Vintage Antique Gauze Linen Muslin Buckram Masks for Halloween or Theater

A fine group of novelty masks!

"Many of the masks for the early costumes were produced by U.S. Mask Company in Woodhaven, New York. Their earliest gauze masks, made of buckram, were sprayed with starch and steamed over a mold." according to the "Love to Know" website.  I am not so sure…as they can be found as coming from Czechoslovakia and other places (including the AMERICAN Mask Company, a company which originated in Europe.) They apparently moved to the United States around 1884.  They claimed to be the first mask manufacturing establishment in the United States of America.  Pages from the 1915 catalog are below. 
(Illustrated catalogue of papier mache, linen, wax, wire, gauze, show and curtain masks, noses, wigs, beards, etc. 1915 Findlay, Ohio)

Interestingly, they sold them in numerous categories including Dutchman, Devils, Dudes, Prominent men (such as presidents) and many more.  They appear to be a bit more dramatic than mine. I also find catalog pages as late as 1938 in cities other than Woodhaven.  They are probably still being made somewhere.

The material could be Buckram, which goes back to the Middle Ages.  It is a concoction of starch and strands of cotton.  You will find them called muslin, linen, gauze and likely more.  As with so many things, they look better beat-up after long use than pristine.  The ones above likely date to the late 1930s to the 1940s.

Thanks and a tip "o" the mask to BOXLOT on Facebook.

Beatnik Girls Go CRAZY

J

Print Journalism reveals the Beatnik Girls!  1967  There was only one real beatnik...Herbert Huncke. 

Lloyd Plays the Guitar Vernacular Photograph circa 1929

Lloyd Aspling of Minnesota playing his guitar circa 1929 Vintage Snapshot Collection Jim Linderman

Monumental Folk Art Sculpture Native American Bust Vintage Carving

Monumental Folk Art Sculpture Native American Vintage Carving Michigan Origin?
collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Watercolor Painting 19th Century Rubber Stamp Toy with Paint Embellishment on Ledger Paper

Antique Folk Art Watercolor Painting 19th Century Rubber Stamp Toy with Paint Embellishment. Two Sided (both shown) Collection Jim Linderman
You may also like the book (and ebook) Eccentric Folk Art Drawings of the 19th and 20th Centuries HERE 

Sewer Pipe Folk Art Bust of a Man End of Day Sculpture circa 1900 - 1920

Sewer Pipe Folk Art Bust of a Man End of Day Sculpture circa 1900 - 1920
Collection Jim Linderman

19th century Folk Art Hearts on a String paper Momento Love Whimsy

19th century Folk Art Hearts on a String paper Momento Love Whimsy Scrap paper, glue, string. Collection Jim Linderman

W. C. Rice Cross Environment Outsider Art Environment photograph by Jim Linderman

W. C. Rice Cross Environment Outsider Art Environment photograph by Jim Linderman 

See also the book American Folk Art in Place In Situ available as paperback or instant pdf download.

Love during Wartime Anonymous Vernacular Photograph circa 1940

Love during Wartime Anonymous Vernacular Photograph circa 1940  
Collection Jim Linderman

Annual Daytime Visit to the Carnival photographs by Jim Linderman

Annual Daytime Visit to the Carnival photographs by Jim Linderman

Outsider Art and Art Brut? It's a Piece of CAKE Paul K. Schimmack Bakes and Decorates an Astrology Chart

As much as I hate to start a new trend in "outsider art" I present here what was likely the first CAKE made with obsessive scribbles.  The medium?  SUGAR.  So there you go…a visionary piece of cake!  

There is an art to making cakes (and Schimmack was good at it) but when was the last time you saw some Art Brut applied with a frosting bag?  Among the proclamations made of sugary goo is that a trip to Neptune at 60 miles an hour will take over 20,000 years, so eat a big lunch before you go.  The artist/baker also indicates the weight of the moon.

Paul K. Schimmack was a bread and cake maker by trade (he was named Secretary of the Washington Wholesale and Retail Bakers Association in 1910)  As you can see here, his shop "The Lion Bakery" was capable of "40 buns in one minute!"   The building no longer stands. A house was placed there in 1922. Still, if one can say "he is better known" for a guy not known at all…it was his astrology art for which he is best not remembered today.  It is fair to speculate the great share of his work was eaten, but this recent discovery of a second obsessive diagram produced over 100 years ago is a good time to explore what is in the historical record.  This one has missed being included in the record as it was consumed after the picture was taken.

Astrology, of course, is the most intricate and detailed bogus system in the world!  Wiki calls it a pseudoscience, which means not science at all.  It is an early scam and continues to be.  I rank it just ahead of "magnet therapy" and Phrenology…the science of bumps on the head. 

Paul K. Schimmack's work "The Weather Shark Predictor" of paint on tin is now in the Balsley collection and it has appeared in shows, in a 1997 issue of Folk Art Magazine and in at least one catalog.  It is something of a masterpiece.  The artist seemingly registered a print of the piece in 1913 as "a work of art" titled Farmers Morning Glory Chart with the US Copyright Office.  It was published by the Schlesinger Company.  I believe "work of art" means a postcard, as the company was also responsible for the once common"Indian with headdress" postcards, though they did also publish lithographs for wall display. No publisher is indicated on the postcard here of his cake concoction, but it dates to around the same time.

Folk Art Magazine Spring 1997

A more typical image from Schlesinger Brothers Publishers

The Daily Republican (Monongahela, PA) of March 31, 1931 gave Mr. Schimmack a nice feature and asked him for a few predictions. "Inch downpour of rain during May followed by a rainy June. July, August, and September will be moderately dry. During November and October the rainfall will be medium and a general cyclone will strike the eastern states, causing shipwrecks and endangering tall buildings. Schimmack forecasts a general peace-making among all nations with the end of the year 1931.  Several years earlier, the paper had gone to Shimmack for his prediction on the Dempsey - Tunney fight!  Dempsey will enter the sign "with the support of the moon" while Tunney has Mercury behind him. 

In 1927, the Lincoln Star (Nebraska) filled lots of space with his predictions.  They called him a "weather shark" and astrologer.  The numerous, if mundane "crop reports" ran for several inches of copy.  Most notable was a "A big flood In California" and "The lion will show his teeth the first part of March, but that month and April will be relatively springlike."

Schimmack was also apparently the "go-to" guy for the Pittsburgh Press.  They called on his expertise in the January 26, 1932 issue.  "The change In weather will start to be noticeable today or tomorrow, however. Prom then on, there will be blizzards, sleet, snow, rain and ice. Eastern States will be paralyzed. "Coldest days will be Jan. 27, 28, 29, 30 and 31; Feb. 1, 3, 5, 6, 19, 22, 23. 24, 25, 27; March 2, 13. 18, 29, 31; and April 6, 7, 9 and 17." The Washington seer also predicted heavy snows in Pittsburgh and New York Feb. 22, 23 and 24. The groundhog will see his shadow; rivers will be at flood stage about the end of March and this district will experience a "white" Easter Sunday, he said."

He was referred to as the "astrological seer of Washington Pa." and that he had been "observing and charting planets for nearly 50 years…he's delved into histories of floods, cold spells and droughts for as far back as 1832, noting positions of planets for each."  Whew. 


The Spring 1997 issue of Folk Art magazine illustrated Mr. Schimmack's "Weather Shark Astrological Chart" along with a notice of an exhibition at the American Visionary Art Museum.   The piece is in the collection of John and Diane Balsley.  It also appears in the catalog of the exhibition.  A large color image of the piece is available HERE from the Ricco - Maresca Gallery. 

"Illustrative Astronomy" by Paul K. Schimmack  Photo Postcard 1910 Collection Jim Linderman

The Tie brought to its Ultimate Artistic Expression High Quality and Low Politics

 
 Dreadful Don's ties are not made in America, so Hillary sent her staff out to find manufacturers over here who would gladly have manufactured them.  Calling Trump a hypocrite is like calling Al Capone a purse snatcher…but every little bit helps. 

I have read that ties were invented to show you trusted your adversary. It's pretty hard to offend anyone facing you when either could reach out and strangle the other. Hillary doesn't wear ties. 

The Haband Company in Patterson, New Jersey was founded in 1925. They hand made ties and sold them in local banks. A hit! The company began sending around postcard-like photographs of the product line, and that is what you see here. It led to a clothing and gift company which remains today. They also had a wonderful description of the product. "The process is not secret or exclusive to Haband. Others just don't take the trouble to develop its possibilities to its ultimate artistic expression." Nicely put. 

Remarkable and beautiful neckware, and the company appears to have been built without the help of organized crime (Unlike the Dreadful Don's construction enterprises!) 

Set of Haband Tie promotional photos No Date (circa 1940?) Collection Jim Linderman

Brick Clay Miniature Brick Fund Raising Gimmick and the Church of Herman Bridgers Rocky Mount North Carolina

 
A church needs a strong foundation, but it also needed lots of brick walls!  So the Rocky Mount Methodist Church sold tiny red bricks to raise construction funds.  This little fella is about the size of a quarter.  If ever a church needed a building, it was this united Methodist group...here they are prior to the fund (and roof) raising gathering for worship at Overton's BBQ Restaurant!

I think I ATE there once!  I asked where the best sauce was, and someone sent me there.  I'm a vegetarian, but I ate the sauce on a potato and on white bread.  

Rocky Mount was also the town with MY favorite church. That would be the magnificent one gravedigger Herman Bridgers built nearby with his bare hands.  You can read my tribute at the link.  His church moved me so much, I wrote about it. Now, I've written about another!  I seriously doubt any of the congregants above ever went to Herman's church, but they would have met the most devout man in Rocky Mount. You can see how the Methodist church turned out here.  Herman Bridgers drew his church too...and it is now in the collection of the Asheville Art Museum.

Herman Bridgers Drawing of his church Asheville Art Museum

Vintage Miniature Red Brick Fund Raising Novelty collection circa 1964  collection Jim Linderman

19th Century Folk Art Tombstones in Michigan

19th Century Folk Art Tombstones in Michigan  Photographs by Jim Linderman