Peacocks on Red

Here is a recent acquisition. It came in another batch of cheap ties on eBay. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for! I have this search set up that only alerts me if a vintage tie listing for $10.00 or less is within 48 hours of expiring, and with no bids. In other words, I'm the inveterate bargain hunter!

The ties that came in this particular batch are nice enough, but in relatively poor condition. This one has some small drops of paint near the bottom, and is generally a bit dingy, showing its age.

It may be fairly old, based on the construction, which is overlapping in back, not centered, as later ties tend to be. Also, there is no lining, just the tie fabric itself, with some stiffening fabric sewn in further up.

The design is pretty straightforward, if just a bit flamboyant. Showy peacocks strut their stuff amid hints of a fancy formal garden. The tie is done in what appears to be just three colors: the deep, almost brick-red, a blue-gray, and yellow, on top of white (one presumes). I say presumes, because I don't really know how the fabric was printed. It appears as though the red is the true background color, and I suppose the white, like the yellow and gray-blue, were printed over it, but somehow I doubt it.

The tie has one label, shown in the scan. I assume it's the seller's label. It reads as follows:

C.E. Pyle
Rochester, Ind.

Dad's Mums

In honor of Father's Day, I present this tie, the last of the ties (to be posted here) that belonged to my Dad. When I first became interested in vintage ties, back when I was still in high school, I went to my Dad and asked him if he had any old ties. Sure enough, he had a nice little collection of ties from the forties, some of them quite splendid, indeed.

Unfortunately, some of them were in the old farmhouse when it burned to the ground a year or two later, just before I graduated. But I have the three that survived, and this is the final one to be posted. The two earlier examples are Dad's Red and Blue Paisely and Feathers for Father's Day.

This one is just as attractive as the other two. I'm sorry that I had to scan it with the pointed large end of the tie off the scanner bed, but it was necessary in order to get the entire bouquet of carnations into the picture.

Yes, I know I called this post "Dad's Mums," which would imply crysthanthemums, but these are more likely supposed to be carnations. I just couldn't resist the wordplay supplied by that title!

My Dad's been gone for several years now, and my Mom can't keep up with the old place anymore. So she put it on the market, and now it has sold. This very weekend, she's moving away, to live closer to my one of my sisters. That in itself is difficult to deal with emotionally. My folks moved to that little farm (13 1/2 acres, more or less) when I was only three, going on four years old. That was over fifty years ago! And that's been the place I've thought of as "home" for all these years, the place I've always gone back to. And now it will be in someone else's hands. Kind of a tough way to celebrate Father's Day! But it was inevitable; we knew it was coming, and it's really only a kind of ironic coincidence that it happened on Father's Day.

But back to the tie. It has one extant label, sewn sideways into the short end of the tie, which reads:

Resilient construction
Towncraft Deluxe Cravat
Fabric loomed in U.S.A.

The tie is made of that wonderful shiny, silky, slippery fabric so common to the era, probably rayon. It doesn't have a brocade, but the design itself creates almost the effect of one, with the infinitude of small tine white striped lines that flow down the silvery colored portion of the tie's surface.

At the top end of the scan, you can just barely see where the fabric turns solid red, which would have had the effect of making the knot solid red in color, matching the featured slice of red that splays out across the center of the tie, and the two red carnations, which give the tie its dash of brilliance.

Looking at this tie, holding it in my hand, reminds me once again of my own father, bringing back many memories.

Happy Father's Day to dads everywhere!

A Little Red for Valentine's Day

This is the best I could do for Valentine's Day this year. I only own one vintage tie that relates to this occasion, and I posted it already last year, so you'll have to go back and revisit it, if you want to see a vintage tie with hearts.

So this year, I just hunted over my rack of red ties until I found one that I hadn't already posted, which was difficult, as there are only a few left unscanned and unheralded here on the blog.

I can't say as this tie fits the theme of Valentine's Day very well, but at least the big red block in the center of the tie has a pointed end, like an arrow. Of course, one COULD say that it is a pointed end, like the end of the tie itself. And one could point out that there is another block, gray in color, pointing right back at the red one.

The geometric aspects of this design are actually more reminiscent, in my view, of a tie I posted back in July of 2007, aptly titled "Orange Geometrics." Had I not been stretching things to make a barely justified connection to Valentine's Day, I might have called this tie "Red, Burgundy, and Gray Geometrics."

The tie has no surviving labels, and shows its age with some staining. No brocaded fabric, either, which makes me think it might have been less expensive than some. But the design is very nice, quite striking in its own right. A very nice tie, whether or not it fits the season.