July 30, 2015

The Motion Picture Kiss – series of 5

By C.E. Ryan
1920s romance postcard. Private Collection.

1920s romance postcard. Private Collection.

I spent quite some time restoring this amazing and rare Italian series of romantic postcards. The originals have all kinds of white speckles that are not too bothersome to the naked eye, but scanned…heh! The postcards also have a pin hole on the left of each card at the same spot, as if they were all stacked and pinned on a wall to take down when the mood strikes. I can see a soldier doing this on the wall of his bunk bed, but that’s my fertile imagination talking. :)

I call this gorgeous series The Motion Picture Kiss because all 5 postcards back to back look like a kiss in motion of the man making his way to the woman’s lips.

Publisher: Casa Editrice – Ballerini e Fratini. Firenze (Florence). Italy. This publishing house was established in 1912.

7 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Couples, Postcards

July 30, 2015

The smiling two on rowboats

By C.E. Ryan
Two gents on rowboats. RPPC. Private Collection.

Two gents on rowboats. RPPC. Private Collection.

Under his cap the poor gent to the left is scarily all skin and bones. Either he was naturally lanky or he was sick; his wedding ring is loose on his finger. His more healthy-sized buddy (or brother – he looks like him) is holding the rowboats together for the picture.

RPPC: AZO 1904-1918

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Groups, RPPCs

July 29, 2015

The little boy in the clouds

By C.E. Ryan
Portrait of young boy by GILBERT. Cabinet card. Private Collection.

1890s-1900s portrait of little boy by GILBERT. Cabinet card. Private Collection.

The boy looks like he’s standing in a fog or clouds, a very beautiful Edwardian child with a high collar on and a light colored silk cravat with white fleur de lis. He’s looking off to the side, all the while appearing quite focused.

There’s some surreal quality to this cabinet card and it is aging well, as if getting patina.

Photographer: GILBERT. The back is blank. The front bottom was clipped to fit in an album. As a result the address is half missing. 228 (or 229) Fifth Ave. PTTS (or PIIS)

Creative Commons License

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Boys, Cabinet Cards

July 28, 2015

Oh! What must it be to be there

By C.E. Ryan
1905 Bamforth & Co postcard. Private Collection.

1905 Bamforth & Co postcard. Private Collection.

Look out for the jealous peeping Tom in the tree! This postcard is so funny to me, yet kind of creepy at the same time!

Photographer: Robert McCrum for Bamforth N.Y.C. Life Model Series.

2 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Humorous, Postcards

July 28, 2015

Mr. Composite of Two

By C.E. Ryan
Digital portrait by Caroline C. Ryan.

Digital portrait by Caroline C. Ryan.

A new feature of this site to go along all the pictures I collect.

The other day I found a large lot of CDVs. As I flipped through them an idea came over me. What if I made unique, composite portraits out of those people? Take their best features, tweak them and create someone completely new. It sounded like it would be a fun little project.

This gentleman is the composite of two CDVs; one of a boy and the other of an adult as seen below, along with some tweaking and photoshop painting. The idea is to make my new vintage gent look as real as possible. Scary, hm?

Sources for composite art.

Sources for composite art.

Please forgive the obnoxious watermark. I am pondering offering high resolution digital downloads of these unique portraits for personal or business use. For now I will add a new section to this website to showcase them until this comes to fruition. They may not be true gentlemen of past eras, but then…they kind of are, aren’t they? ;)

10 Comments   |  tags: , , | posted in digital art