A Topical Interlude

c. late 1940s to early 1950s

The publisher—
The humor in the "Wall Street" joke might come from the 1920s boom: everyone—but everyone—is getting into The Market, could be one read.

The vivid color seems to be post-World War II; compare with a wartime card from the same company—

"Milwaukee, WI: E. C. Kropp... Back of postcard is postmarked 1942."
[Card and notes found here.]

The country truly was "all out" for defense in the 1940s, with the war effort and beginning of economic recovery taking precedence in daily life. While I suspect Wall Street wasn't much of a presence in the public mind, it was there right after the war was won: part of the setting for ticker-tape parades.

From the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City is this entry in the list of publisher names starting "K"—

E. C. Kropp Co. 1907-1956
Milwaukee, WI

A publisher and printer that began producing chromolithographic souvenir cards and private mailing cards in 1898 under the name Kropp. These cards were of much higher quality than those that would printed under the E.C. Kropp name.

They became the E.C. Kropp Company in 1907 and produced large numbers of national view-cards and other subjects. Their latter linen cards had a noticibly fine grain. Sold to L.L. Cook in 1956 and they are now part of the GAF Corp. U.S.

This Kropp novelty card, too, is printed very nicely on linen card—which seems a bit incongruous for such a silly gag.

Though I'm not completely sure of the joke's intent.

On "Wall Street" we have two dogs at a lamp post—a prop leading to canine reaction, create "pool"...

While I suppose it was meant as a naughty joke about doggie
leg-lifting, the gag also seems to have a negative undertone about Wall Street.

During the late 1940s-50s, Americans were still close enough to the Depression for many people to have a negative image of Wall Street and big business; this, after all, was the reason post-war corporations put so much effort into turning their public images homey and friendly.

Well, I choose to see the Kropp card as an unflattering comment about Wall Street. And indoctrinated as Americans may have become in the decades since this was printed, things have always been about class warfare. Which is increasingly in our faces; for example here, and here.

Whether criticism of unregulated capitalism is labeled "class warfare," or the mass media treat protest as something done by clueless hippies: the reality in our current, unacknowledged economic depression is more like this.

October - Card of the Month

Japanese post card, c. 1960s-1970s; captioned on reverse—

October
Best Season in Japan

Autumn is said the best season in Japan for it is neither too hot nor too cold. Children have picnics on a field with their friends and sing the joys of their healthy life on the green.

Oriental Rugs, A. U. Dilley & Co.

Spotted at my regular haunt, the weekly library sale's 25¢ pamplet bin—a clothbound book with gilt cover design of a rug, complete with fringe.

Publication details inside were "1909, The Tudor Press, Boston"—so I was surprised this hadn't been caught and marked as a "collectible."

But even before spotting the date, I was amazed to see an end paper with the original owner's bookplate—

Yes, the name is this fellow's—

The book seems to have been a giveaway to customers of the "Oriental Rug Adviser"—

The text is quite informative, with photos and examples devoted to designs and weaving techniques of many different regions and ethnic groups.

It made sense that Stickley would acquire this for his library, as it seemed an authoritative guide to the subject. Despite the connection to a shop, this is no direct sales pitch; instead, the text is full of points on how to identify rug types and quality—including how to spot deceptive practices. The author writes in detail about methods of "aging" new carpets passed off as antiques, as well as other ways of selling poor quality merchandise to the unwary.

Searching the author's name, I learned that Arthur Urbane Dilley was not only a rug dealer, but also a noted authority on the subject. He later wrote full-fledged tomes; the 1909 book is eighty-one pages, and a complete scan is available here.

I was getting the picture of a gentleman-scholar type, and soon found that Dilley had founded an organization full of them: the Hajji Baba Club. Named for the hero of a nineteenth century novel, the club is a world all its own.

From the club site's history:

...The club was formed in 1932, and early meetings were held in an apartment designed to recreate the setting from where the rugs came: Sheridan Square as Turkman yurt, and the home of Arthur Arwine, engineer. The other founding members were Roy Winton and Arthur Gale, both involved in aspects of the film industry, Anton Lau, another engineer, and Arthur Dilley, the scholar and dealer whose interest was his full-time job. Soon to join the rapidly expanding club were engineer Joseph McMullan, who amassed perhaps the most impressive collection of the group, and Maurice Dimand, curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Those 1930s "Hajjis" and their Sheridan Square yurts may be rather quaint. But the club is still around and has done some nice museum exhibits; links to information and virtual tours here.

The club site's biography of "the first Hajji" describes Dilley's education at Harvard—where he lived in a residence room once occupied by Henry David Thoreau, a coincidence that fueled Dilley's ambition to become a great writer. Later drawn to studying antique Oriental rugs, Dilley developed a fascination that led to his career as rug dealer and scholar. Or make that, a scholar who was content to sell a rug as long as he could first educate the buyer to sufficiently appreciate it.

The bio also explains why my copy of the book has the original (Boston) address papered over, and a correction stamped in—

Dilley had set up shop in Boston, where in 1914 a devoted customer persuaded (and financed) him in moving the business to New York.

That patron also launched Dilley as a lecturer at museums, women's clubs, and other cultural venues. Before long—

Having firmly established himself in New York and having written dozens of lectures on a whole range of carpet-related topics, Dilley began to consider a major work on the subject. During the 1920s, rugs were a hot topic and, given the commercial success that Charles Scribner’s Sons had enjoyed with [John Kimberly] Mumford's Oriental Rugs – an immediate triumph in 1900 and by the 1920s in its fourth printing – Dilley had good reason to believe he could sell them the idea of offering another book on the same subject. He signed a contract with the publisher while both the United States economy and interest in rugs were dashing along at top speed, but unfortunately the Great Depression arrived before his book appeared, which meant that it, unlike Mumford's work, tended to sit on bookstore shelves.

But poor sales – only a thousand copies during its first two years in print – failed to dampen Dilley’s enthusiasm for his work. He thought of it as a literary achievement, not as a commercial commodity, and when, a few years later, he discovered a Houghton Mifflin textbook that included an excerpt from his book as a model of well-executed prose alongside examples from the likes of Charles Dickens, William Thackeray and Charles Lamb, Dilley considered his efforts validated, his book a triumph, the finest feather in his cap, one he would never exchange for a place on a list of best-sellers.

September - Card of the Month

Japanese post card, c. 1960s-1970s; captioned on reverse—

Fireworks in Summer

In summer season, big displays of fireworks are presented at several places around Tokyo. At each home, children have a pleasure of their own small and fancy fire-works (fire-crackers) with their friends.

Hello!

The quaint design has been in use for some time, as the wrapper is from only a few years ago.

I used to see this often in Asian groceries. I haven't thought to look for it lately, so I wonder if the manufacturer still uses the logo—what with everyone in Thailand no doubt on a cell.

I do like the retro design ... even if this is way too much like being at the office—

Ask Any Field Office

Found during some housecleaning for an elderly relative—

U. S. Government Printing Office, 1950

This is a trifold leaflet, so the unfolded outer pages look like this—
The inner pages—

Some details, in fine 1950 cartoon style—


This merits noting: if you lose your card, go to the nearest field office for help.

And if you don't know where an office is—I'll take a guess that local offices were well-distributed not only in 1950, but until fairly recently—as the post-Reagan drive to destroy government services benefitting the average person has triumphed.

This leaflet is a reminder of the days when service was a given, and explained with jaunty cartoons.

Long before anyone would have imagined a Congresswoman Crazy Eyes attracting supporters by denouncing government—and after a lifetime of benefitting from it, herself.

No doubt her retired followers will soon be calling for the government to get its hands off their Social Security.

... Or sharing some similarly reasoned opinions.

August - Card of The Month

Japanese post card, c. 1960s-1970s; captioned on reverse—

Swimming Season

In summer, almost every week-end the city people visit mountain and/or swimming resorts with their children and enjoy their family trips. Especially, swimming resorts located near Tokyo and other big cities

"Card of the Month" for now... but really: these kids and their sand-mud pies are among the all-time prizes.