Rachel Strong by Léon Bakst 1924 Postcard | Zazzle #Sold!

Orientation: Postcard

• Dimensions: 4.25″ x 5.6″ (portrait) or 5.6″ x 4.25″ (landscape)
• Full color CMYK print process
• Double sided printing for no additional cost
• Postage rate: $0.34

Paper Type: Matte

The most popular paper choice, Matte’s eggshell texture is soft to the touch with a smooth finish that provides the perfect backdrop for your chosen designs.

• Light white, uncoated matte finish with an eggshell texture
• Paper is easy to write on and won’t smudge
• Made and printed in the USA

Source: Rachel Strong by Léon Bakst 1924 Postcard | Zazzle

Take care and keep laughing!

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“The Louise Brooks Tattoo” by Sarah Vernon | Redbubble #Sold!

Features / Hat Heads 25 March 2014 / Inspired by Edward Steichen’s headshot of Hollywood actress Gloria Swanson covered in lace (Museum of Modern Art). / Photoshop / Louise Brooks: Hello-Tuesday / Wallpaper: MGB-Stock /

The still is from a 1928 film, Beggars of Life, where Brooks plays a girl who disguises herself in beggar’s clothing to escape the police after killing her abusive stepfather. Directed by William Wellman, it also stars Wallace Beery, Richard Arlen and Roscoe Karns, and was based on a book by Jim Tully, published in 1924.

• Buy this artwork on home decor, stationery, bags, and more.

Source: “The Louise Brooks Tattoo” by Sarah Vernon | Redbubble

N.B. I’m not currently responding to comments or visiting blogs because of ill-health but I much appreciate your support.

Take care and keep laughing!

Hollywood Vintage Gloria Postcard | Zazzle #Sold

Inspired by Edward Steichen’s portrait of Hollywood actress Gloria Swanson covered in lace (Museum of Modern Art).

Orientation: Postcard

Create your own vacation-worthy postcards right here. Any view you’ve seen, any monument you’ve fallen in love with, can all be added to our postcards with our personalization tool. Craft touching, hand-written correspondence while on your next road trip!

• Dimensions: 4.25″ x 5.6″ (portrait) or 5.6″ x 4.25″ (landscape)
• Full color CMYK print process
• Double sided printing for no additional cost
• Postage rate: $0.34

Paper Type: Semi-Gloss

A thin, smooth paper designed for photo printing with the optimal color vibrancy —a solid choice for all your printing needs.

• Bright white, semi-gloss finish
• Semi-gloss finish helps photos pop
• 40% post-consumer content
• Made and printed in the USA

Source: Hollywood Vintage Gloria Postcard | Zazzle

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The Hidden Art Deco Tunnel Underneath the New Yorker Hotel – New York, New York | Atlas Obscura

Talking of Art Deco, as we were for the Valentine Parisienne post, did you know about this tunnel under the New Yorker Hotel?

The beautiful tunnel that ran from the lobby to Penn Station is still hidden underneath 34th Street.

Source: The Hidden Art Deco Tunnel Underneath the New Yorker Hotel – New York, New York | Atlas Obscura

First Night Design | Rachel Strong by Léon Bakst 1924 #Cards #Prints | First Night Design

FROM THE ARCHIVE 28 August 2015

The Russian designer and painter Léon Bakst (1866–1924), born Lev Samuilovich Rozenberg, is more generally known for his luscious costume and set designs for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes as witness S…

Source: First Night Design | Rachel Strong by Léon Bakst 1924 #Cards #Prints | First Night Design

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First Night Design | Chinese Empress on Her Throne #Repost

FROM THE ARCHIVE 13th May 2014

Chinese Empress on Her Throne © First Night Design

While I have not specified which empress this is in the title, she was actually the Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi  or Cixi (1835-1908) and one of the most formidable of figures. According to King’s…

Source: First Night Design | Chinese Empress on Her Throne | First Night Design

Berenice Abbott (1898-1991), Vintage Photos of New York City | FROM THE BYGONE

In the summer of 2014, I posted a marvellous photograph of Penn Station by Berenice Abbott. Here are many more treats, including Penn.

Photograph of Berenice Abbott (left) was taken by Hank O’Neal at his Downtown Sound Studio in New York City, 18 November 1979 [Wikimedia]

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Manhattan, New York, by Berenice Abbott (1930s)

Berenice Abbott (1898 – 1991), née Bernice Abbott, was an American photographer best known for her black-and-white photography of New York City architecture and urban design of the 1930’s. Ab…

Source: Berenice Abbott (1898-1991), Vintage Photos of New York City | FROM THE BYGONE

Gyula Halász (1899-1984) | Tal faràs, tal trobaràs

Source: Gyula Halász (1899-1984) | Tal faràs, tal trobaràs

Brassaï: The Eye of Paris

“My ambition has always been to show the everyday city as if we were discovering it for the first time.”

Brassaï (pseudonym of Gyula Halász) was born in Hungary and came to Paris in 1924, working first as a journalist and then embracing photography, but it was the Paris of the 1930s that came to form the bedrock of his work. Walking the city streets at night, Brassaï discovered a previously unseen world and captured it on camera. He shows us every face and every facet, from tough guys and showgirls to prostitutes and pleasure-seekers, from the bustling cafés and dance halls to the stillness of deserted streets and mist-shrouded monuments. Through his eyes, Paris becomes a world of shadows, in which light, the prerequisite for any photograph, is reduced to…

Source: Gyula Halász (1899-1984) | Tal faràs, tal trobaràs

On this day: the first issue of The New Yorker | In Times Gone By…

The first issue of The New Yorker was published on the 21st of February, 1925. The original cover illustration was created by Rea Irvin.

Source: On this day: the first issue of The New Yorker | In Times Gone By…

First Night Design | The Louise Brooks Tattoo Take 2 #AlteredVintage

Buy The Louise Brooks Tattoo Take 2 © Sarah Vernon from Redbubble

It’s time for another of my Edward Steichen-like Hollywood makeovers. When I’m in need of some glamour, I head straight for the silent movie headshots of the 1920s, especially as found on Hello Tuesday at Deviant Art, which is where I discovered this photograph of Louise Brooks.

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“I never gave away anything without wishing I had kept it; nor kept anything without wishing I had given it away.”
― Louise Brooks

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Some of you may remember that I was originally inspired by Edward Steichen’s famous photograph of actress Gloria Swanson covered in lace (Museum of Modern Art).  I’ve already done one such of Louise Brooks and this is ‘Take 2’!

In what one might say is now time-honoured fashion, I overlaid Brooks with this lace effect vintage wallpaper from MGB-Stock.

Buy The Louise Brooks Tattoo Spiral Notebook © Sarah Vernon from Redbubble

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“Most beautiful dumb girls think they are smart and get away with it, because other people, on the whole, aren’t much smarter.”
― Louise Brooks

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For more Hollywood Tattoo makeovers, click here.

Available at the following galleries:
Redbubble
Crated
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America
Fine Art England
Saatchi Art

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Rachel Strong by Léon Bakst 1924 #Cards #Prints

Rachel Strong by Léon Bakst 1924 © First Night Vintage

The Russian designer and painter Léon Bakst (1866–1924), born Lev Samuilovich Rozenberg, is more generally known for his luscious costume and set designs for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes as witness Schéhérazade. When I discovered his magnificent portrait of Rachel Strong, the future Countess Henri de Buazhelen, on Wikimedia, I was entranced and knew I had to sell it on First Night Vintage.  What I wouldn’t do to be dressed thus — such elegance. If I had the means and the money, I would get gifted photographer James Hall of Just Add Pictures, whose recreations of classics I have enjoyed, to recreate this portrait with me and my dog! I can dream.

Who was Rachel Strong? Apart from marrying Count Henri de Buazhelen, I have been able to find nothing of note about either of them, which is a shame. If anyone comes across a snippet of information, do let me know.

Available at the following galleries:
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America
Fine Art England

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Chinese Empress on Her Throne

Chinese Empress on Her Throne © First Night Design

While I have not specified which empress this is in the title, she was actually the Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi  or Cixi (1835-1908) and one of the most formidable of figures. According to King’s College, she ‘was famed for her beauty and charm’.

The original empress image from a 1920s edition of The Children’s Encyclopaedia

These were not the least of her qualities, apparently, since she ‘was power hungry, ruthless and profoundly skilled in court politics’, rising from the middle class of Manchu society to become a concubine of Emperor Hsien-Feng and the only one to bear him a son. It is not surprising to learn that she could as easily be a great friend as a terrible enemy.

Marble Endpaper

My first impression of the Children’s Encyclopaedia reproduction, which was from an oil painting done in 1906, was of a woman one had better not cross swords with and how right I was! Her story is fascinating and well worth reading.

Many old images are divine as they stand but sometimes I yearn to change them and that was the case with Tzu-Hsi.  By giving the picture an underlay of green marble scanned from the endpaper of the encyclopaedia (as above) and a layer of creamy yellow, I have softened the overall effect and made the image more pleasing to the eye — well, my eye, at least!

Take care and keep laughing!