A few sundays ago I floated on over to Russell Square (after a particularly hardcore sesh of pilates in Holborn; hence the floating) and had a little nose at the most recent Ephemera Society Fair. I hadn’t been before but have been meaning to go for ages; I think they are held about twice a year and always seem really interesting to me.
So I had a little look round, and found so much amazing stuff! You could easily spend £40,£50, £100 in there… they had some really ancient things in there, upwards of £300! Crazy. It was mainly full of collectors and people with the knowledge about these things; you could hear them saying ‘Have you got so and so from ’48?’ and the person is like ‘No but you may be interested in this…’ Very serious stuff!
I was just there to pick up some intriguing/visually lovely things, and that I did. Here’s a nice selection, all for just over a tenner:
London Palladium Programme, not sure of the year, but I love the illustration on this cover. Signed by the artist ‘Tennant’. Maybe I should do some research of that.
Inside were these amazing adverts; and actual Dress Circle tickets for the show hidden in the pages! So lovely.
This seems to be some kind of Programme for a Musical etc in Paris; all in french. The inside has sheet music in it. I just love the pink printing and the amazing typography! So retro. Ooh la la.
I got this because of the shocking pink colour and because I love the Nutcracker! Inside it has all the cast details and things. Like it.
Now this has really intrigued me. All the googling in the world hasn’t got me any closer to what it is/was – called ‘Fanfare’, this is the first issue – described inside as a ‘Revusical Magazine’ (what does revusical mean?!) it has articles, photos, poems; strange and weird things. Can’t really find any info on it. Anyone know?
Here’s the first spread; a brill advert for Chocolate and then a photo of one of the contributors. Or an actor. Hmm.
It also features this really awesome vintage Debenhams advert – ‘in popular spots and fair isle designs’ – some things never go out of fashion!
I want to get back to using collage in my work a lot more, so I’m going to put these to Photoshop soon and make some vintage-inspired illustrations. Exciting!
2 comments
Heather says:
Jun 29, 2011
Fabulous finds, thank you for sharing. Wasn’t aware of the event, would love to go to.
Love the bold colour used for Fanfare, you intrigued me, what is a revusical? had to google it lol. Found this snippet: Revusical is American slang for a light theatrical entertainment combining elements of a revue and a musical.
H x
Rachel says:
Jun 30, 2011
Hi Heather, thanks for your comment! I think the next one is in December – will definitely pop down again!
Ah thanks for finding that definition; weird, never even heard of that slang! I wonder if they ever made any more issues of it? xx