Hicken's Fur-Bearing Trout
SOLD October 2008 |
Real-photo postcard (gelatin-silver print in carte-postale format) ca. 1940, by Roy E. "Ted" Marble. Titled in the negative "Hicken's Fur-Bearing Trout / Iceberg Lake / Photo by R. E. Marble, Belton, Montana." In superb condition, with unused postcard reverse. Print size 3.5 x 5.5 inches (9x14 cm).
The hidden truth behind this image seems to be that it gets very, very cold in Glacier Lake Montana.
The bread-and-butter work of many American regional photographers during the early 20th century seems to have lain in real-photo postcards, which could be easily (and cheaply) carried home by sight-seeing visitors. But while landscapes taken in postcard format are visually disappointing compared to larger-format work, the present subject presents very well.
Taken by the same photographer as the previous lot, this is an image in the great tradition of frontier humorists and the "tall tale". Indeed, "Hicken's Fur-Bearing Trout" reads like the title for a Mark Twain sketch, and translated into words would be at home among such Twain pieces as "Petrified Man" or "The Celebrated Jumping Frog."
