Tietjen's Pet - A Smokin' Bulldog

Tietjen's Pet

This is a commissioned piece from a long-time patron, who first purchased a piece of my art during the Western Heritage Artist's show and Sale six years ago. The name will be familiar to a number of artists that belong to the organization, as Beverly Tietjen was a founding member of the WHA.

By 1895, there were over 42,000 cigar companies in the U.S. Many, like Mr. Tietjen, sold various brands of cigars and tobacco products, but they also manufactured their own. Because of strict regulation of sales by the government, retail outlets could only purchase cigars by the box, and once the box was empty, they had to order a new box. The artwork is phenomenal, and the means by which it is produced is phenomenal as well. There is quite a collectible market for cigar labels - Charlie Russell had his own, and even promoted them in some of his art.

Original document

The above image is what the document looked like before I began to abuse it, somewhat. The erasures and line removes on most of this old paper that I encounter is excellent paper, and stands up to my abuse fairly well. There was a spindle hole on this one, but I'm really uncertain as to why. The pencil can be read, and he signed it in pencil as well, but I am having a hard time determining just exactly what he was seeking from Bateman & Switzer, to whom the note is addressed.

I could do cigar labels until the cows come home, but this one was a pleasure, as it came from my head, and the bulldog is from a brand called Bulldog. So - I copied it. When an original gets copied, it's a sign that the original was well done.

Watch Me Soak It.

Another commissioned cachet for a long-time patron of mine who happens to collect the first U. S. stamp celebrating the centennial of baseball. I've done a number of these for him, and I've still more to do. This particular image is from a tobacco card using a caricature representation of Hall of Fame power hitter Dan Brouthers.

I'm including a photo image I gleaned from the web while I was researching the tobacco card. I discovered that the artist apparently was unaware that Dan batted left his entire career. He dominated 19th-Century baseball by winning 5 batting titles and two home run titles during his career. Some little known facts about the man: He accidentally killed a fellow baseball player while sliding into home plate when he was 19 years old. He was the vice president of the first baseball players union. He briefly held the record for the most career home runs before it was broken by Babe Ruth.

Brownie Baseball

Occasionally I accept commissioned work to  supplement my passion for old paper. On top of that, I began to create collectibles in 1989, although it was unwittingly at the time. Having begun to put art work on envelopes in the mid Fifties after seeing the art of C. M. Russell, I had no idea that there were people who collected these little gems. I have posted a number of pieces of 'mail art' since I began publishing my blog, and looking for the mail art label HERE will keep you busy for awhile. Properly called first day covers, these regular envelopes carry stamps cancelled in the city where the stamp is first released for public sale, and in this case it was Cooperstown, New York.

In 1939, a person interested in creating a first day cover would have to send self-addressed envelopes and cash to cover the cost of the postage to the postmaster of the city where the stamp was to be released. I have three of these envelopes with the same name on them, and a little research informed me that Mr. Kleinod was a member of the American Philatelic Society as early as 1921.

As for the art work, it is a cigar label for the Beckett & Brown Company of Eastport, Maine, who sponsored and fielded a baseball team called the Brownie Nine. The cigars were a nickel. Before 1920, there were over 25,000 cigar manufacturers in the United States. Cigar sales were strictly regulated and taxed by the government, and the labels produced between 1880 and 1920 were works of art produced using a method of printing called stone lithography.

I urge those who are interested in the label as an art form to visit the Cigar Label Junkie for a virtual library of labels of every description. This is either my fourth or fifth cover that I have created for the same gentleman, and I have not run out of baseball related cigar labels quite yet.

Sugar Coated, Nickel Plated Ceegars

The Morris Brothers were here in Helena so early their business didn't even have an address, save for Main Street. This is a piece of billhead/letterhead that I acquired by trade from a patron who purchased one piece of J. H. McKnight paper from me, and commissioned me to put my art work on another similar piece which he supplied.

The only thing that the Morris Brothers didn't sell was whiskey, although I doubt that the whiskey was very far from their front door.

Star Play - PFF #49

  

This is a commissioned First Day Cover for Scott #855, Baseball Centennial issued in Cooperstown, New York, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The owner asked me to put art work on the cover from a Cigar box label, and I had several images to choose from. I thought it particularly pertinent as we leave September and enter October, leading up to the World Series. We just may see a few star plays, although since we don't watch television, I'll have to see highlights on the web.

My love of baseball goes back to a sand lot on which we played as youngsters, but I'm also a fan of old ball parks. In particular, Fenway Park in Boston. I had the pleasure of seeing a game more than several years ago between the Sox and the Athletics. It wasn't really much of a game, but I brought home a Sox cap that I break out about this time of the season. You never know!

Make sure you visit Beth Niquette's wonderful blog The Best Hearts Are Crunchy as she hosts another edition of Postcard Friendly Friday!

It Fills The Bill --- Literally

This is another piece of old paper like the two Geo. Miller pieces I picked up from Mary Patterson, although this piece came from Stuart MacKenzie in Chinook, Montana. It has a similar back story. I had visited Stuart's shop twice looking for old paper, and while there several months ago, he brought me this piece and said "You should be able to do something with this one". I rejected it immediately as too ornate and fancy for me. Before I left that day, Stuart said "How can you beat this piece of paper? It has everything you need on it. Couldn't you put a straw hat on this"? I once again gave it a rejection.

I no sooner got home from that trip and I was perusing the Cigar Label Junkie site, and LO! What to my wandering eyes did appear, but a stork with a seegar in its bill! Not only that, but five minutes later I found another label with a Jolly Good Fellow wearing a straw boater.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at Stuart's again, and this paper was at the top of my list. So there you have it. I think I'm going to have to stop looking so hard for old paper and let the stork deliver it from now on...

And, yes - I enhanced the vignette a little bit.

Curve King Cigars

I think this qualifies as old paper, since this cover was created in 1939. I was commissioned to put art work on this very collectible piece of paper, and in looking for Cigar Box art, I came across this baseball related inner box liner that I couldn't resist using. The owner of the paper was more than willing to let me use this image!