Printing Plate Subject Matter

[Carolina Tom]

I believe that this is a printing plate. Correct me if I am wrong please.

Does anyone recognize the subject matter? It appear to me to be a guy with a sack of flour on his head, speaking with another man.




Thanks for looking and good luck on your hunts.

 

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[Kace]

SWEET FIND Tom! That's Awesome!!

I'd Guess it's an old ad plate that a company supplied to newspapers and printers for their ads.

Kace

 

[Reanm8er]

First of all Tom, sit down and take a deep breath!

Tom! Nice find and perhaps a grim reference to history. I reversed the image and came up with this.





First of all, both images seem to be cadaverous!
The image on the left is dressed as a business man or politician, has horns and is welcoming the individual on the right.
The individual on the left seems to be thinking of two alternatives. One in a cage and the other on a ship.
The individual on the right seems to be Negroid.

I'd like to see it carefully cleaned and re-photographed from several angles.

The message I get is that the black man won't even be free in the afterlife. My take is that this print block was used for post CW Klan or Jim Crow terrorist tract literature. If so, you're going to need to put this in your safe deposit box and insure it handsomely.

Banner ready!

Best wishes!

 

[Reanm8er]

I reversed it because print blocks are adverse. Look at it in a mirror. The bag on his head may be rice grown in the SC low country!

 

[Carolina Tom]

I am rarely at a loss for words sir.

I like the way you think, and I hope you are right, but my vision just isn’t that good.

I really believe that circle has the word “flour” in it. It looks like a sack of flour. In hand it really looks modern. It has some machined scratches on it.

I’ll get some better pics tomorrow.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[A2coins]

Tom that's really cool can you get something on it press it to paper and see what comes out that is hilarious the bad of flour on his head but also a really cool relic Good job my Brother.

 

[jeff of pa]

I reversed it because print blocks are adverse. Look at it in a mirror. The bag on his head may be rice grown in the SC low country!

The Word on the Circle Looks like FLOUR to Me



I Can't find anything of Flour Shortages in the U.S.
looks to me like he wants some flour, & the guy on the Left saying, I got Non, Or I got Non to spare.

I've never been any Good at Interpretation Political Comics in Newspapers,So I bow to your Interpretation.

The One on the Right Does look like a Skeleton With his Spine Showing, & Praying,
or Begging.
but Notice a Hand down by his Pocket also making what looked like a spine to me, really his left arm. and maybe He's just greeting Him with his right hand.

 

[jeff of pa]

I am rarely at a loss for words sir.

I like the way you think, and I hope you are right, but my vision just isn’t that good.

I really believe that circle has the word “flour” in it. It looks like a sack of flour. In hand it really looks modern. It has some machined scratches on it.

I’ll get some better pics tomorrow.

Thanks for the reply!

No Doubt "FLOUR". some artificial prints from your plate for ya.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Great find Tom!
Looks like Phil and Jeff have the image nailed down.
It's a beautiful piece and would probably restore beautifully.

Here's one I found in 2015.

Dave

 

[kenstein]

Nice work Jeff. Looks like a Slinky between the two men at about knee level (?).

 

[jeff of pa]

Nice work Jeff. Looks like a Slinky between the two men at about knee level (?).

HaHa Yea it Does

proof of time travel ?

 

[Reanm8er]

Nice work Jeff!

Now I get a different perspective on it. I can see the huge flour sack and the parts on the "Businessman" that looked skeletal are actually the sheen off his fine suit. He has his arms out trying to walk and balance that huge sack of flour. What I took to be skeletal images on the "little guy" are probably bones showing through his skin. So, I guess I have to share the interpretation that all the flour has been hoarded up by big business and the poor man gets none. Nice angle on the flour shortage aspect. Perhaps this happened in another country. I studied the facial characteristics of business and I'm not sure he's European. What do you think?

Yeah that slinky thing is a puzzler but I'll bet it's cartoonist's ID mark.

Best wishes!

 

[Carolina Tom]

The "slinky" is a machined mark, like where a router removed material, a spiral caused by a cutting bit. Just like in a CNC machine.

Thanks to Jeff and everyone else for the input.

 

[Reanm8er]

Thanks Tom,

I've never seen milling marks in a print block before. I guess I'm used to seeing the ones that were hand engraved. Do you think that might indicate a more modern manufacturing date?

 

[GB1]

really cool find there

 

[Reanm8er]

Hey guys, check this out!

The Flour War: Gender, Class, and Community in Late Ancien Régime French Society By Cynthia Bouton

I found other threads under the search title "who cornered the market on flour?" include the quotation marks.

 

[DCMatt]

Maybe an early 20th C political cartoon showing rich vs poor?

The figure on the left is the stereotypical robber baron industrialist - think J. P. Morgan.
It's as if he's saying, "I have nothing to share with you. You can see my hands are empty."

The figure on the right is a stereotyped African-American boy with a shocked look on his face. He has highlighted white lips in the old minstrel show "blackface" style.

 

[Reanm8er]

Who knows, maybe the guy's Monsanto?

 

[jeff of pa]

I would have to agree with DCMatt

It appears there may be words here


in a cloud



Perhaps "can you Spare a cup of Flour" ?
in a shorter sentence.
as for the Slinky.
That may have been the Cartoonists Signature in that area,
& removed for some reason

 

[DCMatt]

Could the man be Taft?