A serious question for all of you happy party hosts and hostesses out there: When serving up liquid refreshments to your thirstiest guests, what kind of tray are you actually using? If your answer is, "Not the one in today's AEET post", then Mr. Karswell is here to rather roughly remove your pathetic hosting patches and badges! Not so happy now, are ya? But seriously, is this not the best party tray of all time? That amazing, midcentury cartooning and coloring by Joe Carpenter, not to mention the beautiful hand lettering, sure hits it hard in all the right places, with everyone blowin' 3+ sheets to the super soused winds! I'm predicting someone is seriously gonna need a couple of real angel kisses in the morning just to manage a fracturing fall right outta bed!
6 comments:
Super cute. I like how the artist gets in all the cartoon-y drunk signifiers ... bright cheeks, half closed eyes, red noses etc.
I like the Manhattan guy the best, there's a lot of energy and movement in it. All around great piece of work and the colors are bright and the black is deep,
Good job, I suspect, Joe Carpenter, who sneaks in his signature!
I am relinquishing my girl-scout hostess badge because I do NOT have such a tray and therefore everything I’ve ever served has been pure sham-pain. I’m so ashamed. But these little characters with their little recipes are what true champagne wishes and caviar dreams are made of!
Hahaha “sham-pain” omg… well, I can’t say I know much about your liquor serving techniques, but I do know you can whip up some tasty finger foods in a bumper pinch— alas, your hostess badge stays! ;)
Who’s familiar with Joe Carpenter, and any additional works of art?
Why can't they make modern versions of this tray nowadays? Its useful and classy at the same time. Substitute plastic for metal to lower the cost of production and sell them online, there are buyers for reproductions of 50's and 60's items.
This is a great tray. I really like how deep the sides are, and would consider serving oysters or some other kind of cold shooters, since it would clearly handle all the necessary crushed ice. But that would cover up all the art.
My own tray is a rectangular Italian cafeteria model painted with a rather startled-looking deep blue panther picnicking on a red blanket under an exotic south Asian tree, complete with parrot. I have no idea where we got it, but we display it behind the sink all the time like the pinnacle of tasteful refinement that it isn't.
The art on this one is, of course, excellent. I quibble with many of the recipes, though. They had interesting practices back in the mid-century, and their drink preferences tended to be way sweeter than what is in vogue today--and what was often originally intended when these cocktails were invented. Some if that is because prohibition inured Americans to such terrible black market spirits that too much fruit and other sugar became a necessity. But a three-to-one "dry" martini mix would have made James Bond laugh even back when this tray was being produced. I make mine six-to-one, and I'm considered to be heavy on the vermouth. All that fruit in they have in the Old Fashioned is an outrage to my adopted Kentucky sensibilities, but the the piece of illustration featuring it is delightful. I also like the Creme de Menthe guy.
I have another much older tray up next— all the way from the 1904 World’s Fair, in fact! Thanks again for all of the drunken comments!
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