Promotional Dough scraper tools

Four stunning dough scraper tools, from the massive, Flea market at The Malvern Three Counties Ground, last week. I had to have them! Apparently companies would send these plastic tools direct to the bakers along with their various products. Theyre almost too nice to use!

Lyons ice lolly badges

Last week I picked up a lovely collection of Seventies badges. They were fairly mixed, but it was these three, that initially caught my eye. They were given away free, in 1973 with Lyons Maid, Childrens range of ice lollies. There were twelve to collect, and you can see them all here. Its a shame Captian Cody wasnt amongst the lot I found!

The kzwp site is well worth exploring, and according to them, Lyons produced a number of button badges for a wide range of their products. The original prices for the lollies are unbelievable! In 1974 ,the Jelly Terror lolly cost 4p, it had a strawberry jelly centre with a vanilla kreem ice shell and a choc dipped top covered in sugar strands. Wow!

I promise to post some more of the badges later!

Ardizzone pantomime theatre

In 1947 Edward Ardizzone created a charming model theatre, to cut out and keep. It was for the December issue of The Strand Magazine. He also illustrated the cover, which is shown above.

As a special Christmas treat, Ive uploaded the 8 pages and instructions, as a pdf. So now you too can create his Pantomime Cinderella at home. The file is 7.9Mb, and can be downloaded here.

Below is one of the pages.

Three Wooden Promotional items

Baby Bubbly Beer mats

1960 Baby Bubbly beer mats.

Information Wheel charts

I was delighted to find this rather nice paper wheel chart just the other day. Made in 1989 by the Wheel Ease corporation in Canada. Its a reference guide for programming the Lotus 1.2.3. Computer.

Paper wheels charts are a way of relaying information in a concise and articulate form. There are many different types, but like the Lotus one here, there is a rotating inner wheel, which has a cut out window. Through the window specific information is retrieved.

The first one I remember, was the one the bookmakers William Hill brought out for a European Championship. Im sure I still have it somewhere.

Theres a stupendous book by Jessica Helfland, Reinventing the Wheel, that documents over a hundred information wheels. All beautifully photographed with a concise overview. Published by Princeton Architectural Press, its now available in paperback. Its well worth a look!












Above are two more larger format wheels that I found some time ago. They were given away with The Book of Knowledge in the 1960s. The Historical chart on the left, documents the reign of each British monarch, while the Geographical Wheel gives population, principal rivers, natural resources and mountains of 90 countries. Below is a detail of the cut out window.

FA CUP FINAL SOUVENIR WALLCHART

I thought id post this little gem from 1975, seeing as tonight is the Champions League Final and on Saturday its the FA Cup Final. The poster comes from Tiger & Scorcher magazine, dated Monday May 3rd. The original price was 5p.

Ive kept the file quite large so that if you feel the urge you can download, print and fill in the teams and goalscorers. Enjoy the game!

Cleveland 1971 Footballers

Im not sure when I first encountered this lovely set of footballers, but these two turned up in a box of oddments at last weeks carboot. Originally given away by Cleveland petrol in 1971, these small plastic busts went under the rather odd title of "Joe Mercer's Great Britain Soccer Squad 1971". It all sounds terribly American. There were 16 in the series that fitted on to a rather unusual circular black base.

The two here, are Allan Mullery and George Best. If you want to see more, head over to littleoaks.com . Not only can you see the whole of this set but also a superb collection of English football cards.

Fruit Wrappers

While I was at art college in Liverpool in the Eighties, I was lucky enough to be taught by a great lecturer, John Sandford. He was full of energy and passionate about making the college a vibrant and dynamic place to be. Amongst his many passions were Magic, Masks, Fruit wrappers & Derby County Football Club.

It was John who suggested putting down the pencil to persue a more photographic route as an illustrator, and He who started my collection of fruit wrappers, after a trip to Spain where he visited the factory that printed the wrappers. We spent a couple of years swapping wrappers but sadly John died shortly after we graduated.

A little bit like the culture of collecting from skips, the joy of fruit wrappers, was that most green grocers would give you the wrappers for free. I dont think printing on the lightweight tissue paper was the easiest! Sometimes, as a result, there would be the added bonus of the image being misregistered.

Protective wrappers were introduced in the 19th Century when paper costs had come down in price and to safeguard fruit in transit. Traditionally they had wrapped Oranges & Lemons, but I have seen one or two pear wrappers from China.

The V&A Museum in London hosted an exhibition of Wrappers in 1985, which was accompanied by a rather beautiful catalogue designed by The Partners. Twenty one wrappers were faithfully reproduced in full colour, on authentic lightweight tissue.

The four featured here are some of my favourite. The two older images were from one of the Ephemera Societys' monthly bazaars. If youre ever in London its well worth getting along to. Even if prices have rocketed in the last few years!

crazy crater critters

Sunday is never a Sunday without a trip to the car boot sale. Six months ago these fantastic bits of plastic turned up for the princely sum of 10p. I was utterly charmed. They now have pride of place in the kitchen.

Released sometime in the 1960s by Kelloggs, they came free in Sugar Smacks cereals. There were eight Crater Critters to collect and the three creatures from the craters of outerspace here are Miss Venus, King Crater, and Glubber.

Theres a fantastic website over at crater critters Not only can you view all the lovely critters but also hundreds of other plastic cereal freebies. Its well worth a look!