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LEAP YEAR
Overtures In A Flat.
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While
Bamforth was a prolific publisher, their
Leap Year series rarely shows up on ebay. I
have only ever seen these two cards, although
according to Byatt there were twenty-four
cards in this 1912 set. Like many Leap Year
cards, the card on the right plays with the
gender inversion of Leap Year.
Here, a father asks a
young woman what her
intentions are, saying "Do you
mean business,
Lady, or are you only fooling him?"
Even the
body language subverts gender roles as the
young man
weeps in the chair and the woman
makes her case.
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Bamforth & Co., Ltd., based in Holmfirth,
England and
New York, were a prolific publisher of postcards. They
are best known for their comic postcards and for their
song series. In the song series cards, the lyrics to a
popular song would be divided and appear on 4 or more
postcards, encouraging people to purchase the whole
series. They can be fun to collect today and are not very
expensive.
While later Bamforth cards featured cartoon drawings,
cards during the Leap Year period have a recognizable
look. They feature brightly colored photos of people in
staged interior settings.
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"Do you mean business, Lady,
or are you only fooling him?" |
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