Bone Button Valentine

Here's a really unusual valentine I found this year. Dating to the 1920s, it features a bone button made into a little happy face...actually, the more I look at it, the less "happy" it appears, verging instead on "creepy," but still, a unique valentine!

Housekeeping Dolly Valentine

This large mechanical 1930s valentine has some damage, but the scene was so charming, I decided to overlook it. What a great image of a little girl and her dolly, doing the laundry...and I love the anxious expression on the dolly's face: she looks like she just woke up after a bender, thinking, 
"Holy crap! Where are my clothes?"

Valentine Time

Yay: it's Valentine Time! 
Vintage and antique valentines are some of the other things I collect,
so I'll be showcasing some of my favorites this month.

Here are two of my dollies and teddies trading valentines 

in a display case at my library, 

and some highlights from the display.

 

"Holy Hat, Batman!"

I was glued to the TV as a kid in the 1970s whenever the campy Batman show starring Adam West and Burt Ward would come on. After a long, Batman-less dry spell, two fantabulous things happened: our local station started airing Batman reruns last week, AND today I found this ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE VINTAGE BATMAN POW! HAT!!!
I'm going to wear it every evening when I watch the show...and possibly to work.

Vintage Space Stuff

I love vintage space toys from the 1930s - 1950s. The unique imagery from this time is at once both futuristic and nostalgic, space-age meets Art Deco, resulting in a sort of "toys of future past" appearance. Here are a few of my favorite pieces.

First up is this amazing ray gun (given to me by Christine of The Daily Postcard: thanks Christine!). Even though it isn't terribly old, it has, I think, a great "Forbidden Planet" look.

 Next are a couple of 4 inch Archer Space Men, made in the 1950s, but with a look that seems much earlier to me. They're almost sculptural in quality, with a lot of Art Moderne in their styling. They're also a bit reminiscent of Communist Bloc civic statuary, aren't they? The pointing guy has lost a hand, but they were a yard sale steal at ten cents, so I'm not complaining.

And here's my most recent find: a homemade child's pajama top from the 1950s with absolutely fantastic graphics of spacemen, satellites, and rocket ships. Some lucky little boy clearly loved this, and so do I!

 

 

 

The pajama top is modeled below by my 20 inch 1940s cinnamon Gund bear. He loves it too.