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Giant Pin Ups on the Road ! Vintage Handpainted Billboard Signs of the Past





There is no real evidence that billboards are effective in generating profit, but they do aid in brand recognition.  Signs offering a "petting zoo" and clean bathrooms probably worked during the glory days of road travel, but today it is mostly the big yellow hamburger sign drawing in customers.  The concept of sex in advertising also comes to play here.  That we KNOW is effective. There is no way to measure how many riders have been killed by the wandering eyes of the driver in these snaps. The photographer stood close enough to the signs to eliminate any skid marks on the ground.

Lady Bird Johnson tried to eliminate billboards during the Johnson administration.  To preserve beauty, not the money in your pocket.  Some countries have outlawed them for safety, but texting while driving is far more dangerous now.  

I would have looked at these while passing, but I don't think I would have gotten off to buy tires.

Vintage (1940?) Pin-up Billboard Snapshot photographs.  Thanks to CURLEY'S ANTIQUES.

Hand-painted Wedding Watercolor



Painted by Hand wedding watercolor with applied felt hat, picture frame and wedding veil.  No date. Collection Jim Linderman


Sideshow Banners Vintage Photographs of a Ten-in-One




A "Ten in One" is a sideshow with ten different shows.  This one had a dozen.  
Sideshow Banners Vintage Photographs of a Ten-in-One Anonymous, no date.
Collection Jim Linderman

Vintage Folk Art Valvoline Hand-Painted Sign Easy Flow Oil c. 1950 Petroliana



Original vintage Folk Art Valvoline Hand-Painted Sign Easy Flow Oil c. 1950.  I heard that Frank Fritz and the American Pickers are coming to Michigan.  Got this JUST IN TIME!  Pretty unusual to find a painted by hand petroliana sign, and whoever made it designed his own logo!  He even remembered to paint the V upside down when letting the oil out. 

Antique Folk Art Valvoline Hand-Painted Sign Easy Flow Oil c. 1950 Collection Jim Linderman

Hell's Playground White Cargo and the Socialite who visited Africa Hedy Lamarr Stars in Blackface!

What does this woman have in her hand?  HELL'S PLAYGROUND, her expose of the effect marauding colonialists had on the people of Africa.  Watching the new production of Roots on the box gives me pause…we tortured the ones left over there too, unfortunately.   This is Ida Vera Simonton.  The socialite visited the French colony of Gabon in 1906.  Her "expose" is hardly that, as the entire point of the book was to present the inhabitants as savages, and she tromped through Africa protected by a handful of big white men with big guns. 

It appears her trip was more an excuse to avoid testifying in a murder trial than it was fact-finding.  Her rich family sent her off to try to avoid scandal involving the case of a murdered architect. 

Hell's Playground was published in 1912, and ten years later Broadway producers ripped her off, creating the far better known play White Cargo.  She sued to be compensated.

The later film version starred Hedy Lamar as Tondelayo, a femme-fatale who I guess tempts the fellows…and then murders one or more.  Witchy woman!  They darkened her skin so she could appear African.  The New York Times called her "mahogany" and Hedy became a star!



Watch the trailer.  Then watch the hilarious catchphrase.  What are those natives UP to.
Original Photograph collection Jim Linderman  

Itty-Bitty Tintype Bowser Photograph of a Dog 1/16 Plate




Tintypes were the far cheaper yet far less attractive child of the daguerreotype and the ambrotype.  Still, they brought ownership of a photograph to the masses.  Here a loving friend has documented his dog for the ages.  GOOD BOY!  STAY! Stay...

Original miniature tintype of a dog circa 1870.  1/16th plate.  Collection Jim Linderman
Courtesy Curley's Antiques

ONE DOLLAR DINNER Hand-Painted (twice) Antique Folk Art Sign




Dinner for a Dollar Hand-Painted (twice) Antique Folk Art Sign.  Once to announce a gas station had moved, again to announce dinner was reasonably priced.  Michigan origin.  
Collection Jim Linderman

American Folk Art in Place: IN - SITU The BOOK by Jim Linderman Available NOW!




AMERICAN FOLK ART IN PLACE: IN-SITU by Jim Linderman is NOW availableA large format vintage photography book which reveals hundreds of folk art environments and unique folk art sculptures as installed over the years.  The book documents numerous outsider art installations (many previously unknown) and photographs of known and unknown artists at work.  All photographs will be drawn from the collection of Jim Linderman, whose previous vintage photography books include the ground-breaking Take Me to the Water,  The Birth of Rock and Roll and Arcane Americana.  The book will be the companion to Eccentric Folk Art Drawings of the 19th and 20th Centuries from the Linderman Collection.  Same size, same format and also available as an affordable instant download e-book. American Folk Art In Place: In-Situ is a much expanded and revised edition of the now out of print original book of the same title.  Details and a free preview of the book will follow.  Inquiries to J.Winkel4@gmail.com 

Shown:  Untitled snapshot (Feed the Monkey) unknown location, circa 1950.  Collection Jim Linderman

Folk Art Sewer Tile Head from Grand Ledge Clay Product Company of Michigan End of Day Art



Michigan had several clay sewer tile factories, and like the others (particularly in Ohio) their workers would take unused clay at the end of the day and make whimsical pieces of pottery for friends.  This sewer tile head (with a pile of tiles stacked ready for transport in the Real Photo Postcard) is signed on the base Curtis Rugge who was a pretty good sculptor.  See also the essay by Marsha MacDowell and Kurt Dewhurst from 1980 titled The Sewer Tile Clay Pottery of Grand Ledge, Michigan. Interestingly, they point out that Michigan drew employees from Ohio to work for them...a small rivalry, but likely also an exchange of skills and ideas for pieces like this.  

Grand Ledge folk art Sewer Tile Head and Real Photo Postcard collection Jim Linderman

Kissammee Momument of the States 1952 Original Snapshot


The Monument of the States contained a rock from every state in the union (at the time...two of our states with the most rocks were not eligible yet) collected after Pearl Harbor.  The originator of the project was Dr. Charles Bressler-Pettis.  Charles did not go get the rocks.  He wrote all the governors and had them send one down to Florida!  It still stands!  See a contributor revisit his rock below! 

19th Century Folk Art Drawing American Centennial 1876



An extraordinary folk art drawing by Dennison W. Hammond of Sommerville, MA. 1876.  It  was drawn, in ink, on the front endpaper of an autograph / friendship book.  Collection Jim Linderman   Thanks to BOX LOT on Facebook.


CAM of the FUTURE 1957



Cam of the Future cover illustration by Van Dongen 1957 Astounding Science Fiction (British Edition)

Antique Folk Art Statue of Liberty Carved Trade Figure Collection Jim Linderman








Antique Folk Art Statue of Liberty Trade Figure from the turn of the century.  The massive sculpture on Liberty Island in Manhattan was installed in 1886. Soon after this 34 inch folk art carving was created.  Note construction on the base...several blocks of wood were combined to form a block, and shrinkage of the center piece has been filled at some time with putty or plaster.  Found in Pennsylvania.

A tip of the torch to Curley's Antiques who helped in obtaining this work.  

Statue of Liberty Folk Art Sculpture Collection Jim Linderman

Pen-Pricked Politician Did an Edison Electric Pen and Duplicator create this Hand?



Pen-pricked tracings have been used by quilters and embroidery creators for decades, though the art has pretty much died out.  It allows designs to be copied.  Above, a parlor game with someone using what could have been THE EDISON ELECTRIC PEN AND DUPLICATING MACHINE creates "Hand of prominent politician" which was apparently rubbed with orange chalk to create a stencil.

See the links HERE and HERE for more information

One from a set of seven original pieces  Collection Jim Linderman.  See also ECCENTRIC FOLK ART DRAWINGS OF THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES. Available in paperback and affordable ebook HERE.