Pages and illustrations from "Wag and Puff," a 1929 primer

Here's another wonderful old school book — 1929's "Wag and Puff" by Marjorie Hardy, a primary teacher at the University of Chicago Elementary School.¹

The book, a primer in The Child's Own Way Series, is illustrated by Lucille Enders² and Matilda Breuer.³

The plot of the book is not very involved, of course. A brown dog named Wag finds an owner. And a white cat named Puff finds an owner. Together, the children and animals have some adventures and learn some things. Much of the narrative, as it is, is centered around an extended visit to a farm.

At the end, Billy says, "Oh, Father, how I wish I could live here always! I like it here. When I am a man, I am going to be a farmer."

Here is a series of neat pages from the book, the first few of which describe how Wag and Puff meet their new owners.

Footnotes
1. Even the endpapers of the book have a gorgeous design, as shown below. Note the stamp for "Birdseye School District No. 32." I'm not sure where that was located, but one possibility is Birdseye, Indiana.

2. More illustrations by Lucille Enders are showcased on this Flickr page.
3. And here's a Flickr link to another Matilda Breuer illustration.

Update: This royal dog was a Welsh corgi named Sugar

Regarding the June 9 post "Weekend postcards: Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II," Magdalena Herman got in touch with me on Facebook with some additional information.

One of the black-and-white postcards featured Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, standing next to what I originally described as an unidentified royal dog.

Magdalena, an expert on all things Elizabeth II, says the dog is a corgi named Sugar.

Sugar's mother was Susan (1944–1959), the Pembroke Corgi¹ that Princess Elizabeth received on her 18th birthday.

Susan was the dog that started it all for the then-future queen.² She has owned more than thirty of Susan's descendants over the decades.

Regarding Sugar, Wikipedia has the following to report:

"Sugar was the nursery pet of Prince Charles and Princess Anne. In 1955, her pups, Whisky and Sherry, were surprise Christmas gifts from the Queen to the Prince and Princess. Pictured with the royal family, the corgi Sugar made the cover of The Australian Women's Weekly on June 10, 1959. Sugar's twin, Honey, belonged to the Queen Mother; Honey took midday runs with Johnny and Pippin, Princess Margaret's corgis, while the Princess lived in Buckingham Palace."

I asked Magdalena how she could tell that this particular dog was Sugar. Was it the dog's specific markings?

She replied: "Well, I know almost everything about The Queen, I love Her Majesty since I was 5, She is my passion, She is all my life."

Indeed, Magdalena has both a blog and a Facebook page dedicated to Elizabeth II:

• God Save The Queen (Tumblr)
• God Save The Queen (Facebook)

Major thanks, Magdalena, for taking the time to provide this extra information about one of the Papergreat postcards!

Footnotes
1. In case you were wondering, the Pembroke Welsh Corgi is ranked 11th in Stanley Coren's "The Intelligence of Dogs." The border collie is ranked No. 1 on the scale of dog intelligence and, somehow, the poodle is ranked No. 2.
2. Susan is so important that she has her own Wikipedia page. Elizabeth II's other dogs are discussed on the Queen Elizabeth's corgis page of Wikipedia.

Old calendar page with a "Dombey and Son" theme

Here's a tattered calendar page for May and June of an unknown year...

The theme of the page is "Dombey and Son," a serialized novel published by Charles Dickens from 1846 to 1848.¹

It measures about 9 inches wide by 7½ inches tall. The central illustration is of one of the characters in the novel — Captain Edward (Ned) Cuttle, a retired sea captain who has a hook for a right hand.

The quotations at the top and bottom of the page refer to the novel, too.

"When found make a note of" is a line from the novel and became the motto for Notes and Queries, a scholarly journal that was established in 1849 in London and still exists today.

The other quotation is: "When you see Ned Cuttle bite his nails, Wal'r, then you may know Ned Cuttle's aground."

A longer version of this passage by Dickens is as follows:

"Consequently, instead of putting on his coat and waistcoat with anything like the impetuosity that could alone have kept pace with Walter's mood, he declined to invest himself with those garments at all at present; and informed Walter that on such a serious matter, he must be allowed to 'bite his nails a bit'

"'It's an old habit of mine, Wal'r,' said the Captain, 'any time these fifty year. When you see Ned Cuttle bite his nails, Wal'r, then you may know that Ned Cuttle's aground.'

"Thereupon the Captain put his iron hook between his teeth, as if it were a hand; and with an air of wisdom and profundity that was the very concentration and sublimation of all philosophical reflection and grave inquiry, applied himself to the consideration of the subject in its various branches."

But a mystery remains: What year does this calendar page refer to? Coincidentally, May 1st is a Tuesday and June 1st is a Friday — the same as we have in 2012. But that's not necessarily enough information to help us nail down the year.

Then there's the text across the bottom:

• Ernest Nister, London
• Printed by E. Nister at Nuremberg (Bavaria)
• E.P. Dutton & Co. New York

The University of Virginia's website provides some good information about Nister. Here's an excerpt:

"Though primarily involved with his successful color-printing business, publisher and printer Ernest Nister (1842-1909) specialized in colored toy and movable picture books. Operating in both Nuremberg and London in the 1890s, this entrepreneur developed a distinctive style firmly lodged within nineteenth-century aesthetics. However, Nister's images outshine those of his contemporaries by epitomizing an exquisite, sentimental beauty. His artistic vision guides all the works regardless of pop-up mechanics and even of illustrator. In fact, we are uncertain to what extent Nister contributed his own illustrations to these books. In many cases, he imposed his own monogram on images in his imprint, dropping the artist's signature in the course of the production process."²

Based on all of this information, my best guess is that this page is from an 1888 calendar.

That fits the timeframe of Ernest Nister and E.P. Dutton. And 1888 included a May 1st that fell on a Tuesday.

Too bad I don't have the entire calendar!

Footnotes
1. The full title of the book is "Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation."
2. For more about Nister's creative children's books, see this page on the University of North Texas' website.

Advertisement for 1934 Nash models

This is a full-page magazine advertisement (probably from National Geographic) for the 1934 automobile models offered by Nash Motors, which was in existence from 1917 to 1954.¹

No prices are listed. But these vehicles were not inexpensive.

Here are some excerpts from the advertising copy:

• "At the very beginning of Nash Motors, C.W. Nash said, 'I will never build a cheap motor car.' Today, with more than a million Nash cars upholding that pledge, C.W. Nash repeats, 'I will never build a cheap motor car.' With Nash, it continues to be ... Quality first, last and all the time!"
• "To celebrate the first million cars, to reveal far and near the new heights of quality attained in the 1934 Nash and its companion car, the new LaFayette — Nash dealers are giving a million demonstrations in 30 days!"
• "Individually-Sprung Front Wheels Optional at Slight Extra Cost"
• "New Nash-Built LaFayette, the Fine Car of the Low Price Field, Five Body Styles"

Footnote
1. One of its final models was the Nash Rambler (1950-1954), which was produced by the Nash Motors division of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation. The Nash Rambler plays a key role in the plot of the 1958 song "Beep Beep" by The Playmates.

Saturday's postcard: Illustrated map of Tokyo with taijitu symbol

This cool vintage Fukuda postcard¹ features a fanciful illustrated map of the Tokyo area, with the Imperial Palace at the center.

I'm not sure if the road system was actually built this way or if it's just a creative interpretation by this illustrator, but it's interesting to see an approximation of taijitu — the symbol for the concept of yin and yang — woven into the design.

I didn't find a good answer to that question, but I did stumble upon this neat 2010 post on Travora about great metro maps of the world while doing some research.

Footnote

1. Here's what the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City has on its website about Fukuda Card Co., which was in business in the 1950s and 1960s and was based in Yokohama, Japan:

"A publisher of books and postcards. Their cards, produced in offset lithography and as Fuku Color photochromes were made in Japan. They did work for the Japanese Travel Bureau and their cards were designed for a duel audience with titles printed in both English and Japanese."

The pegasus-themed company logo shown at right is from the back of today's postcard.

Seven sons from Lancaster County family served during World War II

This newspaper clipping comes from the August 13, 1944, edition of Grit.

The short article from nearly seven decades ago describes the Barto family of Manheim, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Ivan Barto and his wife had 14 children, according to the article, seven of whom were serving in the U.S. military:

• Staff Sgt. Daniel Barto, 30, in France
• Master Sgt. Myron Barto, 28, in Italy
• Pfc. Lewis Barto, 26, in France
• Pfc. Clair Barto, 24, in France
• Cpl. Dale Barto, 22, in England
• Pfc. Irvin Barto Jr., 21, en route to a foreign station
• Albert Barto, 18, recently inducted into the U.S. Army

I don't know if all of the Barto brothers survived World War II. According to notes by Margie Barry, daughter of Albert, on The Albert Barto Family Home Page, most of the Barto siblings lived in Manheim for the rest of their lives. Myron, however, "lived much of his life in York, Pa."

Having five or six or even seven brothers serving in World War II was not that rare. The most famous (and saddest) instance was the five Sullivan brothers of Waterloo, Iowa, all of whom died during or shortly after the sinking of the USS Juneau in November 1942.

Right here in York County, and across the Susquehanna River from the Barto brothers in Manheim, we had the seven Hake brothers of Wrightsville, all of whom saw combat in World War II. The transcript of an oral history interview with Charles K. Hake, one of those seven brothers, is housed at the University of North Texas library.

MLB in '44: "An additional one dollar to take care of a midnight snack"

Thought you might enjoy this clipping from a summer 1944 issue of the Grit newspaper.

In case you're wondering, though, that was a good amount of money in 1944 and is roughly equivalent to what athletes receive today.

A $7 bill in 1944 ("three squares" plus the $1 midnight snack) would be the equivalent of $88.30 in 2011 dollars.

Here's what I found concerning current per diems:

• Major League Baseball, $92.50
• NBA, $120
• NFL, $95
• NHL, $98

What's ridiculous, of course, is that Alex Rodriguez, Cliff Lee, Jayson Werth and all of those other athletes with nine-figure contracts are still getting $92.50 per day, too, for their meals.

Victorian trade card: Decker pianos and a naked toddler

This old Victorian trade card for Decker Brothers pianos and the Reading (Pennsylvania) Music House measures 3½ inches wide by 4⅝ inches tall.

And, no, I don't know what naked toddler with a full head of hair has to do with pianos. That's how it goes with Victorian cards. Spooky nights are used to selling baking powder. Little children are used to sell coffee. And cats are used to sell soap.

Decker Brothers was in business from 1865 until about 1900, which helps to date this card somewhat.

According to the text on the back of the card, Decker Brothers' "matchless pianos" could be found at 33 Union Square in New York City. That's the location of the 33-foot-wide Decker Building, which was built in 1892 on the same site as the piano company's first building.¹

The Decker Brothers were David and John. According to Wikipedia, their pianos were "known for their exceptional quality in knowledgeable piano circles, and The New York Times wrote that they had 'a wide spread and enviable reputation for their superior quality'. However, they did not achieve the notability of some of their counterparts, specifically Steinway & Sons and Chickering and Sons, even though widely acknowledged as being equivalent in quality."

Indeed, this trade card states that Decker pianos are "indorsed and preferred by the best musical authorities."

The other business listed on this card is Reading Music House, located at 850 Penn Street in Reading, Pennsylvania. The proprietor was one F.S. Greenawalt. I couldn't find much about the music store or Mr. Greenawalt, which isn't surprising, given that this piece of paper is 110 to 140 years old.

The final interesting thing to note is the tiny and faint name on the bottom of the front of the card. Here's a super magnification:

I thought Joseph P. Knapp might be the illustrator. But it appears that he's actually the card's publisher. According to the website of the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City:

"Joseph P. Knapp became the [American Lithographic Company's] first president and his old Knapp Co. became the art publishing branch of the new firm in 1900. Together they became the largest printers in the United States controlling about 80 percent of the market. They printed all types of material including early chromolithograph postcards such as the official cards of the 1893 Columbian Exposition for Charles W. Goldsmith. By 1900 most of the separate printing facilities of all these firms had been consolidated into a single plant."

Footnote
1. The Decker Building was designed by socialist-anarchist architect John H. Edelmann, who might have provided the inspiration for fellow architect Louis Sullivan's maxim "form follows function." Another aside: The Decker Building was the home of Andy Warhol's studio, The Factory, from 1968 through 1973.