Goblins Under the Bed January 23, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, Modern , trackback
Here is a bit of a cheeky post as the photo is ‘borrowed’ from an Italian site (Matteo Rubboli): but as the text is overwhelmingly in Italian there is the fear that an international audience might not find it easily. This is particularly a shame as the text is just a mild commentary and the pictures are so very, very good. Oh reader, if you like what you see you should check out the original collection here. Look out particularly for the desolate mother in the last shot.
The author reports that these were from a series of stereoscopic images called The Goblins Will Get You if You Don’t Watch Out. They were presumably a warning to naughty girls and boys, but cannot have done much to reduce the number of nightmares in the household: an Anglo-Saxon Struwwelpeter. The great Sofia Lincos pointed out, on Twitter, that it was likely inspired by Little Orphant Annie (1885), ‘An’ the Gobble-uns ’at gits you ef you don’t watch out!’ Or was ‘the goblins will get you’ just part of children’s culture in the English-speaking world, long before then? Memories of John Widdowson‘s work in this area.
The date is unsure. Matteo Rubboli suggests the early 1900s. Can anyone make some suggestions on the basis of the clothes worn: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
Beach has taken some head shots of the four monsters sent out to scare just to give a further taste. Names are our own.
Garlic Head
Mega Mind
Rabbit Man
Orc
29 Jan 2018: Chris from Haunted Ohio Books to the rescue with the clothes and the date ‘Probably post-Great War-early 1920s. Shorter skirt, not as full as 1914-5, shoes and stockings also anywhere from 1910-1920s, The print blouse is a little puzzling–can’t see it or hair well enough to be specific.’
Beach is pretty sure that it is American rather than British (looking at the picture on the wall and the decor).
