Almost Living Color

The Photochrom process was developed in Zürich, by Hans Jakob Schmid, in the 1880s. Used mostly for travel subjects, Photochroms took the place of hand-colored postcards, and were popular until the 1930s, when other color photographic technology became commercially viable.

The richly colored images were created by transferring a black and white photo onto a series of lithographic stones—anywhere from four to 14 -- that were then printed in color. In the U.S., the technology was licensed to The Detroit Publishing Company of Michigan, where thousands of views and millions of prints were produced. A very good technical explanation of the process can be found here.

The Library of Congress has more than 6,000 images, among which are the portraits and other peopled scenes here. Stay tuned for the mouthwatering landscapes ...

Portrait of Berta Lergetporer, Slovenia

Arrowmaker, an Ojibwa brave.

Pee Viggi and squaw.

National Vierlander costume, Hamburg, Germany.

A Chinese family.

Bedouin beggars and children, Tunis, Tunisia.

Bedouin Chief of Palmyra, Holy Land.

Bedouins and children outside tent, Holy Land.

Arab dancing girls, Algiers, Algeria.

Barbers near Seraskierrat, Constantinople, Turkey.

A Bedouin woman, Tunis, Tunisia.

Future Vintage: Eames Century Modern

My brochure from House Industries just arrived in the mail today. It introduces their new collection of fonts, Eames Century Modern. I like to imagine that some blogger, fifty years in the future, will be very excited to discover this at a flea market.

Take Mom Shopping!

Assuming that Mom is a woman of extraordinary taste, who delights in discovering things she hasn’t seen anywhere else, show her how in-the-know you are. Take her to Pastec on E. 12th St. The store, which had been a Soho destination for over 20 years, moved to the East Village about a year ago.

An eclectic range of accessories for yourself and your home, come from all over the world, to occupy the calmly hued, sunlit space. Each item is strictly filtered through the discerning lens of owner, Sara Spinelli, who is known for her intolerance of the ordinary, and aversion to boredom. I think Mom will approve.

Pastec, 437 E. 12th St., nr. Ave. A - Phone: 212-219-3922
Read/see more in New York Magazine.

One of the few places you will find jewelry by Monica Castiglioni.

Pillows silk-screened with the top ten google searches of different years.

Vintage Surfing Posters

Found this collection of surf-movie posters at Saturdays Surf NYC. Most of these seem to be from showings at various Southern California High Schools. Great faded color.

Schwann Catalog Covers

In the old days, before the iWhatever told you exactly what music was playing anywhere, there was a music directory known as the Schwann Catalog. In 1949, record-store owner William Schwann created the first list to keep track of new releases. The LP had only recently been introduced and production was increasing rapidly.

This is from his NY Times obit (Schwann died in 1998 at age 85):

''I had to protect myself from my bad memory,'' he said in an interview in later years. So he assembled a list of all available recordings, and typed it up, some 26 pages. ''This gave me the idea of doing the catalogue,'' he said. ''And since I had helped organize a Boston record dealers association during the war, when shellac was unavailable and records scarce, I had an immediate market for my guide.'' At the time, there were 11 record labels with some 600 titles. The first Schwann catalogue, hand-typed and mimeographed, sold 11,000 copies. Within a month it was obsolete. So Mr. Schwann realized that he would have to publish a new issue every month. …When he sold the catalogue in 1976 (although he kept running it until his retirement), it had expanded to over 300 pages with over 40,000 listings.

The covers themselves might not be very deep, but I think they more than compensate with their exuberance, freshness, and fun. I’ve had absolutely no luck in finding their creator. There is a consistent set of initials, on most of them, but as you can see in the combo of initials below, it’s hard to say what the letters are exactly. All I can say for sure, is that whoever CM, GM, GN or LM is, was one lucky artist to have had that cover as a monthly gig.


The catalogs here, are for sale by dealer Harlan Wolf, and range from $3.50 to $6.50. Unfortunately, just about all of them have been mercilessly defaced with the stamp of Bob Duncan’s Camera & Record Shop. The ones here that are stamp-free, are only so due to Photoshop. I just had to satisfy my own curiosity and see what they once looked like.

So if any of you can identify the mystery designer, please let me know, and I will Tweet it throughout the land …

Ceramics Books

I love Scandinavian design, vintage ceramics and old books. So I suppose it makes perfect sense that I would be attracted to these vintage-Scandinavian-ceramic books. The design and photography are about the subject, not the book designer. No gimmicks—just straightforward and respectful. I think they are great looking. These are all from Bøger & Kuriosa in Copenhagen.

Inspiration Meets Perspiration …

Photo by T. Rosen

Courier Magazine

The British Postal Museum & Archive has a wonderfully rich website that is well worth a visit, even if it’s just to view the online exhibit of poster design (if you haven’t already seen it).

In 1966, Courier, was launched for Royal Mail Group employees. It replaced Post Office Magazine, which started in 1933. For Courier’s 40th anniversary, in 2006, back issues were posted online as well as this survey of the changing masthead design and typography (alas, no Courier) over the years. Read more here.