I've Got My Eye On You...

This Victorian trade card for eye salve is just plain creepy. Enjoy!

"Automatic Regulator" Victorian Trade Card Featuring Rat

One of the sub-genres of my collecting involves rats. I have a brood of 9 pet rats who reside in a 5-foot tall rat manor. I couldn't be happier to have these curious little buggers as pets. People who don't own rats usually aren't familiar with their docile demeanor, curious personalities, and overall friendliness to humans. Anyway, I saw this Victorian trade card at an antique show and picked it up, because it shows a rat riding a frog.

Overall, I haven't been able to find very many collectibles with rats so if anyone out there comes across something cool, let me know. I'm especially interested in antique books about rats and rat-catching. I have a great rat catching book in this blog's archives.

ZOZO: THE MAGIC QUEEN, Victorian Trade Card

I've tried to research this trade card for "Zozo the Magic Queen" but came up empty-handed. All I found was an etsy seller who uses that as her moniker. Apparently, this was some sort of stage show featuring women in risque garb (for the time) brandishing rifles. Whatever the case, I thought the piece was neat and felt like featuring it today in particular, because tonight I go to a local sideshow!

Victorian Trade Card Ad for Roller Skates

Victorian Trade Card Ad for Roller Skates

Perhaps the Most Disturbing Object in My Collection...

This Victorian trade card just might be the most bizarre/disturbing/creepy item in my entire collection. It certainly wasn't the most expensive item, but it's WAY up on the creepy hierarchy. I won't write any commentary, because this truly speaks for itself. As a Trevor Brown collector, I find this piece particularly intriguing.

"Female Infirmities" Victorian Trade Card

I picked up this Victorian trade card for it's mention of "female infirmities," and the image of a woman's face behind shattered glass. I haven't read up much on the idea of Victorian female "hysteria," but it seems like it was a catch-all "disorder" for any female who behaved in a way that was unexpected for the time. As someone who thinks that the idea of "female infirmities" is greatly exaggerated, I'm going to end with a quote from the movie "Jennifer's Body."

"PMS isn't real Needy, it was invented by the boy-run media to make us seem like we're crazy."

Old Woman v. Young Woman Metamorphic Illusion Trade Card

This is a cool Victorian trade card featuring the classic old woman/young woman metamorphic illusion. These types of illusion images were pretty popular in the era. "All is Vanity" was a popular image of a woman sitting at a vanity table and from a distance, the image looks like a skull. Another popular image featured a man and woman at a table and that also looks like a skull from a distance. I think today the most popular "illusion" image is the one in some novelty stores that shows what a woman looks like to a drunk man (i.e. pretty) versus what she looks like when he's sober (i.e. homely).