Thos. C. Smith had class. But what do the ?80 tally marks at the left indicate?
An item from the collections of the Brooklyn Museum (Manufacturer: Union Porcelain Works, 1863-ca.1922. New York City, New York, USA. Late 19th century), posed at Bleech, via Lushlight.
His age?
ReplyDeletePorcelain may have been a kind of natural extension of a glazing process that was used on more common cards. Here we learn:
ReplyDeleteChromolithography is a wax-resist color printing process that requires one color at a time be printed, held to dry, then the next color was applied. Over a dozen colors could be added to each scrap using this very time consuming process and glazing was added over the top to preserve the color and finish. The result of this effort was a permanent vibrant color that is as beautiful today as it was over 100 years ago. These cards are breathtakingly beautiful and a piece of historical lost art.
Nothing immediately obvious about the tally marks. I will look more a bit later.
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI believe that we're looking at an early version of QR code.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't find anything specifically about the tally marks. From what I gather there were generally two reasons for having a number on the card. (1) It gave your address and/or the days of the week/month that you received callers. Or (2) the card was a sample from a printer's book. So you could tell your printer that you wanted 200 copies of style #123.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know if this is the same Thomas C Smith of the Union Porcelain Works in Brooklyn?
ReplyDeleteOops - read the rest of the post and I see that is is. He had plenty of porcelain to mess around with - the hash marks could just be a test pattern.
ReplyDeleteI rather think it was a place setting card for the dinner table, and that he had been for dinner 80 times.
ReplyDeleteKenn Norris