Postcard of the Day

[fflo]

I rather scratch my head at this one. Some internet noodling suggested it's a vinegar valentine, at this page, where a very similar one ---

--- is on sale.

So I guess the person is blowing, like a bellows, and the second image maybe suggests blowing smoke up someone's ass, or butt-kissing.  Y'think?  Like maybe the red marks on the cheeks are from pressure on buttocks (other cheeks)?

That still leaves me wondering what the "SNEAK" in the star is all about.  It is a 6-sided star.  Did that convey Jewishness?  And what of the nailed-on bust being on a box?  Is there a device that's being suggested by that?  Help?  Or any other ideas about any of this?

These cards are from the very early 1900s, but are probably calling upon a humor/tradition a little older than that.

Comments

[elainegrey]

Only things i can add after poking around is that sneak and whistle blower seem to be synonyms and blower meaning the phone? (But maybe that has always only been British?) Very mysterious!

Interesting to see the art reversed like that.

I do wonder which was first. I'm inclined to suspect the one on sale is the copy, because of how it has a shadow of the base and of the bust -- how often do things cast shadows on the sky?

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/nothing-says-i-hate-you-vinegar-valentine-180962109/ - -says Vinegar valentines were sent in the mid 1840s!

[fflo]

Nice piece! Thanks for that. Yeah, the postcards came along a little later, around the turn of the century (but especially when the "divided back" came along, in the early 1900s).

Over on livejournal a couple of people were thinking farts--- and that'd explain the sneak. But that's interesting about the phone, and I didn't know that about a whistle blower. That'd definitely be a trait to skewer someone over. Appreciate that info too!

[elainegrey]

Oh, i can see farts.

[fflo]

Taken out of context, that'd be a great slogan. Like "I see dead people". Or like the special talent of the lead in Poker Face. A special skill!