Silent movies - The Charlatan

While checking the channels on my new TV stick, I came upon one that, much to my surprise, offered me several silent movies. I randomly picked one of them, so let's talk about The Charlatan from 1929 today.

Here's the plot (with spoilers).
A woman goes to sideshow fortune teller Count Merlin. She's shocked when he calls her by a current name, but then the name she had before ... and he's looking into her past in his crystal ball.

Before marrying a rich man, Florence Talbot had been a trapeze artist and the wife of clown Peter Dwight. One evening she took off with Richard Talbot. Peter never got over her also taking their daughter Ann.
What Florence doesn't know is that Count Merlin is actually Peter Dwight and he still wants his daughter back after all these years.

Florence has her eyes on another man by now, her doctor Walter Paynter, and she'd elope with him rather sooner than later.
At a dinner party, Mrs. Deering who took her to Count Merlin and is the District Attorney's wife, suggests to invite the fortune teller to the Talbots' house.
Merlin and his helpers accept and he reads palms and shows off his "disappearing lady" act. His audience draws cards to determine who will be disappearing in the afternoon. It's Florence.

Someone has different plans, though, and places a sharp pin in the back of the box (of course we all know there's a hidden compartment) on which they put some kind of liquid.
Indeed the trick fails this time and they find the dead Florence in the back of the cabinet. Dr. Paynter immediately determines poison as the cause of death and of course Count Merlin is the main suspect.

District Attorney Deering questions him, but Merlin and his helpers abduct him and Merlin disguises as Deering and goes back to the house to question all the suspects - the cuckolded Richard Talbot, the lover Dr. Paynter, the cheated Mrs. Paynter, but also Ann's boyfriend who has tried to leave the building.

Then he reveals that he's Peter Dwight, Florence's ex-husband and Ann's father.
And the murderer is ....

Richard Talbot

 !

The movie is another one based on a play.
You know "The Jazz Singer" with Al Jolson started the big talkie wave in 1927, and indeed "The Charlatan" had talking sequences which are lost, however.

As I said, this was a random choice and I didn't expect much from the movie. Actually, I don't know what I expected at all, but not a murder from the title.
I was really pleasantly surprised about this old whodunit. You may remember "The Bat" which was more or less people running from one room to the next. This movie wasn't at all like that. We had a nice introduction to the backstory, a solid build-up of motives for our suspects, we had a neat little murder (and no bodies got left on a staircase), and there was the clever idea how to enable our main character to investigate in a very good disguise.

There were a few small things that made me giggle a bit, for example Dr. Paynter calling the poison something similar to Curare, the South American virus, or the way Merlin accused one suspect after the other (which I have seen in more modern mysteries as well), but that really didn't take away from me enjoying this film very much.
It was a little like watching an episode of a TV crime show today (at a runtime of an hour), a Poirot (with all the suspects in one room at the end) for instance, just in worse film quality and with less elaborate sets.


I didn't really need a source for this post except the info about the movie being based on a play, but here's another review, anyway.
Fritzi Kramer: The Charlatan (1929) - A Silent Film Review. On: Movies Silently, February 3, 2013

Margaret Rutherford's Miss Marple

A small warning beforehand - I have a complicated relationship with Agatha Christie which I talked about before.
I'm not a fan of her style and despite having read quite a few of her books over my lifetime, I have given up for good now.
I also said, however, that I like (most of) her plots and therefore prefer adaptations of her books. Not all of them and not all of them for the same reasons, though - and that brings me to the four Miss Marple movies with the wonderful Dame Margaret Rutherford.

They were my introduction to Agatha Christie as a child and it's always hard to beat cozy memories like a robust old lady fighting crime and still making you laugh.
In fact, the movies are still on TV on holidays here, sometimes two at a time, but last Easter it was all four of them ... and although I have the DVD box set, I will watch them if I catch them on TV. Always.
I love Rutherford's Miss Marple.
Christie purists will no doubt be shocked - it seems to be an endless discussion which Miss Marple is the best - and of course they are right if they say that Rutherford is not at all like the Jane from the books and that the movies don't follow the books! Even Christie disapproved! Shame!
I get it. Rutherford herself hesitated to take the role because of the topic. I can be a downright annoying purist myself about books and adaptations, but in this case I couldn't care less (and let's not forget Christie's dedication in "The Mirror Crack'd" - "To Margaret Rutherford, in admiration" - after the two women met).
Just hearing the theme makes me happy.



As mentioned, there are four movies.

"Murder She Said" from 1961 is based on the book "4.50 from Paddington".
In the book, Miss Marple's friend Mrs McGillicuddy witnesses a murder on a passing train. The police can't find a body, so she turns to Miss Marple for help who sends Lucy Eyelesbarrow, a freelance housekeeper to Rutherford Hall where they suspect the body to be.
Miss Marple is described as "an elderly, frail old lady" (elderly and old?).
The movie ignores Mrs McGillicuddy and Lucy. Miss Marple witnesses the murder, searches the tracks together with the village librarian Mr Stringer (played by Rutherford's husband Stringer Davis) and takes a post as housekeeper at Ackenthorpe Hall to handle the matter in person.

"Murder at the Gallop" from 1963 is based on "After the Funeral".
This happens in the book - after the funeral of Richard Abernethie, his sister Cora comments about him having been murdered. The next day, Cora is found dead and the family lawyer asks Hercule Poirot to investigate.
That's right, it's a Poirot novel.
In the movie, it's Miss Marple and Mr Stringer who witness the death of the old Mr Enderby and it's Miss Marple who finds Cora's body and then investigates at the "Gallop Hotel" where all the heirs are gathered.

Yes, I did complain about Angela Lansbury's Miss Marple smoking,
but give me Rutherford's dancing Miss Marple anytime! 😍

"Murder Most Foul" from 1964 is based on the book "Mrs McGinty's Dead".
After the conviction of James Bentley for killing his landlady Mrs McGinty, Superintendent Spence has  doubts about his guilt and asks Poirot to look into it in the village where it happened. Mystery writer Ariadne Oliver is there as well.
Oh, another Poirot novel.
Don't worry, in the movie Miss Marple can solve the case just as well as he could. Here she's the one jury member who has doubts and therefore prevents a verdict. After finding information at Mrs McGinty's house that links to a theater ensemble, she decides to infiltrate it ...

Miss Marple auditioning with "The Shooting of Dan McGrew",
a poem Rutherford also liked to recite in real life.
I love her capes - they were hers, no costumes - 
and would love to have one. I'm not the only one!

"Murder Ahoy" from 1964 isn't based on any Christie book but is an original story.
Miss Marple is on a board of trustees for the training ship "Battledore". One of the trustees has dropped dead in the middle of a meeting, and after discovering he has been poisoned, Miss Marple doesn't hesitate to check out the ship herself, in full naval outfit of course!

Mr Stringer had a little shock, but of course Miss Marple is prepared

A typical Christie Miss Marple? For me, that's undoubtedly Joan Hickson (who makes an appearance as the day help at Ackenthorpe Hall, by the way).
The most fun Miss Marple? That's Margaret Rutherford by far.
If you expect a Christie mystery and nothing else, the movies are not for you. Ignore the name Marple and you are in for a treat.

Although Rutherford was 72 when the last film came out, - one reason there are not more of them - she's not "an elderly, frail old lady". She has huge presence and she fills the screen.
She's a stubborn and eccentric Miss Marple, not afraid to speak her mind and not easily intimidated by police, suspects or murderers.
(Chief) Inspector Craddock - also an invention of the movies - doubting her over and over again only makes her more determined to solve the puzzles that he doesn't even recognize. After all she has read hundreds of mystery novels and is more than prepared. Her success confirms that. Why the police hasn't snapped her up as a counselor, I don't understand.

Mr Stringer who, despite not having as much courage as his fearless leader, never deserts her. Just as Rutherford didn't desert her husband insisting on having him play along her. No Mr Stringer in the books, the role was created specifically for Stringer Davis.

Throughout the movies we also get glimpses into Miss Marple's past life. She can do so much more than knit (which you only see her do once in all of the movies although the inspector almost sits on her knitting project once).
Playing golf in the grounds of Ackenthorpe Hall: "I'll have you know that I won the Ladies' Open Handicap in 1921."
Showing off her mother's vintage saddle at the Gallop Hotel: "Well, I've done some riding in my time. Junior Silver Spurs Brockbrook 1910."
Analyzing the remnants of the dead trustee's snuff with the "Slogums Advanced Chemistry Set for Girls": "Strychnine."
In a fencing fight with the killer on the "Battledore": "I was Ladies' National Fencing Champion in 1931."

Is it a wonder that men are falling for her left and right?
I'm not joking, no spoilers this time, though.

Most people seem to agree that "Murder She Said" is the best of the movies and after that "Murder at the Gallop". Opinions vary about the other two.
I too agree on the first two, but unlike others I prefer "Murder Ahoy" to "Murder Most Foul" which isn't bad, but not as charming in my opinion.

Margaret Rutherford, however, is wonderful in all of them.
As she says in "Murder Ahoy": "I am always myself. Hmpf." Who wouldn't believe that?
Why don't you grab a hot beverage, a blanket, snuggle up on your couch and have a look for yourself?


Sources/further reading:

1. Diana and Connie Metzinger: The Miss Marple Mysteries with Margaret Rutherford. On: Silver Scenes, March 17, 2014
2. Ginny Kaczmarek: A Margaret Rutherford moment. On: Ginny Kaczmarek, December 7, 2021
3. Jack Buckley: Remembering Margaret Rutherford: murder on and off screen. On: Seen and Heard International, April 18, 2020

My April books

This is an overview of the books I have finished in a month (not necessarily started in the same month) and those I have read to Gundel (marked with 😸).
I will be adding a short explanation why I chose a book or how I found it and possibly if it's a re-read candidate, but I'm usually not going to add real reviews or ratings (Gundel also refuses to give ratings). Should you want a little more information on a book you're interested in, though, just let me know.
It's posted one day early as the Thursday is reserved for my silent movie posts.


"Catweazle" by Richard Carpenter, first published in 1970 😸

Catweazle is a sorcerer living in 11th century England. Chased by Norman soldiers, he escapes by jumping into a lake - and coming up in the 1970s!
Luckily he meets the boy Edward, called Carrot, who does his best to keep Catweazle hidden and safe. Together they have some hilarious adventures while Catweazle tries to find a way back into his own time.

This was a re-read for a blog post.

"The Alington Inheritance" by Patricia Wentworth, first published in 1958
(Miss Silver 31)

Raised by her mother's old governess, Jenny never even knew that her late parents had been married and she therefore is heiress to the Alington riches. Her distant cousin Mac and his mother are not ready to give up the money so easily, so when she overhears Mac's plan to marry her to keep control over it, Jenny runs away.
It doesn't end there, though ...

More ear ringing for Liz on whose blog I came across Wentworth whose Miss Silver series fit right in with my vintage crime reading.

"The Art of Annemieke Mein: Wildlife Artist in Textiles" by Annemieke Mein, first published in 1992

Annemieke Mein is an Australian textile artists born in Holland. The book shows some of her works created in different techniques and from a variety of materials. She has added explanations about the inspiration and the artworks themselves.

I first learned about Mein thanks to a Style Imitating Art challenge post on Marsha's blog with the artwork "Whirlpool Frog" chosen by Salazar.
Mein's art is fascinating and of course the book can only give you a small idea. I wish I could see some of it in person.

"O diese Rasselbande" by Rosemarie Ditter, first published in 1953

A story of school and friendship.

Re-read for a future blog post.

"Stan: the Life of Stan Laurel" by Fred Lawrence Guiles, first published in 1980

The biography of Stan Laurel, about his beginnings in vaudeville, his film career without and then with Oliver Hardy, and his private life.

One of the movie biographies on my list (there's also another one on Laurel and Hardy on it).

"Meet the Newmans" by Jennifer Niven, first published in 2026

Del, Dinah, and their sons Guy and Shep have been America's favorite family for 12 years - on screen in black and white.
It's 1964 now and times are changing.
Then Del has an accident and Dinah has to take over.
Will it change the family, the real one and the one on TV?

A new entry on OverDrive.
For me it was a quick and easy read and I could relate to some of the issues, but it had a lot of those which got wrapped up a bit too neatly and quickly for me in the end which was a pity.

"Poirot and Me" by David Suchet and Geoffrey Wansell, first published in 2013

David Suchet played Agatha Christie's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in 70 episodes over 25 years - shorter ones, but also longer films. In this book he talks about how he approached the role and what Poirot means to him.

I'm not a fan of Christie's books, I'm not a fan of all adaptations, I'm not even a fan of all the 70 episodes, but a huge fan of David Suchet's Poirot, so this was really interesting.

"Steeple Folly" by M. E. Atkinson, first published in 1950
(Locketts 14)

The three Lockett kids are in quarantine because one of them had German measles (although it says diphteria once at the very beginning?). As Bill needs to cram for an important entry exam, they are sent to a village where a highly regarded tutor lives.

What luck that this is where the Roberts children have written from to taunt the Locketts about their adventures!
Time for a new adventure.

After writing a blog post about the first book, a childhood favorite of mine, I got myself the books I was still missing from the series. This is the last one. 

"Why the Whales Came" by Michael Morpurgo, first published in 1985 😸

Like all the other children on the Scilly island Bryher, Gracie and her friend Daniel are not allowed on the side of the island where the mysterious and feared Birdman lives.
Of course, they go there anyway and become friends with the old Mr. Woodcock who lives a quiet life in his cottage carving birds from wood. He warns them to never visit the island Samson which is close by because there's a curse on it.
Then World War I begins and Gracie's father gets lost at sea ...

The book was a random find on the Internet Archive.

"The Penguin Pool Murder" by Stuart Palmer, first published in 1931
(Hildegarde Withers 1)

Hildegarde Withers has taken her school class to the New York Aquarium. Little does she know she will be drawn into a murder case there, but she can't resist offering Inspector Piper her help.

The movie adaptations were mentioned in a silent movie blog I'm following, so I looked for Palmer's books as I had never heard of Miss Withers before.

"Magpie Murders" by Anthony Horowitz, first published in 2016
(Susan Ryeland 1)

When editor Susan Ryeland reads the manuscript for the latest Atticus Pünd mystery by bestselling author Alan Conway, she's surprised to see that the last chapter is missing.
Then Conway is dead and Susan starts investigating.

I found the book easy enough to read although there's a complete book in a book, but I couldn't get rid of the feeling that the author was really proud of all the little Easter eggs, references (which I usually enjoy), and hints. All that did for me, however, was that I didn't like any of the characters, that I kept wondering if the "Midsomer Murders" episodes I was reminded of came before or after this book, and that I don't feel the slightest urge to read any of the sequels.

"Darling Girls" by Sally Hepworth, first published in 2024

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia are not biological sisters, but living as foster children together in the house of Miss Fairchild has made them feel like sisters.
When a body is found under the house years later, old childhood memories return. Whose bones are they and who put them there?

That was intense. I finished it as it was another recommendation along with my DNF and I didn't want to DNF this as well.
I had expected a thriller, but it's not really although there was a murder. Reading about the memories of children being abused in the foster system got really hard for me after a while.

"When in Rome" by Ngaio Marsh, first published in 1970
(Roderick Alleyn 26)

While in Rome to investigate a drug ring, Roderick Alleyn joins one of Sebastian Mailer's tours with a quite illustrious group of tourists to learn more about him.
During the tour Mailer disappears and later a postcard seller who had spat at him is found dead in the basilica they visited. Is Mailer not just a drug dealer and blackmailer, but also a murderer?

This is still part of my vintage crime project for which I keep getting books by Marsh and Allingham. The last two Marsh books are already on the way!

"Going Gangster" by M. E. Atkinson, first published in 1940
(Locketts 5)

This time it's only Jane and Bill who have an adventure as Oliver is already in school while Jane keeps the reconvalescing Bill company for a week.
They are dragged into this one by an old acquaintance, bound by a promise. She recuits their help in taking a girl from the school she hates back to her parents who are Romani (probably, with the book being from the 40s that's not the word that is used).

After writing a blog post about the first book, a childhood favorite of mine, I got myself the books I was still missing from the series.

"The Three Investigators in The Secret of the Crooked Cat" by William Arden (the books were published attributed to Alfred Hitchcock), first published in 1970 😸
(The Three Investigators 13)

Why should someone want to steal a carnival prize? Does the crooked cat hold a secret and is therefore more valuable?
Jupiter, Peter, and Bob soon learn that a carnival can be dangerous ground.

I read this series a long time ago and am going through it again bit by bit after writing a blog post about it. This book is the thirteenth in the series.

"Mistresses : True Stories of Seduction, Power and Ambition" by Leigh Eduardo, first published in 2005

Eduardo tells the stories of eight famous mistresses from the 17th to the 20th century, from Barbara Villiers to La Belle Otero.

I stumbled upon this book because one chapter is about Marion Davies. It woke the interest in me for reading up on one or the other person in more detail (not necessarily the women the book is about), but parts had more of a tabloid character for me - meant to shock the readers? I also wondered why these eight were chosen, it seemed a curious mix.

"Vanishing Culture: A Report on Our Fragile Cultural Record" by Luca Messarra et al., first published in 2026 😸

Have you ever wondered about the preservation of materials in libraries and archives and the possibility to access the information easily? We often take for granted that physical and digital media are archived in some way, but is that really the case?

The Internet Archive had announced their book (CC BY 4.0) on Instagram and as a librarian I thought this was a really interesting topic.
I'm not sure how interested Gundel was in it, but reading it to her snuggled up or next to me helped me concentrate on the chapters about media I knew not much or nothing about.


DNF:

"The Maid" by Nita Prose, first published in 2022
(Molly Gray 1)

Molly is a maid in a high class hotel.
One day she founds one of the regular guests dead on his bed.

I followed a recommendation and really wanted to finish it to talk about it to a new friend, but DNFed at about a third because I sadly didn't like the style or the way the protagonist was portrayed.

"Yesteryear" by Caro Claire Burke, first published in 2026

One morning, Natalie, a successful "tradwife" influencer, wakes up in a place that is her home but also isn't, with a husband and children who seem familiar yet not like hers, in an environment without technology and convenience.

I hadn't expected a second DNF this month. Maybe I'm missing something, but this just wasn't what I had anticipated and it didn't work for me for several reasons, so I gave up eventually although I had come pretty far.

From my children's book cabinet - Privatdetektiv Tiegelmann

As a kid, I really wanted a "North Pole". Like the one in the Teffan Tiegelmann story.
Confused?
If you are old enough and English speaking, you might know Teffan Tiegelmann as Tam Sventon. If you are Swedish, you know him as Ture Sventon.
Of course I'm talking about the older German translations of this Swedish children's book series because those are the ones in my book cabinet, therefore I will be using the German names from here on (in later translations they kept the Swedish names). As my Swedish is non-existent, I can't say how close the translations are to the original, and it was a bit more difficult than usual for me to put everything together.
The books were translated into several languages, by the way.

Collection of the first three books,
our childhood copy has lost its spine
a long time ago, but I found this
good copy at a fleamarket.

Teffan Tiegelmann is a private detective in the capital. Very capable, but unfortunately no one but himself knows that because no one ever hires him.
So he's waiting while his secretary is knitting in the other room, and they eat "Tahnentörtchen" he gets on credit from the "Konditorei Roda" (Rota's Café) all year round.
He was born as Stephan Siegelmann (Sture Svensson in the original and Sam Svensson in English, there are also other names in other languages), but he has changed his name officially to fit it to his lisp (he doesn't always lisp, probably because that would make the books rather awkward to read). Tahnentörtchen are really Sahnentörtchen (which I always imagined to be German Windbeutel, a sort of cream puff; in the original it's temlor (semlor), in English hot cross buns) and the café belongs to Rosa of course.

One day, two extraordinary things happen.

First, Tiegelmann gets a case. An elderly lady has come to the capital from her little town to look for a private detective, and as luck has it, she notices Tiegelmann's sign.
Friederike and Friedlinde Friedborn are two sisters living in a villa. In summer, they invite some children from the family to stay with them for a while. Everything is quite idyllic until a man appears in town who is more than rude to the children - they call him "Ochse" (oxen) because he's so big - and a letter arrives with the threat of the villa getting blown up if the sisters don't put money in the old oak.
Tiegelmann recognizes the signature of Wilhelm Wiesel (Swedish "Ville Vessla", English "Willie the Weasel") in the letter, an elusive criminal who is said to have escaped through a keyhole before.
Tiegelmann agrees to come and help the sisters.

Second, Tiegelmann gets a visit from Mr. Omar who wants to sell him a carpet. Not just any carpet - a flying one!
Luckily, Tiegelmann's aunt lends him the money to buy it, so he can use it to travel to the town where the Friedborns live.

Off for a test drive, uhm, flight!

Of course, Tiegelmann solves the case which gains him the attention he has always been waiting for and leads to more cases.
To be precise, there are nine books in the series written by Åke Holmberg and published between 1948 and 1973 - the German books were published individually, but there are also two special collections of book 1 to 3 and 4 to 6 (from the Tosa-Verlag Vienna) which are the ones I have ("Private Detective Tiegelmann" and "Private Detective Tiegelmann's New Adventures). Tosa often made special editions like that. I wish they had done the last three books as a collection as well, I'm weird about book series whose volumes don't match, but that can't be helped 😉

Collection of the books 4 to 6

The German titles vary a little depending on the edition. Mine are called (translated to English) "Private Detective Tiegelmann", "Detective Tiegelmann in the Desert", "Detective Tiegelmann in London", "Detective Tiegelmann and Isabella", "Detective Tiegelmann in Stockholm", "Detective Tiegelmann in Paris", "Private Detective Tiegelmann in the Haunted House", "Private Detective Tiegelmann in the Department Store", and "Private Detective Tiegelmann in Venice".

The German editions have been long out of print, but in Sweden Tiegelmann is still a classic, both printed and as e-book. Of course, the books are aged in some regards, though.
The figures, for example, are a bit stereotypical, there's Tiegelmann in his many disguises, the children are smart and adventurous, and the villains are bad, but by no means a match for the detective. It rather feels as if Holmberg intended this to be a fun read rather than a serious crime story for kids, unlike the Blyton books, to name just one example. And you know what, I'm absolutely fine with that.

Tiegelmann's ingenious disguise
as a cleaning lady, who 
wouldn't fall for this one?

Otherwise we'd hardly have a flying carpet or the "North Pole" which is part of the second book, a fridge that shrinks food you put inside which solves a lot of storage problems, for example when Tiegelmann has to fly his carpet to the desert to help out his friend Omar and find a stolen camel. You wouldn't have expected him to travel without a load of "Tahnentörtchen", would you?

There are several catchphrases as well, a favorite being "Die Pitolen nur im Notfall anwenden!" (Originally "Använd bara pitolerna i nödfall!", in English "Only use the guns in an emergenty!"). There's even a Swedish book about Ture Sventon and his creator with this title.

Tiegelmann in another of his disguises, this time
as a child. As you can tell this is an emergenty ...
although actually he didn't even know the gun
from the Thirty Years' War was still loaded!

There is more, though.
1. The books' main illustrator, Sven Hemmel, made some comics based on the books. They first appeared in the children's magazine "Kamratposten" and then also as albums. If you search for "Ture Sventon" in the Grand Comics Database, you can find some of them and have a look at the covers.
2. The first book was available as an audio play on LP and cassette (the good old times).
3. There were also some radio plays (there's even something available online).
4. The fact that there were several adaptations for film or TV shows between 1972 and 2023 (with plans for another one) shows that our detective is still popular in Sweden today (you can find two of the adaptations on YouTube at the moment, they are in Swedish, but you can have the Swedish subtitles auto-translated into other languages, I don't know yet how good those will be).
One of the TV shows was the 1989 Julkalender of the Swedish TV channel SVT consisting of 24 episodes for each day of this "advent calendar" which has been existing since 1960.

Have you ever heard of Ture Sventon, whatever name he may have in your country?
If not, I hope you enjoyed this small glimpse into a Swedish children book classic!


Sources:

1. Ture Sventon on Swedish Wikipedia (in Swedish which means I had to use Firefox's auto-translate)
2. Kurt Schäfer: Åke Holmberg | Privatdetektiv Tiegelmann. On: Kaliber .17 (in German)
3. Tam Sventon. On: TV Tropes

Nostalgia - Princess / Prinzess Victoria needles

Some years ago when I still did the "Finds of the week" posts, I had some called "I'm a collector" in which I shared vintage items. Over time my collections have mostly stopped growing due to different reasons, but they are still there and still loved. I also have vintage items, some inherited, some gifts, some from fleamarkets, some more interesting than others. So I thought it could be fun to share some of them every, now and then and tell their story.

As this is a collection that's still growing, I have decide to give it its own page on the blog now, so I can update it more easily now.
You can find it here.

Actually, I already started talking about today's small collection a few years ago as part of a homage to needles, I just didn't know then this would turn into a collection of its own.
I have used and broken quite a few needles since I started beading. Bead embroidery, especially on the beaded sneakers (no idea why Blogger insisted to have extra space between the lines in that post) and the HeatherCat sneakers (this is the last post of four which has all the links if you are interested), was extra hard for them (well, and my hands).

In the homage post, I talked about how I discovered vintage paper needle packs while looking for beading needles and how I fell in love with some of the labels.
Most intriguing to me were the Princess Victoria needles because there were variations, and I thought they deserved a post of their own by now because there will probably be one or the other addition to them.
That means I will then update this post instead of the other one which might get a bit too long otherwise.
In fact, this one is also quite long already.

It's nice that the packs don't take up much space, though, and of course I can always use the needles if I need them as most packs are full, this isn't just decoration (or so I tell myself). The packs are scattered throughout my Steiff collection, rather fitting I think as most of it are sewn animals.

So what are Princess Victoria needles? I honestly wish I knew how they got that name.
When I got the first tiny pack - not even an inch - of size 12 sharps, I started searching, but without any success.
What I do know is that there are all sizes, that the packs can have a red or a golden edge and "banner" around Victoria, and that there are different pictures of Victoria. Some have a more vintage look, some look quite modern, some have a blurry or messy print, some a very clear modern looking one.

Some labels are all English, some are all German (saying Prinzess instead of Princess and using the German terms for the needles, such as Frauennadeln), some are a mix of English and German using the word "Prinzess" and "feinste", but the term "sharps", for example.
I even found a picture on eBay UK with an Italian label (and now wish I had bought that pack)!

There are those without a country of origin, but also some that specify it, "Germany", "Made in Germany", "M.i W. Germany, Imp. Allemagne OCC" (between 1949 and 1989), but also "Made in Czechoslovakia" (which means between 1918 and 1992) or "Made in the Czech Republic" (after 1992).
Last but not least, most of them that I have seen don't have a company name printed on, but there are exceptions. So far I have seen "Prym", "Rhein Nadel", and a name I'm not sure about, "St. Witte", "Stowitte"? What's up with that?
Did the needle production go from one company to the next?

And who is this Princess Victoria, anyway?
Does the name refer to an actual Princess Victoria, such as Queen Victoria's daughter (who eventually became the German Empress) or the daughter of Edward VII.? Or does it refer to the Queen herself? I think that's possible because there are also Queen Victoria needles with a similar Victoria on a slightly different background (I don't have any of those). Doesn't it make sense for it to be the same one?
As you will see further down, the needles have been around for a long time, but after all Victoria was crowned in 1838, so could it have been that long?
I doubt she was really important enough for someone to think the name would appeal to buyers before she was a Queen.

At some point, someone must have said "let's call them that forever and ever", but why? Because, you know, you can actually still get a mix of sizes from Prym, but in a plastic tube and not with silver-plated or gold-plated eyes anymore to "protect the environment".
Possibly the manufacturer(s?) intended them mainly for the British market and therefore used the name to appeal to buyers there? Why would they bother to make a difference between the "Princess" and the "Queen" needles at all then?

Then I found this older blog post by Papergreat again that I had already commented on in 2022 and then forgotten right away.
Chris had found the following in The Economist of November 18, 1899, page 1629 - 1630 from the correspondent in France:
"A deputation of cravat manufacturers was received this week by the Minister of Commerce to make representations on the use of false trade-marks on importations of the articles they sell from Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Italy. These goods, the deputation declared, are marked with the words "Made in London," or other words implying that they are of English origin, which appears to be a recommendation with buyers, and the Minister was consequently asked to put in operation Article 2 of the Madrid Convention, under which they may be seized. ... The prices at which these goods are sold are probably lower than those at which they can be imported from England, and French makers are sufficiently protected against imports from England by the higher cost and the heavy duty. It is, however, a common practice to import German goods marked as English, and recently the attention of the British Chamber of Commerce was called to the sale, in France, of packets of needles bearing a portrait of the Queen, with the words, "Prinzess Victoria Needles" and the name of a fictitious manufacturer at Redditch (Note: makes me wonder if it said Redditch on the packs). The spelling of the word princess betrayed the origin of the article, but would escape the attention of the buyer."

So does that mean that a bunch of German companies used that name for the needles trying to disguise where they came from - but why the mix of languages and why the different Victorias? Might they be able to tell me something about the age of the needles, like different Steiff buttons indicate the time period an animal was made?
This is only getting more intriguing. I'm afraid I'm not done with this rabbit hole yet. I'm a librarian and determined which means I'll probably be having a look at some of our databases to see where I can get with those.
Ok, so I'm probably not just determined, but obsessed with these now.

Click on the photos for more detail.

This was the one that started it all. Such a tiny pack, only about 1 inch!

Update Victoria needles April 2025:
I got some more packs. One pack is as tiny as the one above. This time we actually have a name, but I'm not sure what it is.
Googling, I can find one result for "St. Witte & Co." which doesn't help in any way, but there is something between the T and the W. Could that be a badly printed O (I found the name Stowitte, but again without any more info) or is it a kind of abbreviation?
The only other name I found was "Schmidt, Witte & Co.", a shipping company, that didn't help much, either. Or could this be a fictitious company?
Anyhow, this time we have German words for these size 10 sharps and even the Prinzess is written with a z as it would be done in German.

I got these three packs for a great price. All of them are unused and full of big, fat size 2 needles. As you can tell, we are back to English words, too.

To show you the size difference, I took a picture of all of my new acquisitions together.

Then I got these - some sharps and some "betweens", two of them with a German print and one by "Rhein Nadel", another former needle producer in Aachen (which changed their field from needles to automation eventually, so this pack must be from before 2003).

How funny that the one "Made in Germany" has the English print, but still the Prinzess with a z. Even funnier is that the print is very clear and looks more modern, but the "Prinzess Victoria" got mirror-inverted!
This pack looks identical to one I have seen marked with Prym. Did a company make these and then marked them for different companies or did Prym just take over from Rhein Nadel?
Is this a plot to drive me crazy? 😂

Then I went on a bit of shopping spree, but that's going to be it for a while, I swear!
If I get something new, it will have to be some kind of variation (uh-oh, I may have ... in May ...).
This is one result of the shopping spree. It's old new stock from a seller who gets her items from warehouses.
Now I have all the sizes for sharps and finally some packs with the red "banner" instead of the golden one. The edges are golden on all of them - except one which is yellow!

I think the one marked "gold ey'd" should be the oldest, it's also the only one with the "Princess" print and without a country of origin.
All the others are marked "Prinzess" and "Made in Czechoslovakia" except for one that says "Made in Czech Republic", but I don't think they all have the same age as there are different fonts. My guess is that the ones with the red banners are younger, also because one of them is from the Czech Republic which we know must have been after 1992.

Here's a comparison between the two packs of size 0 sharps.
The print is so much more beautiful and elaborate on the old pack, the crowns are completely different, Victoria has a lot more details down to the pendant she's wearing! Even the flowers are more beautiful.

By the way, this is what "gold ey'd" (later gold eyed) looks like. Some of the needles are corroded, but I bet they are around 100 years old if not older, so that's to be expected.

Update May 2025 (any updates after May 20 will be on the new blog page).

This little cutie is also one of the tiny ones.
It's the first one I have with both the German and the English description of "Frauen Nadeln" and "Sharps" and once again Victoria looks different.
The color print is quite messy, though.

This one is my favorite so far. My guess is that it was a sample card, maybe used for representation in haberdashery shops.
It has the sizes 1 to 10 safely tucked into cord loops and an extra needle pack marked 1/9 with the /9 added in handwriting, but actually there are 12 different needles in it.
The numbers under the sample needles with the article number 126 and "Et. 925" (no idea (yet) what that could mean) are also by hand, very carefully done.
The pack is marked "Gold Ey'd Sharps" and "Made in Germany".
Also - yet another "Prinzess Victoria"!

This is a bit of a different needle book that my last acquisition is glued to. I found several examples of this early 20th century needle book in past auctions and one of them showed the exact same needle pack, but in different condition, so I know it wasn't mine.

Victoria looks the same as in the sample card, but this time we got "elliptic gold eyed sharps" in the sizes 3 to 9.

Does someone need a needle? I happen to have one or two ...

Here's the Princess/Prinzess gallery of different faces so far.