Julfisken
Fresh Blood
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2023
- Messages
- 6
Hello,
Apologies if this is the wrong forum for this post; I tried but couldn’t really find just the right one, but it is a query after all, so I hope I’m not totally out of line!
As per the title: Can anyone identify this ”creature”?
Context:
It’s from an 1833 ”catchpenny print” printed in the town of Gävle, Sweden, along with a simple verse. It is marketed for children (yes, really!) as a Christmas gift. The verse vaguely alludes to the appearance of the creature and identifies it as ”Fogel-Blå” (appr. ”Blue Bird”) and a ”snow-wonder”.
Now, I’m almost certain that the creature is printed from a much older block that originally should’ve had a completely different context, which might have been lost to time even in 1833.
This theory is, in my opinion, all but confirmed by another print marketed for children by the same printer the next year, in 1834:
This ”julfisk” (”Christmas fish”) seems to have been printed in various versions since early 17th century as I learned from this Norwegian site [Link now fixed] (in Norwegian, obviously, but Google translate may help and the images probably speak for themselves).
I quite easily ”solved” the mystery of the ”Christmas fish” with a reverse Google image search, wich lead me to the site above among others, but have had no such luck with ”Fogel-Blå”.
Does anyone recognise him/her/it?
Apologies if this is the wrong forum for this post; I tried but couldn’t really find just the right one, but it is a query after all, so I hope I’m not totally out of line!
As per the title: Can anyone identify this ”creature”?
Context:
It’s from an 1833 ”catchpenny print” printed in the town of Gävle, Sweden, along with a simple verse. It is marketed for children (yes, really!) as a Christmas gift. The verse vaguely alludes to the appearance of the creature and identifies it as ”Fogel-Blå” (appr. ”Blue Bird”) and a ”snow-wonder”.
Now, I’m almost certain that the creature is printed from a much older block that originally should’ve had a completely different context, which might have been lost to time even in 1833.
This theory is, in my opinion, all but confirmed by another print marketed for children by the same printer the next year, in 1834:
This ”julfisk” (”Christmas fish”) seems to have been printed in various versions since early 17th century as I learned from this Norwegian site [Link now fixed] (in Norwegian, obviously, but Google translate may help and the images probably speak for themselves).
I quite easily ”solved” the mystery of the ”Christmas fish” with a reverse Google image search, wich lead me to the site above among others, but have had no such luck with ”Fogel-Blå”.
Does anyone recognise him/her/it?
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