Vintage Japanese New Years postcards

t kills me that I live in Boston and haven’t been to the Museum of Fine Arts in, let’s see… three years, I think? Ridiculous. We have a new Institute of Contemporary Art as well, but I haven’t been there either. WTF? You’d think I have a dissertation and teaching and tutoring and Etsy and design blog stalking to do or something!

Anyway, so I was just checking out the MFA online, doing a virtual visit (since I’m pretty sure the physical building is closed at 10:59pm), and I came across their fabulous collection of New Year’s Japanese Postcards, some of which I absolutely must share with you:

New Year’s Card: Dog on a Blackboard Offers Congratulations
年賀状：黒板の犬
Japanese, Late Meiji era, 1910
Artist Unidentified, Japanese

New Year’s Card
年賀状；のむらや
Japanese, Showa era, 1930
Artist Unknown, Japanese
Publisher: Nomuraya

New Year’s Card: Goat in a Heart
年賀状：山羊
Japanese, Late Meiji era, 1907
Maruyama Banka, Japanese, 1867–1942

New Year’s Card: Penguins
年賀状：ペンギン
Japanese, Taishô era, 1921
Sugiura Hisui, Japanese, 1876–1965

New Year’s Card: Bull and a Woman
年賀状：牛
Japanese, Taisho era, 1925
Artist Unknown, Japanese

New Year’s Card: Going to Shimonoseki
Original Title: Shimonoseki yuki
年賀状：下関へ
Japanese, Taishô-early Shôwa era
S. Riyo, Japanese, dates unknown
Publisher: Tanaka & Co.

New Year’s Card: Goat
年賀状：羊－１９３１
Japanese, Early Shôwa era, 1931
Takahashi Haruka, Japanese, dates unknown
Publisher: Seikyokudô

New Year’s Card with Airplane
年賀状：空中旋回
Japanese, Taisho- early Showa era
Takahashi Haruka, Japanese, dates unknown
Publisher: Seikyokudô

New Year’s Card: The Monkey Celebrating with Ozoni (from an unidentified series) of New Year’s cards
Original Title: Ozoni iwau osaru
「おぞうに祝ふ猿」
Japanese, Showa era, 1932
Artist Unidentified, Japanese
Publisher: Tanaka & Co.

New Year’s Card: Dragon
年賀状：龍
Japanese, Early Shôwa era, 1928
Takahashi Haruka, Japanese, dates unknown
Publisher: Yamaguchi Seikyokudô

New Year’s Card: Mouse at the Piano
年賀状：ねずみのピアノ
Japanese, Taisho era, 1912
Artist Unknown, Japanese
Publisher: Naniwaya
Printed by: Tokyo Design Printing Company (Tokyo zuan insatsu sha)

New Year’s Card: Seahorses
年賀状：龍の落とし子
Japanese, Early Shôwa era, 1928
Takahashi Haruka, Japanese, dates unknown
Publisher: Yamaguchi Seikyokudô

{ All images above borrowed from the MFA’s online New Year’s Japanese Postcard collection,
which you should visit HERE. }

Aren’t they great? Yeah, I thought so, too. Japan’s pretty awesome.

I really need to get back to that museum.

(Initial “I” found HERE)

I’m a Perpetual Kid.

y mother has a huge stack of magazines that I’m fairly certain she rarely (if ever) looks through. She’s got more important things going on (um, her husband’s cancer for one), so I get it. But those d@mn magazines glare at me from their antique bin, whispering and mumbling until I pay them some attention. And so I do. And then I pretty quickly learn why they were beckoning me: amazing finds like these…

Matchbook notepads from Pearl River (image from HERE):

Next up, letter magnets from Cupcakes & Cartwheels that would look awesome on my fridge and metal filing cabinets (image once again from  HERE):

And now, several pleasurable items from a store called Perpetual Kid, which I’d never heard of before. Now I will never forget it. Check out what little tokens of awesomeness they have to offer:

{ Uber awesome tissues! }

{ Awesome BINGO games! }

{ Awesome clocks! }

 

{ Awesome books & notepads! }

I think I would give out roughly 519.2 of those Cell Citations on a daily basis. Give or take.

Anyway, my point is that this store is fabulous, AND they’re having an amazing clearance sale right now. Go forth and channel your Perpetual Kid HERE. And follow them on Twitter HERE.

Mel’s ATCs

I was looking up some vintage Remington ads, and I randomly stumbled upon a Flickr set devoted to ATCs (Artist Trading Cards), which I had never heard of. In case you haven’t heard of them either: they’re basically mini collages, and there’s this whole community of artists who make and trade them. I have to admit, after looking at Mel’s Flickr set of her ATCs, I’m super tempted to try some of my own. I’ll keep you posted if that actually happens.

Some of my favorite images from Mel’s Flickr stream:

That last one is a clock, isn’t that cool?

ps) the Ohio references make this native Ohioan (me) very happy.

Pan Tu Nie Stał

Pan tu nie stał, meaning You Were Not Standing Here, is a Polish design blog created by sociologist Justyna Burzyńska and graphic designer Maciej Lebiedowicz, who are heavily inspired by vintage Polish designs from the 1930s onward. But that’s not all: they also have a shop by the same name, which features clothing, home decor, accessories, and paper products. Oh, and did I mention that they ROCK?

Just look:

All of the beautifully vibrant and inspiring images above are borrowed from their blog, which you can access (along with their shop) HERE.

See and Say & The Ward-o-Matic

ow did I not know about The Ward-o-Matic until now?!? I just discovered JunkCulture, too (see their button in my right column). Whenever a mind-blowing discovery such as these two occur, I feel shaken (not stirred) to the core and kind of like, “How did my life exist prior to knowing this?!” That’s exactly how I feel about stumbling upon illustrator (and retro-connoisseur) Ward Jenkins’ blog and website. AND he’s the husband of HulaSeventy?!? WTF?!? How am I so out of the loop?!? What the hell have I been doing with myself?!?

Anyway, thanks to The Ward-o-Matic, I found these little gems: images of Antonio Frasconi‘s illustrations from the children’s book See and Say: A Picture Book in Four Languages (1955). You’re welcome.

More illustrations and a lovely feature on Antonio Frasconi and See and Say (his first book!) on The Ward-o-Matic HERE.

(ps: Obsessed like me? Follow the Ward-ster on Twitter HERE)

Vintage International Travel Posters

I’m not sure I could be any more in love with these vintage posters over at GrainEdit today (especially the Swiss one):

More HERE. GrainEdit rules, huh? I pretty much swoon over everything posted on their blog.

French Friday: The Poster Designs of A.M. Cassandre

Perhaps most widely known for his Dubonnet poster, Adolphe-Mouron (A.M.) Cassandre is one of France’s most preeminent and influential commercial poster artists.

Cassandre’s advertising agency, Alliance Graphique, also established a number of new typefaces, such as Bifur (1929):

For these and other Cassandre images, visit HERE and HERE.

Great finds at Rare Device

Behold the Rare Device brilliance…

Initial Pillows from MyPerennial:

An unbelievably intricate and lovely travel journal from Poketo (complete with pouches! who doesn’t love a good pouch?!):

Nikki McClure‘s adorable Things To Make and Do, a Journal:

Test your weaving skills with Les Assortements de Cartes Ficelles from Xcidia:

And gawk at your box of 100 stellarly illustrated McSweeney’s postcards from Chronicle Books:

All products above for sale at RareDevice.net, or from the individual sellers listed.

All photos from RareDevice.net.