From several sources, pointers to a posting [note of 8/5/22: apparently no longer available] entitled “Zwicky and the Cat Museum”. The museum is in Amsterdam, it offers “vintage posters and painting of cats, cat sculptures, and toys”, plus a number of live cats, and Zwicky comes into it because one of those posters is this delightful 1950 piece by Donald Brun (shown here along with a ticket from the Cat Museum):
This is not a poster of a cat named Zwicky — though that’s an idea I find appealing, for obvious reasons — but a poster advertising the Zwicky thread firm (branches of the Zwicky family are involved in all sorts of commercial enterprises in Switzerland, though not, so far as I can see, the design and manufacture of cuckoo clocks). The cat is wielding a spool of silk thread (soie á coudre, literally ‘silk for sewing’).
I was hoping to get me one of those posters, but it turns out that the posters that Brun did for Zwicky in the 1950s now count as classics — “vintage posters” — and go for significant prices.
March 4, 2010 at 1:10 am |
While there are some cuckoo clocks made in Switzerland, the epicenter is really the Black Forest region of Germany. We don’t generally wear lederhosen here, either. Those are mostly found in Bavaria.
March 4, 2010 at 6:09 am |
To David: I understand that cuckoo clocks are mostly made in the Black Forest region of Germany rather than in Switzerland. My mention of cuckoo clocks in connection with Swiss family Zwicky was a (perhaps too subtle) allusion to the quotation from the character Harry Lime in The Third Man:
July 3, 2010 at 9:30 pm |
[…] adding yet another product to the growing list of Zwicky things (among them chocolate, muesli, thread and yarn, arrowheads for bow-and-arrow hunting, and meat […]
September 14, 2010 at 8:05 pm |
Do you know about a Cat Museum starting up in San Francisco http://www.catmuseumsf.com
March 20, 2011 at 8:17 am |
[…] posting on the Zwicky-cat (in the 1950 poster by Donald Brun) in Amsterdam, here. I hate to think what it’s selling […]
November 29, 2011 at 6:33 pm |
I bought this poster when I visited the cat museum in 2005. Unfortunately, I moved like 10 times since then. I wish I could find it and hang it back up. But it really is great to see it again, even on my screen. It’s like an old friend.
September 28, 2020 at 11:31 am |
I have the poster, purchased it from a dealer 15 years ago and framed it. If you are still interested let me know. Thank you.
September 28, 2020 at 12:06 pm |
I of course have my own framed copy. Aside from the Zwicky connection, it’s an excellent example of poster art.