Tuesday Treasures - July 23, 2024

 I was in need of a small bookcase for my room as some books had to be moved from the spare room to make space for someone temporarily staying there.  I looked at St. Vincent de Paul and found nothing.  So, I checked the Goodwill Outlet, aka Bins, and found a perfect one for $1.  In one of the breakables bins (not everything breakable is in these bins, but they do try to separate glass from general stuff) was an old wooden frame with what looked like an old photo of redwoods.  I didn't look closely at it, but for 10¢ a pound it was worth getting to check out at home.

The "photo" was actually a 1940s color rotogravure "Redwood Highway."  It was part of a Standard Oil promotion of give-away prints with purchase.  For a price customers could buy an album to keep them in.  There were 25 annually beginning in 1938.  I'm not sure when the promotion ended.  The 9 x 12 prints came mounted on cards with information about the scene on the back of the card. 

The color is still so bright, and the printing process so well done it does look like a photograph.  

What a surprise I found when I took the back off the frame.

FOUR other antique and/or vintage prints fell out!  FOUR!

Two were 1937 (copyright 1936 NRE Service Inc.) calendar pages of the Dionne Quintuplets.  If you aren't familiar with their story, it's a sad one.  They were famous as being the first quintuplets to have been known to survive infancy.  Natural quintuplets.  Surprise quintuplets.  Two are still living today at age 90. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionne_quintuplets

The Five Little Sweethearts of the World

The Dionne Quintuplets

Then, an 1880 H. Hallett & Co. print "Little Daisy."  She's quite brittle around the edges, but in better condition than many online, and her color is still good.

Lastly is this bright print with what looks like © K Co.  The only possibility I find is the Kellogg Brothers who were second only to Currier and Ives in commercial success from c1830 to the end of the 1800s.  "They issued decorative prints that became popular for domestic use in American homes." Wikipedia 

I like this one a lot.  It's been affixed (just a little at the top, so it will come off easily) to a part of a thin cardboard ad for Glostora, a mid '20s to late '30s hair product.  In later decades it was popular in Latin American countries.  So, that gives an idea of its age. 

I've found prints hidden behind other prints before, but only twice, and then there was only one print hidden.  Four is amazing!  I'd estimate the cost for the frame, with the glass that made it 10¢ a pound, about 25¢!