Friday Show and Tell – Vintage Stencil Print

Show and tell Friday is hosted by Kelli at There is No Place Like Home.

Back in 1971 as I was in California doing graduate studies, I had college friends, a couple and their toddler, who were renting a partly furnished house. In the basement we found all sorts of neat items. At the end of the school year the owner donated the house and its contents to the couple. He had sold the land and the owner did not want any of the house’s contents. So I got a trestle table and a number of framed items.

I would like to share one of the pictures as my show and tell. It is a print which hangs in my study.

The print shows pansies in a basket.

The original frame was not in good shape, so I had it re-framed to coordinate with some other wall art. I had the frame shop use double mats, with the inner one matching the line around the print.

At this point I noticed the message on the back of the print:

No. 4225
GENUINE HAND STENCILED
FLORALS
These beautiful flower prints are reproduced
from the origianls by skilled craftsmen from
carefully prepared hand made stencils. All
the appeal of the original block prints is retained
by this painstaking process. Only in this unique
way is it possible to retain a freedom of style
uncommon to machine-made prints. All
subjects are available in pairs thoughtfully
selected by colors for that purpose.
RELIANCE PICTURE FRAME CO.
CHICAGO DOVER N.J.

A bit of research led to the fact that this stenciling process was called pochoir. Here is an explanation of the process:
"Pochoir Technique: The pochoir process is the hand-coloring of an individual black outline prints. The was done with the help of a thin zinc or copper cut-out stencil guide. Each color is applied separately brushed by hand on each print, one stencil for each color. The paint used was watercolor and gouache. The only difference being watercolor paints (aquarelles) are transparent and gouache paints are opaque.
The perfecting by illustrators of the pochoir printing techniquewas an important boost for the art of fashion illustration, and Poiret was one of the first to realize its possibilities."
http://www.art-deco-prints-and-posters.com/pochoir.asp

So I learned something about print-making techniques in the mid part of the 20th century. This made the print even more special to me. Now I need to seek the author and title of the work.

I hope you enjoyed my show and tell and learned something new in the world of art. To visit other Show and Tell posts, please go to Kelli’s.

Thank you for coming by. Please leave a comment and do come again soon.