On Alfred Mainzer Cats Dressed As People Postcards

February 9, 2004 9:26 PM

Cat family being photographed depicts cats--dressed and bipedal--enacting a mundane human situation in a Swiss, or, at least, European setting. It is, in other words, your stereotypical Alfred Mainzer Dressed Cats Series postcard. I have collected them in a desultory way over the years but never thought to Google Alfred Mainzer until tonight.*
*Note that all of these are personal sites and two are Tripod and GeoCities hosted, so treat kindly and tread gently. No direct links, please. coughmaybemirrothemcough
posted by y2karl (4 comments total)

One thing I find interesting about these cards is that there is a subtle racial subtext--Siamese cats sometimes appear as maids, waiters or entertainers as in the second card here. Also, social classes are depicted and upper class female cats tend to be poodle owners. I am working on a monograph entitled Depictions Of Class Struggle In Cats Dressed As People Postcards.
posted by y2karl at 9:39 PM on February 9, 2004

I imagine in hell we are all anthropomorphized animals. Fucking nightmares, endlessly.
posted by xmutex at 10:37 PM on February 9, 2004

Here's another postcard set with Siamese cat acrobats and a Siamese cat dance band as well.
posted by y2karl at 10:55 PM on February 9, 2004

The creators of the Tarot of Prague are working on a Baroque Bohemian Cat Tarot - love to give a link, but they haven't put any pictures on their site yet. The clothes are photographed on models and photos of real cats' heads, paws and tails are added. The few samples I've seen so far look really good - it's due out in April.
posted by tabbycat at 10:53 AM on February 10, 2004