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January 31, 2009 |
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526
FOUND by Anna
in Manhattan, NY
I found this in a library copy of 'Timequake' by Kurt Vonnegut. It's a postcard, and the only other words on it are "Laurent Nel, Rennes," on the back. My favorite things are the hat and the apparatus in the background.
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Fo Shizzle ... July 15, 2008 |
Someone Who Hates... August 11, 2005 |
Wonderful Bagels August 01, 2008 |
Note to Self November 28, 2004 |
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
Nice hat.
Kurt Vonnegut was one of my favorite writers.
By the way, this is a dude in a dress.
When this lady says
--No more trash talking, belittling, name calling
--No more yelling
--No more cussing at each other
--No more bringing up things or people that make eachother uncomfortable
--she's got the fire power to back it up!
Paul?
Nice embroidery, no?
best.find.ever.
awesomeness!
The years have not been kind to Marge Simpson
it's like a tea cozy with the tea pot still in it!
Anyone else see Charley Sheen??
Great Find! The coif (hat) is definitely 19th c. France...but the dress bodice looks very Oriental in its amazing detail and materials.
That's a thread-spinner she's leaning on/holding in the crook of her arm, the French form of "spinning wheel."
The designs on the backdrop are from the Caucasus.
(I know far too much about the history of textiles.)
My sidekick says "Bigoudene" has something to do with her hairdo...but I think it's probably something like "spinner". She's a young whatever it is.
She looks unimpressed, and mad enough to chew nails and spit out tintacks, but I think it's just having to hold your pose for a full minute so the plate won't come out blurred.
I love this find.
Baby basil - your identification of the textiles is *amazing*!
But does no one recognize David Copperfield in drag?
my first thought: "Beautifu? my next hought was, :" june fooch.
A missing descendant from the Blackadder family?
I think Bigoudene is in reference to her hat - I believe it is a part of traditional Breton costume.
Just where in the hell did I put that damn doiley?
oh this dude is *hot*!
@H: You're right! "Bigoudene" is apparently a Breton peasant woman. Or was. There's a brand of (industrial) sweets and cakes of this name, I Googled and found some great recipes on their site.
Another mystery cleared up. Still love the find. "Distaff"--that's the word I wanted for "thread spinner." But you know what I meant.
Yes, yes, yes! Definitely a member of the Blackadder family!
Yes, yes, yes! Definitely a member of the Blackadder family!
Does that hat get you closer to G-d?
Isn't Brittany famous for its lace? I bet all of those whorls and embroidery were tatted by hand.
This photo would be a good addition to the Wiki description of the people and customs of Bigouden:
Pays Bigouden (Bigouden Country. In Breton, Ar Vro Vigoudenn, pronounced ['vro vi'gudn]) is a region of Finistère in Brittany.. The designation was an informal label taken from the name of the distinctive headdress traditionally worn by the local women..The distinctive customs and costumes of the area have attracted artists and ethnologists since the late eighteenth century, leading to some idiosyncratic theories such as the claim that the locals descended from pre-Celtic aboriginal inhabitants of Brittany or that "physiognomic similarities" to Mongolians indicate descent from an ancient Asian race.
During the nineteenth century local costumes became increasingly elaborate and colourful. Especially famous was the tall lace bonnet worn by the women, which covered only the top of the skull and extended to a triangle of fabric mounted on a base. These were embroidered with patterns of flowers. By around 1900 this had evolved into a tall sugarloaf shape. In the early twentieth century the cap became even taller, reaching fifteen to twenty centimeters in the late 1920s and even taller just after the Second World War. Until 2000, the cap has hovered between 30 and 35 centimeters in height by 12-14 centimeters wide at the base.
I'm thinking this is James Spader's lover.
http://www.foundmagazine.com/find/2595
Ah, the lace condom hat. I wonder why that trend hasn't been brought back yet...
I saw this guy in the park on my last trip to Paris.
Roflcopter @ Lolita...
That's right... Paul?!
Also I'm pretty sure that's a mega 18th century dildo in the background. Or is that just me...?
@Steve in Prov: I saw Mr Bean. But- you're right! This person is one prostitute short of being Charlie Sheen in drag!
I looked up Jeune Bigoudene, this post card comes up. The description says, "lady in costume". I believe this is the love child of Deepak Chopra and Michael Imperioli.
Egads, what a mug!
Best comments ever today!!
You know those photo places where you dress up and take a picture and you are supposed to look like you are in the 'wild west?'
Why aren't there costumes like these?? That would sooo be awesome!
She doesn't look nearly so angry in this postcard.
http://cgi.ebay.it/JEUNE-BIGOUDENE-France-POST
Also, the French wikipedia entry is way more interesting and gives more history about the people and the hat :)
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&am
Sammy Davis Junior Jr, I would totally pose in one of those outfits in a photo booth.
Ethnographer, the ebay link led me to an Italian page saying it's unavailable. And the translating page was just a translating page. But I'm going to go to the French Wiki site; I hope I can find it.
Voilà, le site Wiki en français:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigouden
"Et Dieu dans sa colère,
Pour se venger du genre humain,
Fit venir sur la terre,
La race des Bigoudens."
This quote from the French Wiki seems to describe this young lady exactly. It says that thes words can be found on plaques in restaurants and other public places -- which seems odd, because it doesn't seem very complementary, does it?
Steve, I see Lou Diamond Phillips more than Charlie Sheen.
Spider, I too saw a dildo when I first looked at this, but the one I saw was the lighter-shaded of the two phalli under her left arm. Sure, the texture looks a little rough - but people were much tougher back in those days.
In case you don't speak French, basically it means that in his anger, God wanted to be avenged for mankind, so he made the race of the Bigouden people come down to earth.
@Clover, apparently Bretonne women are famous for their short tempers and explosive expression of same. There's a series of French comedy films about a woman police detective who is Bretonne and sooo proud of it...and if you mention it in a slighting way, you'd just as well take cover. For days.
We Celts are an odd lot. In Galicia (n. Spain) you will find a famous poem which is basically a witch's spell (A Queimá, it's called) hanging on walls everywhere you go...even in some churches.
@Orinoco.. witch's spells.. scary stuff! Probably the fierce temperament was a survival asset. Still, I think this photo is beautiful, and the embroidery work incredible. I really do love this find.
I love Kurt Vonnegut.
Of course his readers would plant interesting things into their favorite books for others to find! (And if that isn't nice, I don't know what is.)
@spider & Flargy: If those were dildos you two were seeing, she wouldn't look nearly so angry in the photo.
At least that's what I've heard from A Friend.
When I first saw this find, I immediately thought, "It's a Monty Python pepper-pot!" Little did I know that this woman was completely serious in her mode of dress.
By the way, in regards to the 'dude in drag' comments: When I look at old pics of my Ukrainian relatives from years ago...those women looked rather manly.
man hands, and I swear an adam's apple.
what *are* those phallic objects, peppermills? bagpipes? maybe hair rollers, I looked up Bigoudene in my Fr. dictionary, but could only find bigoudi (m), hair roller.
Brodery and hat are typical from the small city of Pont l'Abbé, in the pays bigouden.
brodery in color here: http://www.glad29.com/images/images_activite/broder
It's the first time I look this website,and the second thing i see is...an old picture of my country!
It's a small world!
@Dude in drag: Look again. They're not phalli. They are the tripod-feet of the distaff. Made of heavy wood dowels for stability. You can't see the main support shaft (ahem) because it's obscured by the darkness of her clothes and the old photo, but she's holding it sort of in the crook of her arm. You can see the works of the distaff above her shoulder. It's used for spinning wool or flax into thread or yarn. Or rather *was* used. Many women did this all day long, well into the 1920's. They worked from home and took their thread to the manufactury on a daily or weekly basis. Many women used the flax thread to make lace, as well.
If it were set on the ground the works would pivot out sideways from the tripod feet and be locked into position, so it looks like a T.
Everybody--
Thanks for the hilarious and informative comments. :) Glad people are willing to do some detective work! I like my lady even more now.
xo
Anna
Yaaay! I love when the Finder checks in. Thanks for sharing, Anna!
The comedy series is called "Imogene". The same actress (Dominique Lavanant) who played the part in 1990's is now doing a series about an ex-policewoman turned nun, "Soeurtherese.com", but with no Breton influence this time. Considerably heavier than when she played Imogene, the bagpipe playing, black-pudding-eating detective...but still a great actress.
I'm French, i'm from Nantes, 1 hour away from Rennes, the town where this lady seem to come from.
Nantes, Rennes and many other cities are part of a country of france : Brittany. And yes, this woman is dressed in the typical costume of the bigoudens, which is a kind of traditionnal order of the french britons...
That's the country where there is broceliande (and some of the stories in the legend of king arthur...)
Here, to say "goodbye" we say : Kenavo !
Fascinating picture. And fascinating comments. Thanks, Clover, comme toujours, for setting us on the trail. And to Basil for in-depth research! And to les vrais francais for first-hand info.
She does look angry -- clenched fists -- but probably because of having to maintain the pose for a long exposure. Or perhaps she felt she was being commercialised for the tourist market.
Yes, tripod feet of a spinning-wheel or something similar in the background. And of course everything you see in the picture was made by hand.
Now all we need is a photographic historian to identify the monogram at lower left? Oh, I suppose it must be L.N. for 'Laurent Nel, Rennes'.
I'm sure there are paintings of 'jeunes bigoudenes' by the artists of the Pont-Aven School, or maybe even Gaugin himself. The headdress looks familiar.
I wonder what the other 525 postcards in the series are pictures of?
I Googled "Laurent Nel, Rennes." They did postcards of most tourist attractions of the day...churches, monuments, famous views and people in regional costume.
I wonder if they did a side-line in "naughty" beach postcards?
@sick in bed -- wow! I thought I was joking. Didn't suppose anyone would actually be able to find out.
Thanks!
Hope you get better soon, btw.
I like how she's wearing that ring on her right hand (our left)- above the middle knuckle rather than at the base of the finger.
Is there a ring on the thumb of that hand, too?
And I see Judd Nelson more than I see Charlie Sheen OR Lou Diamond Phillips.
I foresee a copper or aluminum tooling project being inspired by the bodice of that dress.