Vintage Books & More

I have always been an avid reader - as a child I read my way through the children's library by the time I was 10 & had to move on to the adult section. As far as I was concerned there was nothing better than reading a good book. I read a lot as I was living in South Africa at the time & there was no TV. I don't mean that we just didn't have a TV in the house - there was no television in the country at all until I was about 15! Can you imagine?? My dad used to say that I would read the cereal box if there was nothing else available!

The photo above is part of my vintage children's book collection & dare I say that most of them were mine? As you can probably guess, my favourites were pony stories so I do have quite a lot of those & still buy them when I come across them.

I was delighted last weekened to find the book below to add to my collection. It is from 1944 & has charming illustrations. You will notice though that the cover is very plain with just a bit of colour - wartime shortages put paid to full colour printing for a while .




The most interesting thing about this book is the dust jacket - if you take it off you will see that there is a different design inside - this was the era of "waste not, want not" & "make do & mend" after all, so surplus dust jackets would be reversed & printed on the other side so as not to waste paper.


The story is about running a riding school during the war & how people are wanting to learn to ride & drive horses again due to fuel rationing, so very much of the time.



I do have a fondness for ephemera - all those paper items that are so transient & should have a short life span, but have survived over the years. I always buy them but then I wonder if anyone is going to buy them from me - are there others out there who want these things? I put them in my shop & hope that there are more out there like me who would like to keep & appreciate these items.

One such lot is the pile of 1960's Riding magazines that I found - the adverts & article are great & it is interesting to see how much more formally people dressed even for everyday riding compared to today.


Another of my weaknesses is vintage calendars - they should only have a lifepan of a year & be discarded, but some people obviously liked them so much that they put them away safely in a drawer for many years until I came along & snapped them up. They are lovely just to hang on the wall or make a sweet gift for someone born in that year.

I particularly like this one called "Me & My Dog" - the dog's face is so sweet - this one is from 1936.


The printing technique on this one from 1942 makes it look as if it is an oil painting.


The lucky black cat calendar is from 1959.


Of course there had to be a horse one didn't there? This one from 1951 is layered to give a 3D effect.




Cards are another thing that I have boxes of as I can't resist - these Easter ones would be great to give a vintage look to your Easter decor this year!


I'm betting that many of you watched South Riding on BBC last Sunday - I really enjoyed it & one of the things I like to see are the props & vintage items they use in period dramas. In the last episode of Lark Rise to Candleford I noticed the ladies taking tea from a tea set which was first made in 1962 - oops!

Anyway, in South Riding they had a selection of vintage Macmillan school posters on the school room walls & they are of the correct period - these were made in sets during the 30's & 40's for use in schools. I have quite a lot of these so some of them are in my shop.
The imagery is so nostalgic & the colours & subjects are wonderful. I wish I could keep them all & have them framed but I'd need to use them as wallpaper to display them all! I have recently lent a couple to Homes & Antiques magazine so they may appear in there next month.



They look wonderful framed - this is one that I have in my bathroom.


I have been listing some new stock in my online shop so if you'd like a peek do pop along & have a browse.