Postcard
Playthings Past Museum Ltd.
Category
Ephemera
Date
Unknown
Materials
Card
Measurements
Each postcard (min) - 140 mm (length); 86 mm (width), Each postcard (max) - 100 mm (width); 200 mm (length)
Place of origin
Godshill
Order this imageCollection
Sudbury Hall Museum of Childhood, Derbyshire
NT 668118
Summary
This record contains racial stereotype and caricature, retained here in the interest of learning and historical research. A collection of five postcards printed with photographs of dolls and automata, 20th century, consisting of: A postcard printed with a coloured photograph of a Victorian automaton with pull-along dog, the doll wearing a red and black dress and carrying a parasol, standing before a blue door. The verso printed 'The Treasure House Museum, Godshill, Isle of Wight, Gilchrist Collection'. A postcard printed with a coloured photograph cut from a card poster depicting an automaton, the Fruit Seller, manufactured by Gustave Vichy (1839-1904). The automaton in the form of a man wearing silk livery and holding a tray of fruit, each fruit opening to reveal mechanised contents (a monkey's head, a pair of dancing figures, a mouse). Here the automaton's head turns to proper left and the central fruit is open, revealing the pair of dancing figures. A printed caption stapled below the image. Two identical postcards printed with black and white photographs of the Fruit Seller by Gustave Vichy, here the right fruit is open to reveal a monkey's head. A postcard printed with a black and white photograph of bisque-headed doll, French, c. 1865. The doll dressed in a 'green silk gown edged with black'.
Makers and roles
Playthings Past Museum Ltd., copyright holder Gilchrist Collection , copyright holder