12"x12" PHILADELPHIA MUMMERS PARADE 1941, Sam Parris, with The Lobster Club - “Give us whisky, give us gin. Open the door and let us in!” (Copy)

12"x12" PHILADELPHIA MUMMERS PARADE 1941, Sam Parris, with The Lobster Club - “Give us whisky, give us gin. Open the door and let us in!” (Copy)By exclusive arrangement with The Grand Review. We are now offering several of our prints that started out as 24 x 24 inches square in three sizes. 24 x 24, 18 x 18 and 12 x 12. THIS print is 18" x 18". That said, don't fear the other sizes. They all have considerable visual 'pop' I'll have to frame up a 24x24 here and shoot it, just for the WOW factor. Yes, folks, The Mummers Parade is Philadelphia's amazing and often bizarre century old New Years

By exclusive arrangement with The Grand Review.

We are now offering several of our prints that started out as 24 x 24 inches square in three sizes. 24 x 24, 18 x 18 and 12 x 12. THIS print is 18" x 18".  That said, don't fear the other sizes. They all have considerable visual 'pop' I'll have to frame up a 24x24 here and shoot it, just for the WOW factor.

Yes, folks, The Mummers Parade is Philadelphia's amazing and often bizarre century old New Years Day parade.  There are various divisions and brigades, as well as small groupings of performers and individuals as well.  As the most famous Mummers poem suggests, the ritual on New Years Day going all the way back to the late 1700s went a little like this...

Here we stand before your door, 
As we stood the year before.
Give us whisky, give us gin,
Open the door and let us in.

Women were not allowed to march in the parade until the 70s, and female impersonators and gangs of 'wenches' have always been a big part of the wild stew that rolls up Broad Street every January 1st to this day.  Working men from the Italian, Polish, German and Irish neighborhoods would practice all year to present the most delightful and at times seemingly insane yet well coordinated dances and routines, with banjos strumming and all sorts of brass instruments blasting.

Folks, the Mummers Parade is a folk parade, as big and grand and crazy as it may seem, and there are folk art elements specific to the mummers that you can spot on outfits and props.  All part of the fun.

We do not know the history of Mr. Parris, other than his name and his club affiliation.  That said, the 110 year old Lobster Club still exists and still performs in the parade, with less emphasis on drag and much more on incredible lobster outfits.  I mean to gift them a copy of this print, and a copy of that forever romantic favorite of mine from our catalog, LOBSTER BOY AND L'ESCARGOT GIRL

Enjoy!
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SHIPPING
All prints are shipped in a sturdy mailing tube for $8, which covers postage, tube and S & H.

BUYING MORE THAN ONE PRINT?  Add a second print or any number thereafter of this or any other prints in our catalog and shipping is still just $8, total!!!

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A NOTE ON OUR PROCESS, OUR CHOICES AND THE QUALITY OF THE GRAPHIC CRAFTSMANSHIP THAT GOES INTO OUR PRINTS.

Every print we deem exciting enough to present to the public via our Etsy store or available here at our studio has gone through a number of steps.  The first of those is always discovering and falling in love with an obscure image, always an original that we can hold in our hands.  That image is speaking to us, sometime screaming “Don’t leave me here.  See what I am, what I was, what I can be, what I SHOULD be!”

There is a real sense of excitement involved, and a great many smiles and knowing grins when we make that deal and bring that ancient print, that battered photo, that scrap of ephemera that contains some scrap of genius from an unknown commercial artist home with us, knowing already how we mean to approach its restoration.

There is the heady promise of a further hunt just as real as what drags a weekend fisherman out of bed at 3AM to work a favorite brook as we start our research, looking for that great backstory, and both ready and willing to tumble down as many rabbit holes as are revealed to us to get that story.

Then there is a meticulous digital restoration that is as often as much fun as riding a vintage Moto Guzzi on a winding coastal road.  I don’t care if that sounds crazy, it really is like jumping in the saddle!  So many choices, so many chances to take to subtly or spectacularly give new life to otherwise permanently obscure images.

This dedication and the ongoing rush of joy in the accomplishment of it, and the opportunity to share the results in our studio and here on Etsy, is the fire of passion that keeps these engines roaring. We make every effort to ensure our customers are not just satisfied but thrilled, and we happily stand 100% behind our work.