Etsy and Vintage Halloween

I have recently developed an addiction to Etsy, I've been buying some interesting new additions to my collection and generally browsing for hours.

during one late night Etsy binge I stumbled into the world of vintage Halloween items, and I just love them! I have been drooling over vintage boxed costumes from Collegeville and Ben Cooper.
I bought this lovely 1950s Devil costume, it has abit of a Casper the Friendly Ghost style to it.

It's inspired me to start drawing again, I have an idea for a series of images that i'll produce as small prints based on this vintage Halloween vibe I'm loving at the moment.
Today I found an old piece of backing card from a picture frame and I loved the old. browned paper, so I did a quick sketch on this.

Autumn

I'm feeling abit sad that Halloween is over, it's my favourite time of year, and this year was the best Halloween i've ever had, I spent the day having a tour round Highgate cemetery, such a beautiful place.
I managed to get some pictures, unfortunately just phone snaps but they capture some of the atmosphere of the place.
I adore the stone angels and there are so many of these adorning Highgate cemetery, rising from the undergrowth, reaching for heaven.

A rather beautiful Gothic style vault in the Egyptian circle here, belonging to Carl Rosa and his family, Carl Rosa was a German musical impresario who founded the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1873. His is one of a number of Gothic style vaults lining this pathway.

Another Beautiful monument in the west cemetery is this Sleeping Lion, his name was Nero and he belonged to famous menagerie exhibitor George Wombwell, Nero was a docile Lion, it is said children used to climb all over him.

This is one of my favourite tombstones in Highgate, a sleeping angel, lying amongst the leaves and vines

All the vault doors in the cemetery are decorated with Inverted torches symbolizing life extinguished, another interesting detail is the keyholes on each vault are also inverted.

1. Silently, silently
   They are laid to rest,
   Free from care, over there,
   Dwelling with the blest.
   They shall bear no more life’s burdens,
   Sickness, sorrow, death, or pain;
   In that spirit-land they’re waiting,
   Where with Christ their souls shall reign.

1920s Fancy Dress

We received a bundle of old photographs recently from a family member on my mums side. My mum is looking into her family history and has been asking around to find more pictures and information. Among the new pictures was an incredible, tiny picture of my Great Aunts school class on a fancy dress day in, I am guessing late 1920s.

I took two pictures of it to show the most interesting costumes, the main standout one is the amazing homemade, slightly weird looking Gollywog. My mum rang my Great Aunt who is now 90 years old to ask her about it and it turns out my Great Aunt is, in fact the child inside the Gollywog costume, she says she hated wearing it, and was really annoyed that she had to! I've seen and collected so many 1920s era fancy dress photographs, mainly from my own family, but until this one none of the subjects still survive, so it was great to hear her first hand account of it. Her parents certainly made some effort making it.

To the left side of the Gollywog is an incredibly weird looking costume, which is very spooky on first glance, as it looks like a faceless child, like some weird slenderman type figure.

A more detailed look and we think it is meant to be a duck outfit, with the winged sleeve and flipper like feet,  but how the child could see is abit of a mystery!

Haunted Air

I recieved the most beautiful book yesterday, 'Haunted Air' by Ossian Brown, A collection of Anonymous Hallowe'en photographs, America 1875-1955.

It has a stunning black fabric cover and the photos are reproduced perfectly in their original size.
Its such a stunning book.

"The photographs in Haunted Air provide an extraordinary glimpse into the traditions of this macabre festival from ages past, and form an important document of photographic history. These are the pictures of the dead: family portraits, mementoes of the treasured, now unrecognisable, other. Torn from album pages, sold piecemeal for pennies and scattered, abandoned to melancholy chance and the hands of strangers."
-The Random House Group











I hugely recomment that you buy this treasure of a book