A silhouette is a shadow portrait. The first known ones, found in ancient caves, are black outlines of animals that look like shadows on the wall. Cut-paper silhouettes were popular in the 18th century. They were not as expensive or time-consuming as an oil portrait, so they were favored as a quick record of the family. Some artists had the help of a special chair that used a candle to throw a shadow of the subject onto plain white paper. The shadow likeness was then traced and cut.

The best profilists were famous artists in their day. Perhaps the best-known was August Edouart, who cut profiles of about 3,800 Americans. When photographs became available, the silhouette went out of style. But a commercial type of decorative silhouette came into fashion in the 1920s. Many of these were reverse paintings on either flat or curved glass. Multiples were made by printing the picture on the glass, then hand-coloring highlights. The pictures were decorative, not depictions of real people. The backgrounds were sometimes painted, sometimes colored, sometimes made of crumpled tinfoil. Sentimental pictures of colonial figures, children at play, Art Deco-style women at dressing tables or animals were popular. There were also silhouette-decorated poems about home or Mother, and advertising pieces with a store name and often a working thermometer. Many are marked with the name of the manufacturer.

These inexpensive printed silhouettes remained popular until the 1950s. Collectors have rediscovered them in the past 10 years. During the mid-20th century, silhouette artists started to cut personal pictures at large public events, like fairs, or during Christmas season at large department stores. These flat paper pictures are in limited supply but have not attracted large numbers of collectors.

I found a little gold-colored Coca-Cola charm in a box of stuff my dad stashed away. It’s 1 1/2 inches tall and shaped like a Coke bottle. There’s a small loop at the top that could attach the charm to a chain or bracelet. When I was a kid in the late 1940s, I saw similar charms in gumball machines. Can you give me any information?

Coke-bottle charms like yours were used on Coca-Cola charm bracelets, tie clasps and key rings. They were also sold as single charms. During the 1940s and ’50s, the Coca-Cola Co. ordered dozens of gift items that were sold to its bottlers throughout the country. Coke bottlers could give them to their family members and their best customers. A charm like yours sells for $10 to $20.

This silhouette is printed on the glass. The window and skirt trim are hand-colored. The 8-by-10-inch framed picture from the 1930s is a 0 flea-market find.