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!

1970's Ribbon spools

Sasek Matchbox booklet for Liberty's London 1964

Much excitement in the Mendelsson household last week, when this dropped through the post! I hadn't checked ebay for a while for Sasek, as its become rather tedious trawling through all the modern reissues of his, This is series!

However a couple of weeks ago, I hit the search button, and was delighted to discover this rather battered matchbox booklet by the man himself. The booklet has some rather scratchy pen and ink drawings, depicting various modes of transport in London.
















The booklet measures 320 x 65mm, was made in Finland in 1964 for Liberty's of London, it has a brilliant red interior and once contained 150 Crown matches.

Heavy weight Baggage labels

Sorting through an old folder of ephemera I found these three luggage labels. The top two both date from the eighties and are from airlines. The bottom one is from a cruise ship and dates from the sixties.

Betram Mills' Circus 1935

Complimentary ticket for Betram Mills' 16th Season at The Grand Hall Olympia, London. The season ran from December 20th 1935- January 25th 1936.

The ticket was for entrance to the funfair only, not the circus!

Coin money bank bags

On a recent trip back to London, we popped up to the Market at Covent Garden. Monday was the antiques market, and was always interesting and occasionally there were some good finds. I used to go a lot when I was touting my folder around.

I was surprised that unlike so much of London, it was relatively unchanged. The stall holders were still chatty and were happy to talk about their finds and share their stories.

These pre plastic coin bags came from one of the stalls, and include some bank tags. They come from the British banks, Lloyds and The Midland, (now HSBC). Made from a heavyweight paper, with serrated edges, they come in some attractive colours. Most un-bank like!

Beware of Imitations

Gummed label that was used on rolls of fabric.

Football Special - British Rail 1972 leaflet

Back in the Seventies British Rail ran football special trains, so fans could get to games. It kept the hooligans separate and meant the general public werent inconvenienced. Seems logical really, until one day they stopped them!

Todays post is a relic from that era. The A5 leaflet, advertises transport for Arsenals FA Cup game at Swindon, on January 15 1972. Tickets cost £1.25 for adults (and 75p for children).

The image features a child that I always thought would look more at home on a Knitting pattern!

Misregistered Medical Mayhem

These mis-registered 1960s scraps came from Pollocks Toy museum in London. A fabulous museum round the back of Goodge Street, London. The museum was fantastic, but small. Although it did have a lovely shop.

Not only did they sell these 1960s version of Victoria scraps, you could also buy their trademark facsimile toy cardboard theatres. As well as some great repro clockwork toys.

Isnt it time you changed your shorts?

Unobtainable Under Private ownership

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

Two Striking Matchboxes

Two lovely matchboxes from Spain featuring two Spanish football teams. Made by Fosforera Espanola, they look to date from the Fifties.

If you like theses, you may be interested to know that the collecting of Matchbox labels, Phillumeny is big business. Theres even a Matchbox society!

Its been a while since Ive been to a Matchbox Society fair, but there was always lots to see, and the prices were pretty reasonable too. Ill add some more soon.

HOMS Dial a phrase rubber stamp collection

Perhaps one of my favourite finds ever, was this enormous 12 motto office rubber stamp, that my father in law, rescued from the bottom of a skip in Cardiff, in the late Eighties. Ive always treasured this rather special find.

All the rubber stamp messages relate to late payments in the account department. Unfortunately the rubber belt has ceased up, and the rubber stamp is now stuck on motto number 3 which says
We missed you payment for last month wont you send it now?
















The Rubber stamp is made by Homs and has a catalogue number of M4.It is unlike the more usual date stampers in that is measures 7" high. The handle is wooden and the guard, is made from tin. The key once turned the rubber belt, which in turn moved the phrase on, but that no longer works.

Daddy Sugar Wrappers, France 1998 World Cup

Another topical post tonight, as France crash to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Mexico in the FIFA World Cup. Back in 1998 France hosted the Tournament and won it, but tonight that must seem a distant memory.

As with all these Global events, companies are only too pleased to produce commemoratives, and back in the 1990s, Daddy, the king of paper wrapped sugar cubes produced these rather fetching sugar wrappers. I do believe that like matchbox labels, theres an army of collectors of paper wrapped Sugar cubes. These wrappers are the sort that used to be very popular at service stations and cafes.

1970s Post office booklet cover

Another small collection, that turned up recently, this time of stamp booklet covers. Back in the Seventies, the booklets were dispensed from machines outside the Post Office.

How simple, and beautiful, one colour printing on a heavyweight card is, and stitch bound too.
There are a few more examples here.

Admission tickets

Oxfam Rosita Doll by Belinda Lyon

This classic 1970s cloth kit rag doll was found at the car boot last summer. She came with a similar purple cat. This doll is called Rosita and was one of a series of dolls from around the world created by Belinda Lyon for Oxfam in the 1970s. Rosita was from Panama, she is 12" tall and comes with printed floral poncho, and dress. I love her daring underwear!

Clothkits was an English clothing company based in Lewes, East Sussex. Founded as a mail order business by Anne Kennedy in 1969 . You can view some later patterns here.

Clothkits specialized in selling pre-printed kit clothing for children and adults. The kit would comprise a pattern printed onto the fabric so that it could be cut out and assembled without needing to pin a paper pattern. The kits were also notable for containing all the materials needed to complete the garment. The spare fabric around the pieces of the main pattern would often feature a doll sized pattern for the same garment.

Postscript. 5 January 2012
Ive just found, a small but rather good flickr site devoted to Belindas work, you can find it here.

Ekta hair pins from India

Happy First Birthday!

Its just come to my attention that the blog was one years old yesterday. Happy Birthday!
We know how to celebrate at Down to the Cellar, so here to commemorate the event, a party invite by Newton Mill from the 1960s.

Seasons Greetings with Grace Gabler

Happy Holidays to one & all!
Heres my festive post taken from Grace Gablers 1945 book for Puffin " A childs alphabet". Born Grace W. Evans, she resided in Kegworth, Derby. To view the rest of the stunning book, you should hop over to fulltable.com.