I lost my good friend. Rose died earlier this month and you may recall her name appearing on this blog from time to time, usually thanking her for sending a particularly awesome postcard. Now she's gone and my world is so much smaller. She was a fountain of information and I loved to send her articles about antique cards which we could discuss.
Along with Steiff bears, bat conservation and Krampus stories we enjoyed the back and forth of letter writing (online and real letters)... and she could find the best rat postcards!
In her honour and memory, I will share a few of the postcards she sent me, beginning with this gorgeous pair of Hingre images:
I believe it was two years ago that Rose sent me these two roses, with rats! How lovely, I was thrilled! They're dated around 1910-1920 and the images are by a famous French artist Louis Theophile Hingre, known more I think for his bronze figures (some of those are also rats).
Examining the cards in detail, I noticed on the back it states "Serie 1011-1015 Souris et Fleurs". Oh?! That means there are 5 postcards in the series, right? So I began to hunt! I found two more images and promptly bought those cards:
Aren't they lovely!! I know they are "souris" but I'd say they are more rat-like than mice. So, out there somewhere there is a fifth card... I have not been able to locate it, nor have I been able to even find a picture of what the card might look like. I have seen another Hingre rat card:
but it's not of this "Souris et Fleurs" series.
Rose directed me to online resources where I might be able to find the fifth card's image but, my, that's a full time job! Maybe next winter...
If anyone knows this series or has a lead they'd like to share with me, please do!!
Thank you, Rose, as always.
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