible provenance, and even that this was a child collecting back then, what’s really fascinating about the Emma Pratt Hall collection is the sad fact that it could not be done today.
Unlike those autograph collections we hear about, folks — including children — cannot just write in and request a signature, a doodle, or anything like that today. Nowadays, fans are lucky if they even receive a stamped-signed photo when they mail their favorite celebrities. But to take the time to respond to an individual’s request for a “doodle” from an artist or illustrator?! No way. The more established or famous the person, the more they are likely to charge for an autograph or reply with a price list of available works. Yet here we have a collection which proves that not only could young Emma make a request of a popular illustrator (for all these illustrators were paid and popular at the time) and have her wish granted, but she’d receive lovely little letters showing how happy the illustrator, comic strip creator, political cartoonist, commercial artist, etc. was to have such a request!
All images via Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
While interviewing the charming and delightful artisan behind I Sew Cute and As Luck Would Have It, I naturally had to ask her if she was a collector too…
Someone told me that if you have three of anything, then you have a collection. If that’s true, then I have dozens of collections!
I guess if there’s one thing I collect — by seeking it out & keeping track of the items I already have, it would be my collection of vintage and antique children’s spoons.
Some of the pieces I have are from my own childhood & the collection just grew over the years. I love that they’re a warm fuzzy reminder of the joy of childhood, as well as being functional for every day use. My kids use them, so they don’t just sit in a drawer getting dusty. I keep them in a jelly jar right in the kitchen where we can grab one in a pinch.
When did you start collecting them – or admit to yourself you were collecting them?
During my college years I started really seeking out new old spoons. I’m still a big kid at heart & don’t have fine china. We have Warner Brother’s Fiesta ware that I pull out for really special occasions & holidays. Good thing I married a guy who’s young at heart too!
You said you track them… How so?
I have a list in a moleskine sketchbook which I keep in my bag, just in case I stumble upon some at a flea market or online.
How many do you have in total?
Gosh, I’ve never counted them! Ballpark guesstimate? Around 20-25 and growing, of course.
Are they silver, or “just” metal?
I believe most of the larger ones are just silver plate or stainless steel, but a few of the wee baby spoons I have are silver.
Do you look for certain makers, characters? What makes you add a spoon to your collection — what must a spoon do to charm you?
I am not concerned at all about the manufacturers. If a spoon has a fun, whimsical, cartoony character and is in relatively decent condition, I’m going to pull out the list. The most recent ones I added were a Donald Duck and a Mickey Mouse found in a vintage shop on Etsy.
Aside from the “Can I afford this?” do you pay any attention to the monetary value of spoons?
No, I’m not collecting them because of their monetary value.
Do you have a favorite spoon?
My Snoopy and SpaghettiOs spoons are my two favorites because I’ve had them since I was a child — and I still remember how special I felt to have them. I knew someone bought them for me because they loved me. Kind of silly or sappy isn’t it? But it’s how I felt and still feel when I look at those two spoons!
It doesn’t sound silly at all — and I think “sappy” is one of the best reasons to collect.
You can keep up with June the spoon collector at her blogs: I Sew Cute and As Luck Would Have It.
Seventy years ago — long before Itchy & Scratchy appeared on the Krusty the Clown Show on The Simpsons — there was Tom & Jerry.
The series of animated theatrical shorts was created for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by Hanna and Barbera. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera ultimately wrote and directed one hundred and fourteen Tom and Jerry cartoons (and earned seven Academy Awards for Best Short Subject, Cartoons) for the MGM cartoon studio in Hollywood between 1940 and 1959, when the animation unit was closed. Tom & Jerry would live on, however, with different animators and studios before returning home to Hanna & Barbera.
The incredible popularity of the never-ending cat and mouse games between Tom the cat and Jerry the mouse produced these red plastic cookie cutters by Lowe.
Along with the heads of Tom and Jerry, I also have Barney Bear, Droopy Dog, and a full body cookie cutter of Jerry.
These particular cookie cutters, , marked with a copyright date of 1956, are made of a sheer red hard plastic — but the series was also available in green.
