Rajasthan fort figures

On the way back from Norfolk last year we stopped off at Stow in the Wold, and stumbled on this series of Indian plaster figures at a small antique shop. Battered and bruised and missing limbs they werent too expensive. We were told they were Rajasthan fort figures. Despite a year long effort to find out more, we are still none the wiser. So here they are presented as is. Hope you like them!

1972 Kellogg's Olympic football plastic figure

 

Olympic football comes to Britain today. Todays post celebrates when Cereal packets used to do something special to commemorate those occasions. Back in 1972 to honour the Munich Olympics, Kellogg's Sugar Smacks gave away 8 different athletes to collect and cherish. The carefully balanced, character above was for Football. 

If you want to see the rest of the set, you should head over to Mokarex. A rather good site full of more fabulous cereal giveaways.

Marriage & Homemaking KTC

 

 I was reminded of this fabulous little booklet browsing Flickr last week, when I stumbled upon a lovely collection of images by maraid. If it wasnt good enough finding some more camping flags of Great Britain, she also had thirty two Know the Game booklets!

Now Ive been collecting the Know the Game (KTG) books for a while, but she had some real lovelies, including skating which Id never seen before. Above Ive posted the 1970 edition of Marriage and Homemaking from the KTC (Know the craft) series, which I guess was an off shoot of the KTG books. Lots of practical advice here, as the contents page below shows.

Its not really fair to tease you without letting you read some of the pearls of wisdom for yourself. Page six makes interesting reading.......

English family game counters

 

Another unknown conundrum Im looking for help with. This small set of seven tokens turned up last month at a favourite charity shop. I think they must be from a game and are used as counters. They dont appear to have much age to them, but they do have some charm. It looks as if they represent four generations of one family; Great grandparents, grandparents, mother and father, and one son. They only measure 35mm and have no markings, as far as I can see.

 Hopefully some bright spark will be able to help. I look forward to hearing from you.......

ENJOY WALKERS CRISPS NOW

Super late Sixties beer mat promoting Walkers Crisps and Potato Sticks. The photo shows the front and back of the same beer mat. The bold stylized image, and the two colour printing reminds me of the programme covers for Stoke and Coventry City football club from the early Seventies.

John Elvin & Bernard Gallacher at Sportsgraphic were responsible for the programmes at Coventry and also produced work for Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion football clubs. In 1972 their work was recognised with a D&AD award. It would be nice to think they were responsible for the Walker beer mats too!

1977 Newent Jubilee Celebrations

Somewhat late but another Royal post. This time a lovely A3 poster we found a while back detailing The Silver Jubilee celebrations in Newent, Gloucestershire. It gives an tantalising insight into life in 1977. 

Id like to have seen the bicycle gymkhana, but cant quite see how Brent Ford and the nylon rock band (Brent Ford & the Nylons) fitted into the whole Jubilee festivities. It would be nice to compare and contrast last weeks events with 1977!

KEEP IN A COOL PLACE

Picked up a few more rather nice elastoplast tins last week, which Im sure I'll post soon. But what I really liked (although I didnt know till I got home) was all three had the same phrase on the side of the tin. Reminds me of Abbevilles fantastic 1987 book, on the golden age of matchbook art Close cover before striking. Sadly, now out of stock, it has always been  one of my favourites!

1981 Plastic Charles & Diana shaped badge

Given its the Jubilee weekend, and they've given us an extra days holiday, something of a royal theme for today's post. This 2" plastic crown shaped badge depicts a rather serious looking Charles & Diana, back in 1981. Maybe the artist knew something about their fated relationship before anyone else, they certainly dont look very romantically inclined!

Pull along Russian cat

Here's something a little bit visually different from what we usually post, but too nice not to share. This gem of a find came from a recent trip to London, on a horrible wet and drizzly Sunday. We were not optimistic that anything would be on given the weather, but we stumbled upon a car boot near Elstree. Amongst an interesting hoard of house clearance items we unearthed this little treasure. The cat itself is wooden, but has a painted jesso surface. The base is roughly 6 X 4", and in total she stands 8.5" tall.

She sits on a wooden base, with wheels that roll along. On the base is a rather ornate gold label in Russian, but sadly Ive no knowledge of Russian and  can make no headway with what it says. Below is a close up of the label in case anyone can unravel the cats history.

Interestingly the stick (looks like a ice cream stick) on the base appears to move what looks like bellows, that sit under the base.  Whether the cat had some kind of musical movement at some point is  a mystery.

Sticking Plaster Elasoplast or band aid?

Call them what you will! Four fabulous adhesive bandage tins from the late Sixties/ early Seventies.

2012 CUP FINAL

Its the Cup Final tomorrow, and not only is it not the last game of the English football season, the FA have even moved kick off to 5.15. Is nothing sacrosanct anymore?

The fabulous little label is taken from The London Transport Museum archive, from the days when the Cup Final was still a central part of the British sporting calendar. You can search the London Transport archive via theme, and there are lots more football related posters if your interested!

Should you feel the urge for even more nostalgia, you can still download the 1975 FA Cup Final wallchart, that appeared in Tiger, that I posted back in 2009.

Going Metric tea towels

A couple of tea towels I missed out last week........Grrrrrrrr!

We come in peace!

Absolutely superb and really rather strange, 4.5" pink plastic female figure that Im lead to believe was made by Letraset, of rub down transfer fame. I'm still to be convinced.......

Apparently you were given sheets of colour that you rubbed down on to the figure (in this case her jumper). Unfortunately I cant find anymore to corroborate this story, but she does remind me of the rather awkward looking girl on the front of the Human League Being Boiled 7" cover, that I do know was taken from a Letraset catalogue.

Candy & Andy...... & Mr Bearanda

Apologies for the lack of recent posts, but back again with more plastic, this time in the shape of the rather unusual, Mr Bearanda.

Mr Bearanda was a Gerry Anderson creation that apparently, never really took off. Not surprising really given the very strange mix of dolls, animals and humans. Id not heard of the Candy & Andy series, until finding out who this little figure was. Like so many of Gerry Andersons TV shows, it appears he licensed the rights to Dinky, who created a diecast version of the car, Stripey (the magic mini) and a set of small plastic figures to go with it. Mr Bearanda is one of those Dinky figures.

I found out all about Candy & Andy at the very good Age of Uncertainty. Well worth a trawl. The comments on the post make interesting reading too.

Until next time...

1950s I-SPY books

Very excited to see I-spy People, over at between channels, last week. Its a real treat. It reminded me of my own collection of 1950s I spy books. Im sure there were more, but for the moment this will have to do.

The Maharajah- Air India's character trademark

In keeping with the recent aeronautical theme, here is The Maharajah. Created in 1946 by Bobby Kooka & Umesh Rao at J Walter Thompson, The Maharajah serves as a character trademark for Air India. Even with one hand missing, he cuts a fine figure. For the life of me, I cant remember where I found him, but possibly it was up at The Stanley Dock in Liverpool, in the late Eighties.

You can see The Maharajah at his splendid best, over at Demonstrate, where theres a nice collection of assorted  Air India posters. Below is the sticker on the base of the 4" figurine.

Belinda Lyon clothkit oxfam cut out doll

Last week my brother in law was clearing out his parents loft and he found this old doll. It looks remarkably like a figure I posted back in 2010. It turns out that she is designed by illustrator, Belinda Lyon who created a whole series of dolls for Oxfam, called cut out dolls. Sold as a pattern, and printed on a cotton tea towel, which you then, cut, stuffed and made up as the doll. It was a pretty impressive series, and so, of its time.

This doll is Malee, a Thai Temple dancer, you can see Nada, the Algerian girl from the series at h is for home, who have also set up a small flickr site celebrating Belinda Lyon.

Late Seventies Horror show

I just could not leave these frightening relics from the Seventies behind, at a car boot, last summer! The heady mix of 68% polyester and 42% acrylic was just all too consuming!

Now, while the urge to buy them may have been strong, there was never any intention to wear them! It should be noted that they fit a 3/4 year old, but there is no way Id put anyone I know through the shame of wearing them, even as a joke!

For anyone who's interested the labels are below.

"I know what you did on holiday" Knitting pattern.

Happy New Year! I do hope 2012 will be kind.

With the holidays behind us, here is the first post for 2012. Todays post is knitting pattern 4078 from Ladyship wools. It kind of follows on from the last post of last year, where I shared some slides, from Canada. The last three posts create a visual form of word association, which is kind of fun. There was the Fisher Price air stewardess, then the slide of the Canadian hostess , and then, todays knitting pattern of a family viewing a slide collection!

Over the years Ive amassed a vast collection of knitting patterns. The contrived, staged family togetherness is always amusing. Like most things these days, you used to pick them up for pennies, but now the more interesting ones cost 50p or more. I dont know! It doesnt seem quite the same!