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1840-1907 Currier & Ives Lithographs of our military


hhbooker2
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:rolleyes: 1899 Lithograph of United States Marine Corps and Navy uniforms.

Those are great...

 

Every so often I'd see a few works on paper showing individual soldiers (etc) from various 19th century war eras, always wanted to start collecting those.

 

BTW, I saw a documentary about Warner Bros. film studio last night. Apropos of this thread, I noticed in several of their period films cast during the 19th century that you can see Currier & Ives or that type of print on the walls of the room sets sometimes.

 

Quite an interesting observation - I'm willing to bet that those prints were originals. Back in the 1930s when the films were being made, such prints would be selling for (maybe) as much as $10 each or less. Easy to get ahold of for the prop departments.

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Those are great...

 

Every so often I'd see a few works on paper showing individual soldiers (etc) from various 19th century war eras, always wanted to start collecting those.

 

BTW, I saw a documentary about Warner Bros. film studio last night. Apropos of this thread, I noticed in several of their period films cast during the 19th century that you can see Currier & Ives or that type of print on the walls of the room sets sometimes.

 

Quite an interesting observation - I'm willing to bet that those prints were originals. Back in the 1930s when the films were being made, such prints would be selling for (maybe) as much as $10 each or less. Easy to get ahold of for the prop departments.

 

BLUE HAWK: Here are a few more lithographs of WW1 soldiers cut out and with a piece of wood at the bottom for them to stand up. Interesting that they spend a lot of money for background props, more than they pay the movie extras. ermm.gif Sarge Booker

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'

I'm curious what you mean by that?

 

 

BLUE HAWK: When I worked as a motion picture EXTRA, we were paid forty dollars a day, Steven Soielberg paid more for the props that were on the set of "HOOK." We were fed very cheaply with potatoes we baked in the microwave oven, celery and carrot sticks, day-old white bread and peanutbutter and coffee. They would only wash our costumes after 2 weeks. Extras are treated about like movie props, just there for background and I used to wonder why some extras were hoping to become actors or really see themselves in the background, but they were a blur as the cameras focused on the actors, not us. We were divided into groups of 12 and a group leader herded us around and spoke down to us as if we were small naughty children. The props we carried often were really antique flintlock pistols and cutlasses. Spiekberg wanted the props to be authentic like those lithographs. Here are some more neat WW1 or post-war lithos of soldier cut-outs. ;) Sarge

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BLUE HAWK: When I worked as a motion picture EXTRA, we were paid forty dollars a day, Steven Soielberg paid more for the props that were on the set of "HOOK." We were fed very cheaply with potatoes we baked in the microwave oven, celery and carrot sticks, day-old white bread and peanutbutter and coffee. They would only wash our costumes after 2 weeks. Extras are treated about like movie props, just there for background and I used to wonder why some extras were hoping to become actors or really see themselves in the background, but they were a blur as the cameras focused on the actors, not us. We were divided into groups of 12 and a group leader herded us around and spoke down to us as if we were small naughty children. The props we carried often were really antique flintlock pistols and cutlasses. Spiekberg wanted the props to be authentic like those lithographs. Here are some more neat WW1 or post-war lithos of soldier cut-outs. ;) Sarge

Dang! I didn't know about that!

 

The cut-outs are interesting. Were they toys or what?

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Dang! I didn't know about that!

 

The cut-outs are interesting. Were they toys or what?

 

thumbsup.gif BLUE HAWK: Probably like the lead toy solders, except less durable? thumbsup.gif Sarge Booker

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:unsure: Captain W.J.Baxter and Rear Admiral Richard Wainwright (From a set of 24 tobacco trading card lithographs of famous naval officers in 1910). Lieutenant of Infantry, U.S. Army, Fez Cork Tip Cigarettes litho. Private of Infantry wearing khaki, also from Fez Corp Tip Cigarettes. :unsure: Sarge Booker

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I wonder how true to authentic those illustrations of uniforms might be?

 

Pretty close, I'd guess?

 

BLUE HAWK: Actually the illustrations are way off from what they actually looked like as you'll see what they were supposed to be like as illustrated by Henry Alexander Ogden (1856-1934) and Hugh Charles McBarron Jr. (1902-1992). Not always close, unfortunately! pinch.gif

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What was that one bottom left that looks like a tiny carpet used for?

 

Kensetta Tobacco Co., a tobacco silk, lithographed on silk to look like a miniature blanket instead of being lithograhed on cardboard, fewer survived as silk rots quicker than paper pulp. :lol:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Since people were wondering about paper soldiers, I guess I'll chime in....

 

I've been researching these pretty extensively for the past few years. Really since I was a little kid, I was fascinated by paper soldiers, I always designed them myself for usage in my war games and such. Paper soldiers, originally, were basically the equivalent of lead soldiers but quite a bit cheaper. A French company, Epinal, along with a few German and English companies famously produced huge numbers of paper soldiers during the Victorian era. They were far more popular than expensive lead toys, but as they were less durable they usually ended up destroyed and finding surviving examples is almost impossible for these early sets.

 

In 1890 or so W. Britain invented a process for making lead soldiers called 'hollowcasting' in which the mold is spun around to coat the mold in lead, rather than just fill it, making lead soldier lighter and much more economical. With Britain's Company and European companies making similar figures, paper soldiers were basically priced out of the market.

 

In the 1920's and 30's you will see many one-sided paper soldiers, unaffixed to bases, that were used in knock-'em-down type shooting games. The last gasp of the paper soldier comes in the 1930's and in the 40's, especially in Southern Europe, but also in the United States where the Depression made them practical again, and where WWII made metal conservation important.

 

Basing for these figures varies. Some early figures seem to be usable just as printed when cut out, many obviously require wooden blocks. Wooden blocks with slits cut into them seem to have been quite common, although later on nailing down figures as shown here became more and more popular.

 

I collect these figures and have long had a great interest in them. I'm guessing that your figures probably date to the early to mid 1930's.

 

~TS

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  • 4 months later...
pinch.gif 1899 Artillery officers, NCOs, and enlisted uniforms. The reason for the carpets could have been for the lead soldiers to wipe their feet after playing outside in the mud? Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! w00t.gif:blink::lol:

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Neat thread Sarge, and I've enjoyed the conversation between Bluehawk and yourself. Lots of similarities with you two guys and myself as I've made a living for 35 years now by drawing. Not so much fine art, but years as a technical illustrator and more recently as a draftsman. Only now-a-days we do it all with a computer. To tell the truth, I do miss the days of working as an illustrator on the drawing board, but at my age wouldn't go back to doing it that way. The eyes not being what they once were and the back can't take the long standing over the old board. Of course technical illustration isn't as glamorous as fine art, but it paid the bills for many years. I even taught Technical Illustration at the local Jr. College for a few years.

I did dabble into fine art by doing both airbrush painting and pen & ink of aviation subjects. Always had this thing for airplanes, especially military birds, but selling paintings of them is VERY competitive and I had almost no sucess in that. Fine art is hinged on contacts and having a "name", which I never got. An aviation art gallery in Dallas had some of my stuff for several years, but never sold any even tho the people there liked it and said it was good stuff.

Sarge, I appreciate you posting all this neat stuff on this forum. It's nice to see and have as references.

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