Paper Cuts Part 3: Mormons, eskimo, and girlies

Posted by: Rie Yamaoka

I went to the Vintage Paper Show in San Francisco this past weekend. Talk about indexing by hand! There were many booths selling old postcards starting at 25 cents each, and some vendors specialized in certain topics, such as “death related” and “dozens of babies” (only postcards with a bunch of babies on them).

Top: Art deco motifs and typography for perfume labels from the 1920s
Bottom: Japanese stencil and a charcoal drawing from an artist in Santa Fe

I loved the typography and colors for crate and perfume labels, and I also saw some old menus from famous restaurants.

One vendor had a collection of katagami, a stencil used for traditional fabric dyeing in Japan. The stencil is cut by hand using paper that's coated with the juice of persimmon tannins, for water proofing.

 

---