Magnaverde kindly scanned in some vintage New Yorker covers to share with everyone. 
The covers are from 1945, 1952 and 1959 and reflect an era that is no more.
The covers are from 1945, 1952 and 1959 and reflect an era that is no more. 
My favourite is the one of the maid, Fay, cleaning silver in a large pantry lined with cupboards.The house where I grew up had two pantries, one between the kitchen and dining room, and the other off the back of the kitchen. Both were lined in beautiful cyprus cupboards, which my mother carefully restored to their original beauty (see below). When the house was sold, all of these were ripped out and discarded {right into the contractor's house, I am sure!}. 
Magnaverde said it well, "Most pantries--especially what people call butler's pantries, (even when there's no butler)--are really not far removed from private museums of family artifacts." That's how I always felt. There was always some treasure - a silver vase, a jar of summer preserves or a fully-stocked bar - to be found in our two pantries.
Magnaverde said it well, "Most pantries--especially what people call butler's pantries, (even when there's no butler)--are really not far removed from private museums of family artifacts." That's how I always felt. There was always some treasure - a silver vase, a jar of summer preserves or a fully-stocked bar - to be found in our two pantries.
lovely! - that apron looks like wings- in fact they both kind of look like birds!
ReplyDeletemeg: i LOVE these. the second cover is very amusing ... and beautiful too : )
ReplyDeleteAmazing!
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought they were fairies...guess I've been reading too many kids books!
ReplyDeleterfb
These covers are beautiful!
ReplyDeleteAll those covers are wonderful and the cover with the pantry is particularly wonderful. I love that sort of cabinetry. And of course I love the cabinets from your childhood house. I can't believe someone would have yanked them out.
ReplyDeletethe Petty ladies remind me of Amelia Bedelia - did you ever read those books? Notice the butler/maids bell board on the wall - as kids we found the bell under the carpet in the dining room in our grandmother's house - there was no maid to call but we had fun pushing it and pretending - it was positioned on the floor just where the foot of the lady of the house rested while dining.
ReplyDeleteThere I was, happily reading along, until the part about those cabinets being ripped out. Yikes. Sometimes, I think it's best not to know what has happened with childhood homes. My childhood home is now a law office....
ReplyDeleteThe scallop-edged, highly starched, big-bowed, snow white, bib apron that Fay wears is awesome!
ReplyDeleteThe covers are so charming. I'm taken with the top one because of the bright colors! And I cannot for the life of me figure out why people rip out Butler's Pantries!! It's such a luxury to have one, and it sure beats this whole kitchen/massive living area concept.
ReplyDeleteMeg, be sure to go over and look at Eddie's pantry in the new farmhouse he and Jaithan just purchased. Their insight, it is amazingling beautiful.
ReplyDeleteMarnie, there's a great drawing in This Petty Pace--I think MP had three volumes of cartoons--where the guests at a fancy dinner party are all staring at their poor hostess, who's slid down so far in her chair in an attempt to reach the floor-mounted servant bell with her foot that she's practically under the table. Today most people wouldn't even get the joke.
ReplyDeleteJulie... a lot of the great architectural elements from that house ended up at our salvage business. Thank god the new owners called us.
ReplyDeleteMarnie... I do know the Amelia books, and this character is similar. We also had a buzzer under the dining room table, but my father removed it (too many obnoxious kids around the table!).
Peak... I got an e-mail from one of our old neighbours despairing that people did things like this to beautiful old houses. She said her old house has been renovated into ruin. How sad.
Karena… I did see Eddie Ross’s blog today and am wildly jealous.
Magna… That’s hilarious, especially since my mother and grandmother are both tiny women! I can just picture that scene!
Marnie and Meg -- I used to LOVE Amelia Bedelia. Are those books even around today? No one ever knows what I'm talking about when I mention Amelia Bedelia. Or even Olga da Polga -- the guinea pig. The charm of Mary Petty's images, for me, is not waning. Still just so memorized by them. Meg, thanks for posting more....
ReplyDeleteWe didn't have a servants bell growing up, but these call buttons in the bedrooms upstairs. They were above the light switch and I could barely reach them. I had to drag a chair over and climb up on it. Then I would press the black square button and bark orders at my younger brother through this speaker which traveled through out the house and boss him around. (When my mom was not at home, of course.)
Love these, and all the Petty drawings you have been posting.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
xo xo
PS See you Thursday night!
Why would anyone remove these beautiful pantries? Were these people who didn't eat at home?
ReplyDeleteLove the look of the old magazines, too.
Former in-laws of mine papered the powder room at "the cottage" in vintage NYer covers. Fantastic.
ReplyDeleteThe story of your former cupboards still makes me ill. (And you had two -- TWO -- pantries!!!) What luxury. Like whomever saw fit to concrete in our fireplaces and rip out the pocket doors.... Grrrrrrr...