We’d like to propose a post: cheers to our new Mail Minis! Take your pick of Cacti, Creatures or Fruit. Every pack of Mail Minis includes six postcards, one of each artwork pictured in that particular pack. Each 4”x6” postcard is ready to mail with standard postage—if you can bear to part with them, that is. We’ve been calling them “snack packs” in our Slack hangs, because they’re bite-sized, super shareable artworks you can easily pop in a ready-made frame if you wanna. (Our Founder loooooves framing postcards for a personal touch.) In fact, they’re sturdy enough to display all sorts of ways. Snag a set for $12, or save when you buy all three for $30. And since we’ll ship any amount for $5 flat, you might as well stock up. An arty set of postcards makes a great gift—the perfect little something for a last-minute present, stocking stuffer, to please a picky giftee, or for the person who has everything. Plus, we love USPS. A toast to the post!
First up, our rainbow array of Fruit finds. Mail one off to your favorite farmer’s market forager, stick a few on your fridge, or give a set to the, ahem, apple of your eye. Painted between 1907 and 1940, each of these six juicy artworks is part of the USDA’s Pomological Watercolor Collection. Most of the watercolors in the collection were created during a period when America’s major fruit producing regions were first starting to surface, from roughly 1886 to 1916. Photography wasn’t widely used yet, so the government turned to talented artists to create accurate, realistic renderings of various cultivars for publication. Over half of the artworks in the USDA’s Pomological Watercolor Collection were painted by just three women—working as a government illustrator was one of the few artists' jobs available to women at the time. Deborah Griscom Passmore, the most prolific of the bunch and a vanguard in her field, painted a whopping one-fifth of the 7500 pomological pieces, including the mangosteen pictured on one of our postcards. The other fruit featured in this Mail Minis set were created by Amanda Almira Newton (pomegranate and orange), Ellen Isham Schutt (key lime), and James Marion Shull (pineapple and blueberry).
Prefer plants to produce? Our set of cute, spiky Cacti are looking sharp. Drop a line to a fellow plant lover, keep one by your desk for unkillable blooming beauty, or frame them all together for big botanical energy. However you choose to use them, you’ll be glad you pricked these Mail Minis. They were all illustrated by Charles Antoine Lemaire—a 19th century French botanist and author—for his book Iconographie descriptive des cactées. Editor of the botanical journals L’Horticulteur Universel and Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l’Europe, Lemaire devoted much of his career to the study of Cactaceae. The six species pictured in our Cacti postcard set flaunt a range of colorful flowers, the sort you’d only see in optimal weather conditions. Or everyday, if you bring these babies home.
Speaking of babies … we’re obsessed with the idea of hanging our Creatures set on pretty pin clips in a kid’s room. But this pack of party animals is very versatile. Send the hare to some bunny you love, wrap up a pack as a little holiday present for a teacher, or hold onto them for your own enjoyment—let’s call it creature comfort. These six animal artworks were dreamed up between 1917 and 1923 by Dutch draftsman, painter, and graphic artist Julie de Graag, whose sharp-lined engravings and sober, refined style falls under the umbrella of the Art Nouveau movement.
We could go on and on about the art in each set of Mail Minis, but at $12 per pack ($30 for 3!) why not scoop ‘em all up? Gifting season is upon us. Get your Mail Minis post-haste!
With art for everyone,
Team 20x200
