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!

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.

Savoy Youth Theatre

Ive been walking past this sign for a number of years now, always with the intention of photographing it. More recently I've been getting slightly worried it will have been replaced with something new, not nearly as nice, or so interesting. However last month I bit the bullet, picked up the camera and got the shot!

The sign,made with vinyl lettering, on wooden board, has peeled over time. As legibility decreases, the intrigue grows.

How tolerant are you?

I picked this Tolerance calculator up last month at the local car boot. It was given away with Practical Electronics in April 1967. I was going to leave it behind, but the people on the stall had some interesting things and we got chatting. The items had belonged to a gentleman, who had worked as an engineer, at the BBC, in its early days. An intriguing image was built up of this chap, who had sadly passed away. Some of the items had been left to a museum, while other items, including this calculator were left to fend for themselves.

I have no idea what you do with a Tolerance calculator, but I dont think Id score very highly!

The notion of getting irritated by bad driving, dawdling tourists and screaming children, reminded me of the film below by Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz, Markets of Britain.



Most amusing!

Unobtainable Under Private ownership

The pick of yesterdays booty. One of a number of beer mats.

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!

Three Wooden Promotional items

Baby Bubbly Beer mats

1960 Baby Bubbly beer mats.

metal chewing gum advertising signage

Thought you might like these? Seven Small tin advertising signs that clipped onto advertising stands that stood next to the shop till. The signs are just a bit bigger than the original chewing gum packets and judging by the prices date from the mid to late seventies.

Those were the days when you could still buy a Bubbly for a penny, and before Bubalicious and Space Dust swept the nation!