Vintage Thanksgiving Turkey Greeting Card - Early 1900s Chromolithograph

Once you realize this magnificently delusional turkey — resplendent in iridescent green-black plumage with a full fan tail spread like he just won 'America's Next Top Bird' — has no idea he IS the occasion, the whole scene becomes darkly comic. He struts between a crimson decorative bowl and what appears to be a freshly baked pie with the confidence of someone who has never once Googled 'what happens at Thanksgiving,' his fleshy red wattle dangling obliviously. The Art Nouveau border framing this scene adds a touch of gilded elegance to what is essentially a portrait of a condemned man standing next to his own dessert course, and the cheerful 'Wishing You a Happy Thanksgiving' script ensures the irony lands with the subtlety of a meat cleaver.