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.

Häschenschule wooden Rabbits from East Germany

These rather fetching, wooden rabbits turned up at the car boot, a while back, but despite having their bases stamped, I knew nothing about them except they were East German.

However after stumbling across Spielzeugladen, a toy shop in Freiburg, South West Germany, I'm a little bit wiser. It appears the characters, Hans & Gretchen, come from the classic German tale, Die Häschenschule. The Rabbit School was written by Albert Sixtus, and first published in 1924.

1969 Britains Cotton- Education Pack

Heres a curious find from a car boot, this summer. As is so often the case, just as we were about to leave, this brilliant educational pack turned up on the penultimate stall.

Released by The Textile Councils, Education department, this box has all manner of samples relating to the cotton industry. Britain's Cottons- Samples of Cotton, from field to fabric is beautifully designed and details various aspects of the industry for the year 1969.





















A couple of statistics from the printed sheet above, stand out. In 1969 a total of 122,029 people were employed in the textile industry, and the UK exported £53,227,000 worth of cotton and man made fibre that year. I wonder what the figures were for the UK, last year?


















Above are some close ups of the sample book, along with a Cotton Boll sample. I bet The Textile council dont send boxes like this out to schools anymore?

Unobtainable Under Private ownership

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

R Dakins' Dream Pets

Weve picked up a few of these recently at different car boots, although it took a while to realise they were from the same series. Apparently Dream Pets were first released in 1957. They were originally made in Japan, and the story goes the stuffed toys had been used to protect toy trains imported by R Dakin & Co. They caused quite a stir and by the late seventies there were over 2000 characters to collect.

Reissued in 2004, The characters stand about 5" high and are made from a mixture of felt, and a suede like product. The three above, are #19. Roquefort #18. Pancho & Demo Donkey. Below is a label detailing the range. You can see a few more over at Pidgeonblog, and a few more here.

Holiday on Ice Musical memory Record Card

Wow! On our way over to my sisters this weekend, the car came to an abrupt halt along the A46, as we saw the signs for a Saturday Carboot in Beckford. The sun was out and our hopes were high! You cant beat the joy of an unexpected trawl.

The boys were happy because they found a mountain of this years Match Attax. (Football trading cards. See, Ive even managed to get them collecting too!) Then I found a pretty battered copy of Angela Banners' Ant & Bee. So everyone was happy! But then, just as we were leaving, I spotted the above. Its in a sorry state, and sadly unplayable, but it's a fore runner of the flexi disc!

Odd, because only last week me old mucker, Nainesh was on about our friend Paul Bayley putting a programme together for Radio 4 on The Wonderful Weightless World of the Flexidisc. The programme goes out on Thursday 27 May 11.30am. Ill be listening!

I didnt get anything to Paul in time, but this Holiday on Ice record is a bit special. Published by Lyntone Recordings of London, the reverse (below) is a postcard! Imagine getting that in the post? The track from the show is The Song is You & Wunderbar, sung by Iris Villiers.




















Now I just have to find the other flexis I wanted to get to Paul!

You can listen to the show here on the bbc iplayer.

Tente Monkey Business

I was about to post a whole hoard of older lego duplo figures, but amongst the collection I found this little monkey, who caught my eye, and didnt quite belong. It turned out he was made by a company called Tente.

Tente were based in Barcelona, Spain, where they created a whole range of construction toys along similar lines to lego. Its fans are adamant it was more detailed and even more educational than its Danish counterpart.

The most fantastic thing about this chap, is that his collar spins his head round, to reveal three fabulously different expressions; He can be angry, happy and sleepy.......

But for now hes off to bed.

Monster in my Pocket

With all the snow, the local car boot has not been happening! Im suffering severe withdrawl symptoms. Even the local Charity shops stock is a bit thin on the ground, and what worries me more is the weather men are threatening more snow tonight. Sundays boot is under threat!

Todays post features a small selection of Monsters in My Pocket, that turned up in one of those boxes that you always find under sellers trestle tables. The boxes are always filled with odds and ends, forgotten toys, that were huge in their day, but now just a forgotten fad.

Released by Matchbox in the 1990s, Monster in My Pocket (M.I.M.P) were huge in their time and there were several series. Some like Crater Critters were free inside cereal packs, while others were released with the Nintendo game of the same name. Should you want to see more you should pop along to, the very informative raumhafen.de

Perpetual School Calendar

I couldnt have put it better myself! These wooden school flashcards are part of a much bigger set, that allowed the teacher to display the date and the days climatic conditions. How very British! It reminds me of the hymn number display in a church. Each ply wood board is 4mm deep, and 43mm high. I do hope tomorrows a bit brighter!

Marching Mexican Mariachi band

Recent purchase that turned up on our summer travels . I thought they were a Mariachi band , but it turns out they may be Jarochos! They dress and play in the Veracruz style. The big difference being their traditional white shirts, trousers and hats!

Sandwich flags 2

More sandwich flags, I just found hiding in some old tins.

nesting penguins

I do like the simplicity of these three penguins from the 1950s. The largest wooden penguin is 70mm high and splits along the middle like a russian doll. The two smaller ones sit inside.

CAMPING FEAST

Its a bit like waiting for a bus! Today there are two installments!

These gorgeous Caravan Club pennants were amongst a massive tangle of flags purchased from Merton Abbey Car boot, situated by the river Wandle in deepest South London. In the late 1800s William Morris had produced textiles for Libertys on the site, but back in the Nineties, it was other peoples junk, that got me out of bed in the morning !

The four Caravan Club flags featured here are for The B.H.M.D.A (Buckingham Hertfordshire & Middlesex District). Each District would have a number of meetings each year, for which they would produce a flag.These very graphic versions date from the early 1970s. They now take pride of place at home.

A bird in the hand......

Found in the bottom of a box some time ago, are these two charming bird salt & pepper shakers. Both the salt cellar and the pepper pot are made from wood and stamped Foreign on the bottom, they measure 85mm. The simple decoration on this condiment set reminds me of bar tool sets from the 1950s.

If youre interested in Salt & Pepper shakers Abbeville books produced a marvelous book, Great Shakes in 1986 by Gideon Bosker. Although now out of print, its well worth hunting down.

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!