W and K Green Singles · Carlson Fable Collection

Title

W and K Green Singles

Description

1880? 8 cards from a set of 12 fable-illustrated stock trade cards lithographed by Charles Wemple and Martin Kronheim of NY. Each card is signed "Wemple & Kronheim" and marked either "Series No 52" or "Series 52." 2½" x 4". $30 for 6 from Robert and Gloria Mascarelli of Accent East Gallery, E. Patchogue, NY, somewhere, sometime in 1996-97. Two more for $6 each from Virginia Makis, Springfield, MA, through Ebay, Feb., '00. One card as a gift from Tom Beckman, May, '94.

The eight scenes are TH, LM, FM, WL, "The Dog and His Master's Lunch," "The Heron," "The Eagle, the Lamb, and the Crow," and "The Rat and the Frog." Tom Beckman has written about finding the set of twelve, in his case distributed by the L.G. Williams shoe store in Malden, MA. The cards are characterized by an unusual combination of green ink and tan background. Some have fable texts--but no more--on the back. The Beckman FS card, imprinted by J. A. Parker Job Printing, is unusual in that it was overprinted by the very company that intended to use it. The Makis card of the "The Rat and the Frog" has an unusual stamp advertising "Only genuine hand-picked peanuts sold for 5 cts, Charlie Goodwin." WL is stamped on the picture-side by "O.B. Deane, Taxidermist & Bird Dealer" in Springfield, MA. "The Dog with His Master's Dinner" departs significantly from the illustration offered in the WMF series above. I include an illustration of the one extra copy of FM to show the difference in color of printing even within one design.

Date

1880?

Source

$30 for 6 from Robert and Gloria Mascarelli of Accent East Gallery, E. Patchogue, NY, somewhere, sometime in 1996-97. Two more for $6 each from Virginia Makis, Springfield, MA, through Ebay, Feb., '00. One card as a gift from Tom Beckman, May, '94.