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Tobacco felt: Hoboken Swingo. N.d., circa 1920-1930.

Object/Artifact
Tobacco felt: Hoboken Swingo. No date, circa 1920-1930. Off-white woven wool cloth, 3-1/2" x 5-1/4" high, printed with mustard yellow frame and background; crimson red and royal blue plus black outlines; type in black. No maker's marks. Edges unfinished. Artist's caricature of two dancers: a man in formal wear (tails) swinging a woman in red dress with blue stockings. It is unknown if this was real dance named 'Swingo', but apparently swingo was a slang term associated with dancing. Believed to be a tobacco premium or felt (as the genre is known, but it may be from related promotional type.) Not truly a felt as it is a woven cloth. Extremely little is apparently known about it, other than it was part of a series (see below) including any relationship, other than the name, to Hoboken. The artwork is fully seen in reverse on the back, but without the title printed on the front in the white frame. Signed in center panel at lower right: UUJBEE (or possibly NEWBEE). Attached is a reference image from an online offering of another example of this item and a related one, Frisco Tango - descriptions of those items are in notes. (Cataloguer has also seen Hoboken Swingo with orange border and field for sale.) swing

2012.001.0027

2012.001

Purchase

Purchase

Museum Collections.

1920 - 1930

Date: 1920-1930

Notes: Text below (describing the reference image attached to this record) as found in 2012 at: http://www.timepassagesnostalgia.com/&pm=0&searchkeywords=Tang&sin=e203 The picture shows a view of the (2) Different Old Tobacco Premium Miniature Cloth Rugs With Dancers in this lot. These are not dated but they are old. They were found in a group of tobacco premium country flags and miniature Native American Indian blankets. We have not seen this set before. Apparently they are from the same series. The backs have the same print in reverse. We do not know how many different ones that there are in a set. Each picture a man and a woman in vintage clothing dancing. The ladies are in dresses and the men are in suits. One man is wearing a monocle. At the bottom of the pictures they appear to read ''UUJBEE''. These are marked with the ball room dance names as follows: HOBOKEN SWING FRISCO TANGO These each measure about 3-1/2'' x 5-1/2''. They appear to be in near mint to mint condition as pictured. One has a light corner fold that could easily be ironed out. Status: OK Status By: dw Status Date: 2012-05-25

front
back detail title and artist's / maker's(?) name UUJBEE reference image of other examples - see notes