All is Vanity - Vintage Postcard

Unused metamorphic postal card, of "pictorial comedy" post cards no. 129, copyright James Henderson & Sons, London.


About the work and the artist
From Wikipedia:
Charles Allan Gilbert (September 3, 1873 – April 20, 1929), better known as C. Allan Gilbert, was a prominent American illustrator. He is especially remembered for a widely published drawing (a memento mori or vanitas) titled All Is Vanity. The drawing employs a double image (or visual pun) in which the scene of a woman admiring herself in a mirror, when viewed from a distance, appears to be a human skull. The title is also a pun, as this type of dressing-table is also known as a vanity. The phrase "All is vanity" comes from Ecclesiastes 1:2 (Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.) It refers to the vanity and pride of man. In art, vanity has long been represented as a woman preoccupied with her beauty. And art that contains a human skull as a focal point is called a memento mori (Latin for "remember you will die"), a work that reminds people of their mortality.


I have known this image since before I was a postcard collector, my favorite (living) punk band The Damned used this artwork on one of their 12" record sleeves.


Backside over beauty?
Would you rather save your face or save your ass?
It's better to burn out than it is to rust?
Live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse?