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Friday, August 12, 2011

Featured Collectible - Vintage Mug Shot Photos

I have a new mini-obsession - vintage mug shot photos. Kind of weird I know... It all started when I stumbled across a blog post on Adore Vintage about a collection of vintage police photos from Sydney, Australia, that included several mug shots of both men and women. This one I fell in love with completely:


This is not your typical mug shot obviously, but WOW - what an amazing photo! So of course I had to start poking around at other old mug shots... You know how this goes, it is kind of like Alice falling down the rabbit hole... There are more out there available for sale than I would have thought, and they are just ripe for collecting! You could create some really unique displays with them, gather them together in an old album, catalog them all online... Can you tell I've daydreamed about them just a little? ;)

It's the faces that really get me with these - you can't help but look at them and wonder what the person did that landed them in trouble, and what their histories and personal stories are... It's a whole different vibe than what you get from most vintage photographs, that inherent element of mystery makes them just that much more interesting!

Here's a few that are on eBay right now that I really like:



1965 Press Photo Esther Jones Mugshot Found Murdered

Real Photo Copy 1890s CDV John Dolan Mug Shot

Mug Shot Card Photo November 18, 1895

As if these weren't cool enough, LarkenDesign over on Etsy scored some mug shot negatives that they are making into prints and posters! This one is my favorite:


Also on Etsy are some old mug shot greeting cards that crack me up, like this one from TheFoundRetail:


If I ever find some of these when I am out junking, I will definitely be snatching them up!


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5 comments:

  1. Sue (Vintage Rescue)August 12, 2011 at 6:10 PM

    Did you see Three Potato Four's score???? Here's the link:

    http://threepotatofourshop.com/blog/?p=2380

    Unfortunately, they've all sold....

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  2. PuppyLovePrincessAugust 13, 2011 at 12:42 PM

    holy canoe! vintage mug shots... this might be the most awesome post ever :)

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  3. CourtneyAugust 15, 2011 at 1:13 PM

    LOVE vintage mug shots!! Excellent work. :)

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  4. AugustAugust 15, 2011 at 7:26 PM

    These are great finds! Vintage mug shots? I love offbeat vintage photos but mug shots never crossed my mind. I've got a couple of odd vintage photos that I own that I've posted on my blog - http://www.vintageasian.com. (Don't hate me for posting a link.) Plus several more interesting/beautiful/bizarre ones that I haven't gotten around to posting yet. Thanks again for giving me a new kind to look into.

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  5. LisaAugust 9, 2012 at 3:02 PM

    I like to collect old mug shots as well, they're great practice for drawing.

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