 Decorama—Holiday StylebyLaine Farley
Continuing the theme of deco bookmarks with windowpane designs from my last column, this column features those with holiday illustrations and sentiments. Once again, a highly stylized deco lady leads the way with her over-the-top costume reminiscent of Glenda the Good Witch and the Munchkin village. She winks at the viewer from beneath her fancy headdress and a fuchsia ribbon is threaded behind a snow covered lamp post in front of a snow covered purple house; purple houses were a common motif in deco designs for some reason. This bookmark has all the classic deco elements—whimsical images, brilliant colors and a great die-cut.
A more sedate design features two ladies in balloon skirted dresses that suggest an earlier period yet they have deco elements such as the stylized flowers. The windowpane cutout is bell-shaped but may represent a package held by the lady. Fortunately, this bookmark has a publisher’s name, A. M. Davis. Entering the greeting card industry in the early 1900s, Albert M. Davis was manager of a wholesale book house in Boston which imported greeting cards from Germany and England. He wrote a verse for his own line of Christmas cards in 1906 and eventually became a successful owner of his own company, producing greeting cards on post cards and folded cards until the 1920s. Ernest Dudley Chase describes him as follows in The Romance of Greeting Cards, p. 191: “He was endowed with an iron constitution, the ability to work hard and like it, a keen sense of what made a good card verse, an uncanny gift in the selection of assistants, and a business judgment which kept him for many years one of the foremost men in the industry.” While it is easy to find examples of his Christmas and other holiday greeting and post cards, bookmarks are rare. I have not seen this design or a similar one used in his other cards.
As I noted in the last column, couples in antebellum dress were a common but puzzling motif for this period. The style was particularly favored by Rust Craft as illustrated in these three examples. The couple strolling in the snow is the most similar to other deco themes with its stylized snowflakes and snow-covered house with the man and woman clearly in nineteenth-century dress. A woman in a frilly red dress plays a harp while her young man looks on with the holly border being only vaguely deco in style although the aqua or seafoam color of the background was favored in the deco era. The third example is a nice use of the windowpane design featuring a horse drawn carriage with people straight out of Charles Dickens. This bookmark abandons the ribbon for a jaunty red tassel. Rust Craft began in 1906 in Kansas City and later moved to Boston where they became known for producing artistic books, mottoes, bridge-related items and greeting cards.
Three examples use lantern and candle designs to good effect with the windowpane style. The candle with verse beginning “Slip me in your book” combines an embossed design of traditional holly with a few of the deco flowers and brightens it with a metallic silver background. Another silver-backed design titled “Merry Christmas” uses deco flowers but has a slightly Asian feel. It has lost its ribbon which would have shown through the slits of the lantern. It does have an inscription and date of 1927 on the reverse, helping to date the others of this style. The third example called “Happy Christmas” goes all out with a vibrant deco flower design around a large lantern, embellished even further with gold metallic. It came with a matching envelope but alas, no publisher or date.
Birds are a favorite theme in deco bookmarks and the Christmas designs are no exception. On “Christmas Day…” a little bluebird perches on a snow-covered birdhouse surrounded incongruously with bright deco flowers. With the same greeting as the silver lantern, a “Merry Christmas” design features a bird with flowers and a lamp with books, embossed and decorated with gold metallic highlights. Another little bluebird announces “I’ve come to mark your page for you…” while singing in front of a church window surrounded by deco flowers, holly and another whimsical fuchsia-like flower. And of course there is a parrot with deco flowers, although his perch is not cut out like the birthday parrot in the last column. He comes with a matching envelope.
The final example has a different feel to it even though it definitely has an art deco design and typography. It was copyrighted in 1913 by the Owen-Perry Art Co. I could only find that it was located in Portland, Maine and its president was George S. Owen, according to an announcement in The Bookseller, newsdealer and stationer, Volume 38, Feb 15, 1913, p. 134, which says the company “will manufacture and deal in post cards, art goods, etc .” Perhaps it was a modest local business. In Volume 44 of the same publication, there was a small announcement that it had been taken over by the Thompson Art Company also in Portland, Maine, best known for producing hand colored photographs. Frederick H. Thompson was the owner but committed suicide in 1909 not long after launching the business. His son, Frederick M. (1876-1923) continued operating the company until his death. The bookmark has the small initials “DEP,” presumably the designer but there are no clues to determine who it might have been. The green topiary in its elegant urn somehow reminds me of New York. I can imagine it in the Chrysler Building, a simple but fitting holiday decoration for the grandest of all deco buildings. And there is the charming inscription on the back “From your sprite.” This bookmark was found inside the Girl Scout Handbook, 1930 by Michael Popek, a bookseller who posts interesting things he finds in books. All of these deco windowpane bookmarks combine traditional holiday elements with distinctive deco themes. Even though their delicate ribbons have frayed or disappeared, their designs remain colorful, vibrant and charming. It must have been quite a treat to receive one of these as a holiday remembrance and to discover them later hiding in books that were read by cozy firesides. Bookmark specifications: A Merry Christmas [deco lady] Bookmark specifications: A Merry Christmas Bookmark [two ladies] Bookmark specifications: Christmas Bookmark [couple in snow] Bookmark specifications: Christmas Bookmark [couple with harp] Bookmark specifications: Christmas Bookmark [carriage] Bookmark specifications: Slip me in your book, please do [candle] Bookmark specifications: Merry Christmas [lantern] Bookmark specifications: A Happy Christmas [lantern] Bookmark specifications: Christmas Day every day…[birdhouse] Bookmark specifications: Christmas Day every day…[bird and lamp] Bookmark specifications: I’ve come to mark your page for you… [bluebird in window Bookmark specifications: This bookmark bears A cheery little greeting… [parrot] Bookmark specifications: While Christmas joys are calling you I'll Keep your place till you read anew [topiary]
Laine Farley is a digital librarian who misses being around the look, feel and smell of real books. Her collection of over 3,000 bookmarks began with a serendipitous find while reviewing books donated to the library. Fortunately, her complementary collection of articles and books about bookmarks provides an excuse for her to get back to libraries and try her hand at writing about bookmarks. Contact Laine.
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