Did you know Tiffany & Company made playing cards? A new deck of Tiffany cards is about thirty bucks, but there's a deck from 1879 available on eBay with an opening bid of $1,200.
The 1879 deck was designed by C.E. Carrylis, who, according to the seller, was "without questions the most skillful and artistic of the American transformation deck makers."
The Tiffany Harlequin Playing Cards have clever witticisms and the court cards are modified in a "humorous manner."
The Museum of Modern Art will present a major exhibition exploring the full scale of renowned filmmaker Tim Burton's career, both as a director and concept artist for live-action and animated films, and as an artist, illustrator, photographer, and writer. The exhibition will be on view from November 22, 2009, through April 26, 2010.
Tracing the current of Burton's visual imagination—from his earliest childhood drawings through his mature work in film—the exhibition Tim Burton will bring together over 700 examples of rarely or never-before-seen drawings, paintings, storyboards, moving-image works, puppets, maquettes, costumes, and cinematic ephemera, and includes an extensive film series spanning Burton's 27-year career. The exhibition explores how Burton has taken inspiration from sources in pop culture and reinvented Hollywood genre filmmaking as an expression of personal vision, garnering him an international audience of fans and influencing a generation of young artists working in film, video, and graphics.
Tim Burton is organized by Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, and Jenny He, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Film, with Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.
Magliozzi states: "There is no other living filmmaker possessing Tim Burton's level of accomplishment and reputation whose full body of work has been so well hidden from public view. Seeing so much that was previously inaccessible in a museum context should serve to fuel renewed appreciation and fresh appraisal of this much-admired artist."
Organized in collaboration with Burton, the exhibition presents artworks and objects drawn primarily from the artist's personal archive, as well as studio archives and the private collections of Burton's collaborators. Included are little-known drawings, paintings, and sculptures created in the spirit of contemporary Pop Surrealism, as well as work generated during the conception and production of his films, such as original The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride puppets; Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, and Sleepy Hollow costumes; and even severed-head props from Mars Attacks! Also featured are the first public display of his student art and earliest nonprofessional films.
According to a story on Antiques and the Arts Online, someone made off with Ted William's 1970 hunting license. The caper took place hours before the license was to be auctioned by the Knotty Pine Auction Service.
In his story, W.A. Demers wrote:
The license, issued to Theodore Williams in 1970 by the state of New Hampshire, was included with a hat to which it was attached and various notes Williams had made concerning fishing spots and friends' phone numbers. Whoever took the license — encased in an aluminum pinback carrier — and the notes left the hat and various other fisherman's flair, such as pins and tied flies, behind. The presale estimate on the lot was $300/500. Pappas said he reported the theft to the Swanzey Police Department the following day, because he wanted to make sure the items had not just migrated to another grouping of ephemera within the gallery.
The license was part of a living estate sale of Delores Wettach Williams—the legendary slugger's third wife.
An upcoming Christie's Pop Culture sale will be highlighted by an exciting discovery of handwritten lyrics submitted by the teenage Bob Dylan for publication in his camp newspaper, at Herzl Camp in Northwestern Wisconsin in 1957 (estimate: $10,000-15,000). According to a Christie's press release, the lyrics entitled Little Buddy are among Bob Dylan's earliest known lyrics to come to auction, and are a revised version of a song by the Country singer-songwriter Hank Snow.
The editor of the The Herzl Herald, who was a peer of Dylan's, preserved the lyrics for over fifty years and recently donated it back to the camp to support its capital campaign fund. Proceeds from the sale of the lyrics will be used to fund maintenance and upkeep at the Herzl Camp. The two-page lyrics, composed on both sides of a single sheet of paper, are written in blue ink and signed by Bobby Zimmerman, Dylan's given name. The lyrics reveal the strong influence of Country music upon the young Dylan, who is regarded as one of the most influential figures in the 20th century, both musically and culturally.
According to a USA Today story, after more than 20 years of planning, the first installment of Neil Young's multimedia library has arrived. Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1: 1963-1972
Everything includes lots of ephemera. This seems to be a trend, now that technology makes it possible, to include ephemera in these types of releases. Pearl Jam did very much the same thing when it released Ten
It's not surprising that Young, 63, would be at the forefront of this trend. He's a well-known collector of tars and toy trains, and, according to the USA Today story, he "was meticulous about hoarding and cataloging his recordings and ephemera."
According to an item in the UK's Independent, Mick Jones's Rock & Roll Public Library is currently showing at the Chelsea College of Art & Design. The iconic guitarist from The Clash
The Independent's Dylan Jones writes: "Two summers ago, I saw Jones's entire collection in his lock-up in Acton, where Carbon/Silicon record. Having just taught me the rudiments of The Clash's "Complete Control" (laughing at my inability to master the opening riff), he took me on a tour of his shelves, showing off his first editions, his old vinyl, gig flyers, comic books, road signs, guitars, rare albums and Clash ephemera to keep an old punk like me happy for days. 'I never meant to create anything like a library, he told me, but one day I just sort of realized that, having never thrown anything away for the last 40-odd years, I actually had a pretty good history of pop culture in the 20th century. I suppose a lot of people might think this stuff is rubbish, but it's all meant something to me.'"
Over at Mark's Ephemera blog, there's a great post about former Chicago Bull's stand-out B.J. Armstrong. I only mention it because I'd once written a post about Armstrong, and I thought the two posts, read together, made for a compelling portrait of this often overlooked Bull's player from the Glory Days of the franchise.
Image from Mark's Ephemera Blog.
The other day I noticed that my site was being aggressively searched (through the Lijit widget in the left-hand sidebar) for such things as "nudes" and "erotica." In fact, those were the top two searches on the site. Which is odd, really, since this site contains no nudity or erotica to speak of.
I'm being slightly disingenuous here: There are, of course, a few posts that touch on adult subject matter, including today's 1958 Bathing Beauty calendar. After all, when it comes to the ephemera: pinups, magazines, posters, postcards, and other vintage ephemera does sometimes touch upon the riskque, and that's why this blog isn't recommended or written for children.
For those of you searching for adult-oriented ephemera, check out the past posts I've linked below. But I caution, you'll likely not be titillated. You won't find any "nudes" or "erotica," no matter how deeply you search this site, although I invite you to do so.
Old buttons (a.k.a., pin backs) are great ephemera items. This rare, 1960's Hoyle Pin Back Button Display
When I was in high school, a friend had an amazing set of early 80's punk rock pin backs that I envied. He had the buttons festooned on an old leather jacket he wore. I thought it made for a cool look. He purchased the buttons at a funky record store (Rolling Stone Records) in Chicago that sold the pins, along with bootleg Springsteen albums, posters, and other stuff that our parents thought was pure junk and a waste of money.
But I digress...the topic of today's post is pin backs.
If you're into pin backs or want to learn more about this nifty pop culture ephemera, check out any of the following posts, including a great interview with a world-class pin back collector.
Comic Pinback Collector Interview
Ashevegas ran an item submitted to the site by editorial cartoonist David Cohen. As a fan of Kenny's, I thought I'd share part of what David wrote and feature his cartoon in tribute to the world's tallest college basketball player. "Kenny George took UNC-A to the Big Dance last year, and helped raise the level of roundball all over this part of the state. He led the nation in field goal percentage and was featured (along with UNC-A and Asheville) in many national publications and broadcasts. And over the summer, Kenny had to have part of a foot amputated due to a runaway infection after some surgery. Even with the state of prosthetics and cybernetic limbs it is doubtful that he will be able to play basketball again. He is scheduled to come back to UNC-A in January to finish up his degree and move on with the rest of his life."
We only had Kenny, who stands 7'7" with a wingspan of more than 100 inches, for a one magical season. He was an inspiration to those who had the rare opportunity to see him play live. When he entered the game, it changed. I've never seen a player--not even Michael Jordan
I was deeply saddened when I learned that Kenny had suffered a likely career-ending injury in the off-season. It was a blow to the entire Asheville community, and I join David in wishing Kenny a bright future in whatever he does next.
