With everything under control in our previous post (or is it?), it's now time to address the flooding problem we're facing in the basement! Yep, just when you thought you'd seen the last of these old novelty gag gift boxes, here we go with another one! And once again, the art inside and out is quite stellar and very funny, while the tiny added prop really smells, errr sells, the 'ol twisteroo punchline.
It may be the 4th of July here in America today, but is everything, in fact, under control? That was hardly an issue back when this funny old novelty gag gift box was created nearly a half century or so ago. Lovely artwork on the inside and out though, with some very cute, doll-sized clothing to keep everything from REALLY going out of control! So who's laughing now, right? Riiiiiight...
Check out this beautifully old, late 1800's, German Polyphon turntable style, music box I saw the other day. With it's lever-wind mechanism, metal disc, plus a colorful, hand painted scene inside the lid, Polyphon's typically have a concealed storage compartment underneath which holds more discs as well. This single disc, though a bit warped, still worked and sounded great, but someone in the same room as me wouldn't stop yappin', so the video I shot was useless. Instead, listen to a similar one via Youtube that someone else kindly uploaded-- CLICK HERE.
If you saw my previous post HERE where I swapped out the dull sports themed backgrounds of cheap, dime store, handheld pinballs from the 60's and 70's (with much prettier vintage pin-ups!), well, I've made another one out of an old football game. And this time I've brought in the late, great Vincent Price for something a bit spookier and fun. Fans of the 1974 British horror film classic, Madhouse, will undoubtably recognize the face under all of that monstery make-up. And no, the film is still tons more exciting than the game, but it looks extra cool how everything lined up with the score cups. Now, play ball!
You can typically still find those old handheld pinball games they used to sell at dime stores back in the day for pretty cheap. The other day I scored two ultra lame, very faded ones with snoozy sports themes like boring ass basketball, and tiresome tennis-- YAWN! A buck 'n a quarter each and I already knew exactly what I was gonna do with 'em as soon as I got home. The cardboard image backing usually just slides right out, only held in place by a couple of plastic clips which you can easily maneuver around. The great thing about these two games is that the backing card image is exactly the same size as a postcard, and knowing that I have a huge collection of much more interesting subject matter in those same, manageable dimensions, I immediately got to work swappin' them both out. The only trimming required was at the bottom right corner of each, you know, to get around the pinball flipper. I'm sure you'll agree that these are much more fun now!
Two sides to a coin, and when flipping it competitively, you're always gonna come up aces with this one! A funny old novelty coin that evens out the playing field-- even the loser can walk away happy!
Shell art, or the art of combining real sea shells with other elements to form a pleasing knick-knack was a very popular, do-it-yourself project pastime during the Victorian era. I recently found this lovely Nouveau example with a gorgeous bisque sculpted female head, long flowing hair, and a flower, all arranged on top of a large scallop. Also of note is the hand painted, personal "Merry Christmas" holiday inscription, with what appears to be someone's name (Lilliya? --or maybe it says "village"), possibly the word "Illinois" under that, and finally, an early 1900 date with (unfortunately) the last number smudged into oblivion. I'm really hoping it's a 1904 World's Fair souvenir piece! If you Google "Victorian shell art" you'll see lots of other examples, most notably jewelry, Valentines, trinket box mosaics, etc... this one is quite unique, and much better arranged than the previous shell art piece I found last year at an estate sale (see last image below.)
Speaking of good 'ol Dogpatch U.S.A. (see previous post HERE) there were a number of different Lil Abner and Daisy Mae paper doll sets from the early 40's, and the one I have featured today is, I believe, the second one released (the dolls in this set were for sure, but I'm actually missing the box they came in.) Anyway, this set was also much more faithful to the look of Al Capp's characters as they appeared in the comic strips, whereas the previous set seemed to have been created by someone else entirely --Google it if you don't believe me. There was also a paper doll set released featuring extra fancy, high falootin' duds for a night out in the big city or something. In any event, this giant clear baggy that I scored seems to have ALL the clothes from all of the sets produced, and knowing that not a single person out there gives two hoots about seeing Abner, Mammy, and especially Pappy in their own various outfits, let us now turn this post into what we all REALLY want-- a delectable Daisy Mae fashion show! Also included were a bunch of various hats and purses, but I left most of those out as they didn't seem to be designed with a clue about how they'd actually look on Daisy's head or arm correctly. Also missing: quite a few pairs of pants, as you'll note towards the end of the post, --but of course in dazzlin' Daisy style, this just makes her outfits all the more fetching-- though I'm sure dim bulb Abner still would have never even noticed!
