Saturday Morning, January 25, 2025
Snap Judgments
Hold on. Hold on! The art director screamed. Makeup now! My dear, please change into an azure sweater. This blue shade isn't working. Clashes with the car. A serene scene burst into pandemonium as models and assistants scurried about.
Trenton Fair Grounds
REO automobiles, ca. 1906, 8" x 10"
Lighting! Lighting! Too much shadow across the car hood. Come on people. Let's go! The advertising world. Each prop, each frame, each nuance, all scripted. Serendipity not. Spontaneity never. Impromptu nada. All efforts devoted to the one photograph, the photograph. The right one, millions. The wrong one, pocket change.
The hook. The sell. The con. Video is far worse. The sole purpose is to convince the viewer what they are seeing is true and they see themselves in the role. Success the underlying message. Adulation in limelight sells.
Albumen cabinet card, by O. Pierre Havens (1838-1912), Folks Al [sic] Home, 5" x 8 ½"
Selection of forty photo cards from mounted academy board to cabinet and postcard size.
F Stop
Professional photography today is focused. One hundred years ago, many professional photographers were paid to record life as it was, in black and white. A home. A business. Captured images gifted to us. Some are humorous. Some unsettling. But all freeze moments in time.
Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn & cauldron bubble
On cabinet card stock, 8" x 10"
We witness them in the gallery throughout the year. No razzle dazzle. Simply truth. Dry goods stores. Auto shops. Proud owners and employees lined up. For us, they are invaluable primary sources. Our one chance to actually touch their world. This Saturday we have a handful of photographs from America's turn-of-the-century. Life as it was, not as we think it was. Refreshing.
The Last Stop
Along with these photographic images, we are selling a vast collection of model trains. Here we find another connection with our past. For decades, from the late nineteenth century until, well actually today, model train tables have been the staple in many homes. All born from our tremendous Age of Steel. Hard to explain why this interest has survived. We have been traveling commercially in airplanes for a century. Yet, the popularity of a once all-encompassing period remains.
Locomobile (pre-1910). Locomobile Dealership
The General Motor Car Co., mural of auto race on facade, 9" x 7"
W. J. Groeninger, 12" x 13 ½" Baltimore photographer.
Train layouts, like dollhouses, are personal. Each enthusiast chooses his platform theme carefully. This particular collection filled a large basement. When he ran out of room, he tiered the track. A second level. Hanging shelves high above supported a freight line. The only spot he missed was the basement steps. Guess he couldn't find a funicular rail. Industrial zones. Villages. Towns. All with individual messages dotting the landscape. The enjoyment of it all. The absolute separation from the outside world, a zone all of us need. But why preach to the choir. All aboard!
Doors open at 8 AM. Auctions starts at 9 AM. PA AU 1265L [bb]