Another jaunt into the cigarette card collections of the New York Public Library. We've seen
animal-illustrated phrases and
flapper butterflies; today we've got some wonderfully awful visual puns. They don't come with a date, but appear to be about 1890-1910 by the clothing, and British. These are selected from a
set of 50. With language change a couple have lost their double meanings, such as"
decorated flat"--flat, of course, still means apartment many places, but the term 'flat' to refer to a dull person has gone out (many thanks to the reader who noted that meaning!) Others are very British (googling "
5 years with the colors" in its American spelling, gets you only the record of that card!), Most of them, however, will still get groans a century on.
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2 comments:
So, I'm sure your statement was rhetorical, but on the "Decorated Flat" card: In the Victorian lingo, a flat was a boring person. Usually a guy. as he's dressed up much like a banker or stockbroker, he's probably not a lot of fun at parties. However, he has the large boutonnière, he is thus "decorated."
I believe the pun is that, as you know, a flat is also an apartment, and thus a decorated flat, I think, is an apartment that's furnished/hone decor'ed....
Thank you for sharing! I figured it must be slang for something, though I hadn't the faintest idea what. I shall rephrase...
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