Not from the last few weeks of enforced sabbatical, but earlier in the year, or even last year, but new purchases, rather than the stuff from the 2021-'23 sorting photo's folder, which we have been looking at in thematic lumps, and I can't remember where they all came from, but I suspect a couple of visits to the old bookshop in Alton, and a couple of charity shop purchases?
Ironic, as I'd forgotten it, and it has a whole page on the
Gowland & Gowland vehicles, whose drivers we looked at a while ago! A useful little primer on 'Old Fashioned Cars', in both die-cast metal and plastic, along with sections on the larger collector models. The cover image includes some of the European plastics we saw a few French examples of, in some posts a year or two ago, here at
Small Scale World.
This is a fascinating 'document', I can't work out if it is some kind of facsimile, or the actual
Bassett-Lowke catalogue of 1968/9 (or for 1969), I suspect the later, but it's very modern-looking for a late-60's tome. It has all manor of sections, including hundreds of old adverts going back to their inception, what appears to be their - then - current range, other makers collectables, in the London shop (including a lovely boxed set of European toy soldiers), future plans, and various other bits of company history, and tech-spec' stuff.
I tend to only buy doll, doll's house or Teddy' books when I see them going for a song, as they are well outside my main areas of interest, but they often have useful annexes or appendices, and anything with an index can have a use, if only to look up company or individuals' specifics. And
Christies are a better class of auctioneer - if you know what I mean!
This is a bit 'coffee table', but without the large format or colour imagery! It's a rambling meander through certain aspects of popular culture, with a bias toward design, and complement several similar works already in the library. Again more use as a reach-for/dip-in reference work, than a definitive anything!
Three more for the 'same size as
Shire Albums'' section! There is a bunch of the
Miller's somewhere, not seen when we looked at this format and the
Shire's last year, because they we shot separately, while the
Louis Wain is a catalogue of known collectors/vintage postcards. The other is a glossary of old auction terms, and pander more toward my interest in language and words, than toys, but there's some collectables stuff in there!
This seems to be in a similar size and format as the
Manga guide, I bought (and posted) a few years ago now, so they can sit next to each other when they are finally set up (was there a superhero volume as well?), and provide a ready-reckoner for stuff I know so little/less about, although I know a bit more about this than Japanese cartoons, I prefer the Euro-stuff which begat
Metal Hurlant, or the
2000AD inspired UK output, and often find I need help with the more populist US stuff, and modern 'Indy' publishing!
A trio of actual
Shire Albums, there is an 'Other Collectables' post on walking sticks in the long queue, playing cards come under toys & games, and will add to several other works on the subject - there's even a book specifically on boomerangs in the library!
The tile work will enhance a separate library on the subject, other interests of mine include both the Art Nouveau/Arts & Crafts tiles, and mosaics; ancient and modern. Although I'm also interested in the bi, or tricoloured clay tiles of the medieval period (Church floors), their modern copies (Victorian/Edwardian hallways and lobby's), and the somewhat unscientific science of repeat patterns and mirror-symmetry which drives some forms of tiling/tile design, which can quickly get you into Fibonacci, fractals and quantum weirdness!
This was a brilliant find, coming too late to crib on this Brian Berke contributed (nine years ago!) post;
https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2017/01/c-is-for-contribution-week-i-circus.html
And it's clearly the tourist/visitor keepsake, for the exhibition which Brian visited. It contains a history of both its building, and how it ended up where it is, and has lots of images of the various elements while they were being built. Interestingly, there's no sign of the seas horse/merhorses, Brian shot, so they must be a newer addition, from the hands of the Mr. McGarvey and his
wife, whom Brian mentioned at the time?
