Featured Victorian Rebus Puzzle Cards - Hand Drawn

Discussion in 'Ephemera and Photographs' started by Bookahtoo, Oct 12, 2026 at 1:18 PM.

  1. Bookahtoo

    Bookahtoo Moderator Moderator

    DS#2 came across 38 of these rebus cards. They each measure 3 3/4" across by 2 1/2" tall.

    At least two different people created the cards in this group.

    I need help with more precise dating, type of script (I think I see both Roundhand and Spencerian) and the solving of the puzzles themselves.

    I'll start with twelve of them, and post more if anyone wants me to.

    sml1-4.jpg

    sml5-8.jpg

    sml9-12.jpg

    Thanks!
     
    Marote, Boland and komokwa like this.
  2. Bookahtoo

    Bookahtoo Moderator Moderator

    Oh - here are the backs of the first four:

    smallerback.JPG
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2026 at 2:12 PM
  3. daveydempsey

    daveydempsey Moderator Moderator

    Top 4 Ai

    • Top Left: A pestle and mortar next to "R ENT" -> Mortar and pestle / or "Pestle-rent" / Barrent (or Mortarent / Scranton - let's check: mortar + rent = Mortarent or similar place name/word).
    • Top Right: A stalk of grain/feather? + a man standing + a ship -> Manhattan (Man + hat + an? No: man + ship / man-of-war = Man-of-war / Mansfield? Wait: feather/reed? + man + ship = Reed-man-ship or Riedman / **Rhineland / Manila).
    • Bottom Left: Elaborate floral/vine letters spelling RE -> Rose or Rambler or Rambling rose (or just Rambler / **Rose).
    • Bottom Right: "Am" + a large letter "U" with spots/dots inside + an eye + "ty" -> Ambiguity ("Am - big - u - i - ty" -> Am + big + U + eye + ty = Ambiguity).
     
  4. Bookahtoo

    Bookahtoo Moderator Moderator

    Ai figured these out you say? :inpain:
    It looks like they got #4 correct.
    I believe #2 is Penmanship.
     
    daveydempsey likes this.
  5. daveydempsey

    daveydempsey Moderator Moderator

    The one with the windmill is Miller
     
  6. Bookahtoo

    Bookahtoo Moderator Moderator

    Thanks Davey.

    Could #11 be Array?
     
  7. Iconodule

    Iconodule Well-Known Member

    With Bookahtoo's identification of the "wheat stalk/freather"" as a quill pen #8 (Small Change) would be "pennies."

    Could #10 be "delighted" (D+ candle as "light")?

    Perhaps #11 could be "stunner" (sun+R)? Not sure about that. R+sun reads re-sun/reason, which does not fit the clue. And the rays do not define a complete sun circle ("rays, "halo," "aura"?). Dazzle-R?
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2026 at 4:51 PM
  8. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    Paradise (pair of dice.) Arrayed.
     
    daveydempsey likes this.
  9. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    Yep, yep. And penmanship & miller.
     
  10. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    Also yep.
     
  11. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    Could this be the poem?

    Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

    By The River

    FLOW on, ye lays so loved, so fair,

    On to Oblivion's ocean flow!
    May no rapt boy recall you e'er,

    No maiden in her beauty's glow!

    My love alone was then your theme,

    But now she scorns my passion true.
    Ye were but written in the stream;

    As it flows on, then, flow ye too!
     
  12. Bookahtoo

    Bookahtoo Moderator Moderator

    Can you explain how the rebus points to that poem Bronwen?
     
    Bronwen likes this.
  13. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    It wouldn't really be a rebus, but once I stopped seeing Alice and the Pool of Tears, I considered more what else could be depicted that was a famous poem. Went looking for something with a title along the lines of 'by the river' & this was top of AI's results. The table where the letters were written, the epistles being washed away, the candle that has connections with both inspiration & nighttime labors. It's Goethe, it's short. I can imagine kids having to learn it once upon a time. Largely conjecture, but it hangs together fairly well.

    In some of the others wish I knew what the drawing was supposed to be. Are those sheep on a hill? Ewes?
     
  14. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

  15. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    - Anyone
     
  16. Marote

    Marote Well-Known Member

  17. Marote

    Marote Well-Known Member

    #1 Supereminent (Soup R EM in ENT)
     
  18. Marote

    Marote Well-Known Member

    Could the poem be Paradise Lost?
     
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