Vintage Porto

The matt white hardback has silver foil lettering and a black matt/gloss slip coverRoughly translated from the Portuguese, Embalagem – Estórias de Embalar by Manuel Paula means ‘emblems – stories of wrapping’. The book celebrates the history of packaging in Portugal. I purchased it on my recent overseas trip, unable to resist its vintage allure as I love this kind of early twentieth century ephemera. 

The book is entirely written in Portuguese (which I can’t read), with a short essay at the beginning. No matter: the real heroes are the images of course – and everyone knows a picture tells a thousand words. Chocolate boxes, shoe boxes, match boxes, liquor crates, ink bottles, biscuit tins, boxes for perfume, tooth powder and soap … so many are represented, and more that I can’t translate. I could have scanned all the pages for you, but these must suffice. Quaint, fascinating and inspiring.

Canberra Propaganda

How I laughed when Rupert Bear sent this email around the department. He said he found it difficult to distinguish the men from the women – and it’s so true!

Quite apart from the period fashion, it’s fascinating to see such an example of the fashion in graphic design as used by political propaganda. There is an air of innocence more suited to the 1950s than the 70s, not to mention a whiff of the Aryan.

On a lighter note, I love high-waisted denim overalls worn by the girls on the sailing boat, the Twiggy look on one girl in the field, and the strawberry-sorbet-dipped white trouser suit on the other. Not to mention the stripper shoes on the girl in the shopping mall! (Note the bubble telephone booths.)

The images make one think Canberra must be one great, jolly school camp, with everyone joyfully romping round together when their hard day’s work is done. I’d love to know which agency was responsible for this publication – it must have been as much a pain dealing with a government department as a lot of fun shooting such idealistic images. I wonder how many cosmopolitans from Melbourne or Sydney fell for it?

Moroccan Leather (With a Little M)

A clever inlay for Einstein’s ‘The Meaning of Relativity’Well, since I am actually in Morocco right now, it seems appropriate to talk about moroccan books. That little ‘m’ there is deliberate. But more on that in a moment.

Tennyson’s ‘In Memoriam’ Leather has for centuries been the traditional material used in bookbinding: it’s easy to work with – stretching and cutting easily; it absorbs dye; and is beautiful in its own right, adding to the aesthetic appeal of the book as an object.

Although there are inherent problems to using this material – susceptibility to extreme temperatures, moisture, humidity, light – leather is today still often the binder’s choice for fine jobs. (Late last year I saw a fascinating exhibition of modern leather-bound books at the Queensland State Library.)

Rosas: Roses Real and Imaginary. With Poems. By Susan AllixThe most traditional leather bindings are sheep, roan (a thinner, cheaper sheep leather), calf and goat. It is goat leather specifically that is called ‘morocco’.  

Inlaid leather is a style of binding decoration that often resembles a mosaic or quilt. Pieces of pre-cut leather are inserted into an existing leather binding to create a pattern or design; nature scenes; floral decorations; and even portraits of people. Some of these bookbindings are so intricate it is a fine testament to the skill, steady hand and patience of their craftsmen.

Perhaps I will look for some in the souqs of Fez today, although from the fact that the rare books pictured here cost thousands of dollars, I think I could only afford a tattered vintage volume!

‘Innocence in Extremis’, by John Hawkes‘Wrenching Times. Poems from Drum-Taps’ by Walt Whitman

Fresh-Faced First Editions

‘First Term at Malory Towers’, by Enid Blyton, 1946; cover illustration by Stanley Lloyd

I can’t remember how old I was the first time I read Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers books, but I do recall how I loved them. My hopes were dashed too when one of my older sisters explained that this was a fictional school (and on another continent besides). 

Stumbling upon The Enid Blyton Society, I was delighted to find scans of covers of the first and second editions. I love the style of these 50s and 60s illustrations: they look just so fresh and innocent, with a colour palette typical of the era. They're perfect for depicting the adventures of these young English schoolgirls. 

‘The Second Form at Malory Towers’, by Enid Blyton, 1947; cover illustration by Stanley Lloyd‘Third Year at Malory Towers’, by Enid Blyton, 1948; cover illustration by Stanley Lloyd

they look just so fresh and innocent, with a colour palette typical of the [50s and 60s] era

They make me feel so nostalgic, not, ahem, because I am so old, but because I was so young when I first read them, possibly even before I started high school myself. I love the smell and feel of old books like these, they remind me of childhood summers when I ran around barefoot, of warm, scented breezes and the thrill of holidays yawning ahead of me, with so much time to devour books. 

‘Upper Fourth at Malory Towers’, by Enid Blyton, 1949; cover illustration by Stanley Lloyd‘In the Fifth at Malory Towers’, by Enid Blyton, 1950; cover illustration by Stanley Lloyd

The illustrator’s name was Stanley Lloyd, and he created the covers for all the first editions of the Malory Towers series, although he was also active in the field of pony book illustration – not a genre I was ever interested in when I was a child. He began his career illustrating for magazines, and wrote two books himself, but it is these particular illustrations for Enid Blyton for which he is most well-known. If you have a spare few hundred dollars you can even buy a first edition on Abebooks.

‘Last Term at Malory Towers’, by Enid Blyton, 1951; cover illustration by Stanley Lloyd

No Sign of Talens Billboard

All this talk of Eckersley’s earlier this week made me recall the old Talens mural that was once painted on the side of the current building.

I went to college not far from Eckersley’s, and this was the closest art supply shop to the campus. Sometimes my friends and I used to go on a supply run, and we would walk along the railway line to the store.

You could always see the enormous Talens billboard from a distance, painted on the wall facing the railway cutting. It was the same character as in this vintage poster, but he was a little more swashbuckling. If I remember correctly, he wielded a brush that swooshed the large red tail of the ‘s’ across the base of the advertisement.

I was quite sad when I saw one day that they had painted over it, and couldn’t even find a sign of it on the internet. It’s such a pity when these nostalgic old landmarks disappear with the times.