I adore antique carte-de-visite and cabinet cards. The flowering of photography in the late 19th-century yields a cache of extraordinary images of everyday life and finds passions in the most obscure niches.
Cycling, like photography, grew exponentially in popularity in the 1890s, and it is from this period that these photographs were taken. Aside from the bikes, I do also love the dress. And, the posing of man, woman, and cycle. It’s street style, if you will, for the time. I’m loathe to go into a history of cycling in Victorian and Edwardian England – primarily because it is 9am on a rainy Saturday in Philadelphia, and also because I hope all viewers will get the same rich reactions from these photographs that I do. Enjoy.
All these photographs are sourced from the Richard Vaughan Personal Collection, which includes an absolutely amazing array of Victorian and Edwardian pieces.
Some personal favorites after the jump.
Read More »
Tags: cycling, history, photography
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monocle has a short video on bike companies that are harnessing well known IDer’s to rethink form.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Yesterday. (Approved by Hincapie.)
Today. (Approved by Indurain.)
Posted in Uncategorized |
Design Observer has a great article on David Maisel’s Library of Dust.
An excerpt:
Each canister held the remains of a human body, an unknown person who had been labeled mentally ill, who had been locked away in an asylum, and who after death had been left unclaimed for years, stacked on a shelf. These canisters held significance far greater than simply being beautiful objects.
The gallery installation didn’t make this clear, and it’s a failing. Unknowing visitors, I was told, first think these are images of bullets, paint cans or corroded batteries. When they are told what they really are, most are stunned into silence.
Go on, get your depressing read on.
Tags: art
Posted in Uncategorized |
Can’t wait to build up my new titanium 29er. Thanks Levi. Crush it.
Posted in Uncategorized |
One of my heroes has just become the first graphic designer to win the National Medal of Arts. The man who made me love American Typewriter is still working at the age of 80.
Posted in Uncategorized |
And it’s time for bike racing in Montana
Posted in Uncategorized |
“A late Victorian bicycle brooch in gold and with diamondhubs,circa 1900,1½ inches long.”
Sue Brown, a dealer in antique rings, will have this beauty on show at Antiques in Alexandra (VA) from March 11 – 14. Funny what comes up sifting through a show guide PDF.
Posted in Uncategorized |
It was in 2001 that, among the people I knew, bikes went from being a possession of consequence, from one that was saved and built up for, to one that was simply a tool, a machine, that of which we plied our trade.
Prior to 2001, I enjoyed shooting the breeze with friends, speaking directly about that to which we rode, why, and how we broke down each element of that machine with personal choice, its selection a mix of opinion, performance, and ultimately, price.
Read More »
Posted in Uncategorized |
