For many of our followers, and a huge number of folks involved in the online auction business, “The Auction Rebel” was truly and inspiration and a devoted friend.  He was a man of insight, enthusiasm and integrity.

Gary Hendrickson, 62, of Grand Forks, ND, passed away suddenly on Tuesday, June 23, 2009.

Our thoughts and prayers this morning go out to the family, friends and the loved ones he leaves behind.

Gary’s obituary appears today in the Grand Forks Herald.

The funeral service will be at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 27, 2009 in East Grand Forks, MN.  I’m sure many of us will be there in spirit, even if we can not make the trip all the way to his beloved Minnesota.

Farewell dear friend… you will be missed.

Tom Murphy

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We’ve been here before… but once again I am going to point you to “Tattered and Lost”.  This blog continues to grab my attention.

Today I was looking at their posting on “The Chinese Honeymoon“.  Given that I lived in China for some 14 years, it caught my attention.

I had of course never heard that specific term, although honeymoons in China are not unlike honeymoons anywhere else in the world.. i.e. “a traditional holiday taken by newlyweds to celebrate their marriage in intimacy and seclusion”

In this case however I learned that A Chinese Honeymoon was a musical comedy back in the 1800s in England.  It eventually made it to New York at the famed Shubert “Casino Theatre” (sorry, it was demolished in 1930) on Broadway.

Tattered points out that

According to the front of this card this production in the US was “Sam S. Shubert’s Oriental Musical Comedy. Only successful Musical Treat America has witnessed in three years.”

Leave it to Tattered and Lost to find and research interesting Ephemera.  If you are not following him (or her) you are missing out.

I’m Tom Murphy and thanks for helping me give Ephemera the encore it deserves.

Tom

Take a look at my current Bonanzle items or
Visit my storefront.

Technorati tags: Bonanzle, Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, The Ephemera Network, The Chinese Honeymoon, Shubert, Casino Theater

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The headline reads: “Aziza Demonstrates New Frosty Lutre Shadows“

We offer FREE US SHIPPING when you buy 2 or more ads PLUS we pay Florida sales tax for our Florida customers!

Stop over at our store and see the hundreds of other vintage magazine ads that we have on sale.

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Once again as I’ve been wandering around the Internet I came across an interesting site.

The British National Railway Museum in York has a wonderful poster collection exceeding 7,000 items.  Their website claims it is “the single most important and comprehensive collection of British Railway posters in the world.”

The poster on the left was the first to catch my eye.  Initially I suppose because I had never heard of “Third Class”.  According to the description, the railway  provided fast fast access to Britain’s coasts… where visitors were not always welcome ans where day-visitors were particularly disliked.

This poster is believed to be from 1901 and was for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.

The next poster to catch my eye was this one which had the catchy phrase “I’m taking an early holiday cos I know summer comes soonest in the south.” It’s believed to be from around 1936 and depicts a tiny little girl, looking up at a huge locomotive and talking to the engineer.  Cute!

The start of the Second World War of course had an effect on the British railway system. The railway industry took on its essential role as part of the war machine and delays were common.  As a result, this poster explained to the British people that of course food, shells and fuel must come first.  The railway companies also painted out the Station names to confuse the enemy in the event of invasion.  I’m sure it also had some confusing effect on the civilian passengers who were riding the trains.

After the war of course things started to return to normal and over time train travel resumed and became profitable.  In the 1960’s modern diesel and electric trains replaced steam locomotives and  the whole railway system was re branded as British Rail.  But as more and more people started to turn to automobiles, the railways had to produce advertising media that would tempt back to the trains.  Posters such as this one became popular and often included media personalities.  This one from 1975 shows a fellow named Jimmy Saville, a well known British DJ, actor and television and radio personality.

Saville, as an aside,was knighted in 1990 for his services in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List and also honored with a papal knighthood from the Vatican.

The story of railways in Britain is reflected in the development of the railway poster.This commercial art form illustrates the major changes that have occurred in British society over the years and captures the spirit and character of British life. They are social documents of British culture, illustrating the changing styles of art, patterns of holiday making, urban and rural landscapes, architecture and fashion. They also reflect the development of railway companies and their design and advertising standards.

If your interest is in the British Railway system, or perhaps in railway posters, or perhaps just in Ephemera in general, you’ll want to take a wander over to the British Railway Museums image gallery.

From the gallery you can access any number of posters based on some groupings that they have established.  You can also visit a number of other collections, not necessarily ephemera related, that are available at the Museum.  Because of the time I lived in Japan, and rode the Shinkansen “Bullet Train” I know I’ll be going back to learn about how the head of the Museum’s Engineering Collection brought Car No 22-141’s to York.

I’m Tom Murphy and thanks for helping me give Ephemera the encore it deserves.

Tom

Take a look at my current Bonanzle items or
Visit my storefront.

Technorati tags: Bonanzle, Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, The Ephemera Network, National Railway Museum, Shinkansen, Jimmy Saville

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I must admit, I had never heard of “Sweet Scotch Snuff” until today.

But a quick search of Wikipedia tells me that “Snuff is ground or pulverized tobacco, which is generally inhaled or “snuffed” through the nose.”  That much of course I knew.

What I did not know was that snuff basically comes in two versions… the (primarily) European version, which is dry  and usually scented or flavored and is intended to be sniffed through the nose.   And then there is moist snuff – often called American Snuff  – which tends to be applied to the gums, rather than sniffed. It’s sometimes called dipping tobacco, and like the European versions, comes in many varieties and flavours.  There is yet another type of snuff, unique to India, called “creamy snuff” which is more of a paste sold in toothpaste tubes… and marketed mainly to women.

I became aware of “Sweet Scotch Snuff” when I saw this small piece of vintage ephemera on a blog which is interestingly titled “Paper Dolls for Boys“.  Despite its title, the blog does occasionally display a number of interesting pieces of ephemera.  They are generally part of a weekly category called “vintage photo friday”.

In reading the small ticket, which offered a “lady’s fine linen handkerchief” which normally sells “for 25 cents”, I began to look into just what is “Blue Ribbon Sweet Scotch Snuff” but did not find a whole lot. It’s interesting that back then, and I can’t seem to find a date for the Handkerchief Ticket, a man (presumably) was offered a fine linen hankie for his lady, as part of a “reward” (?) for buying four tins of snuff.

I did find the tin on the right, a different brand, offered on Etsy.  The description reads:

From what I can tell this has never been opened. It is Helme quality snuff. The paper label is in very good condition, a couple of very small spots. My pictures show the front and back of the label.

This tin is approx. 2 1/4 inches tall and 1 3/4 across.

It’s listed at a mere $8.00 which somewhat surprised me.

I am assuming that there is a group of “snuff tin” collectors out there.. there seem to be collectors of almost everything these days.  I am wondering if there is also a group who collects ephemera related to snuff?

How about YOU?  Do you collect either snuff ephemera, tins of snuff – or anything that might fit into both the  general category of “snuff” and “ephemera”?  I’d like to hear from you.

I’m Tom Murphy and thanks for helping me give Ephemera the encore it deserves.

Tom

Take a look at my current Bonanzle items or
Visit my storefront.

Technorati tags: Bonanzle, Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, The Ephemera Network, Snuff, Tobacco, Blue Ribbon Snuff

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“… tailored to fit a small operation, a medium size company or a big nationwide company with many offices and plants.  It’s great on commercial problems… handles inventory management simulation, operations research, market forecasting and other problems more efficiently than ever before.”

No, we are not talking about a new laptop from Lenovo or netbook from Dell.  These words come from the 6 page IBM ad that ran sometime in the 1960s and had the lead-in line of “On April 7, 1964 the entire concept of computers changed.”  The ad was for the new IBM System/360.

I know a bit about that as I was with IBM in their Data Processing Division in the late ’60s.  What caught my eye more so than perhaps the words about the System/360 was the IBM logo on the last page of the ad.  It was the logo that the company used from 1947 to 1956.  I’m a little confused as to why it was still used on this ad as according to the IBM Archives, the logo was changed in 1956 to a Paul Rand designed one that survived until 1972.  It was then replaced by the company’s current 8-bar logo which was intended to imply “speed and dynamism”.

You can see the entire set of IBM logos at their website by clicking here.

The ad above is from a website titled “Ephemera Assemblyman” and the full 6-page ad is available for viewing here.

I’m Tom Murphy and thanks for helping me give Ephemera the encore it deserves.

Tom

Take a look at my current Bonanzle items or
Visit my storefront.

Technorati tags: Bonanzle, Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, The Ephemera Network, IBM, Paul Rand, System/360, Ephemera Assemblyman, IBM Logo

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Through a social network that I belong to – ephemera.ning.com – I was made aware of “The Ephemera Album” managed by a fellow named Bernie Riches.

Bernie has spent a lifetime acquiring paper collectibles: postcards, cigarette cards, old adverts and packaging.

As I looked through his website, and his second website, I found numerous informative articles and “shed loads” of images.

Of the two that caught my eye, this IBM advertisement from around 1949 particularly caught my attention because, as many of you know, I am a proud IBM retiree.  Bernie points out that:

1949 ad for the International Business Machines Corporation. The computer was actually developed by the British at Bletchley Park during WW2 to break the code of the German Enigma ciphering machine . If it were not for these beginnings you would not be viewing this now!!

I suspect Herman Hollerith might disagree with Bernie on this one. After all, Hollerith’s inventions are widely considered to be the foundation of the modern information processing industry. And Hollerith’s company later became the core of IBM.  But we won’t squabble about that now.

The other was this one from Lionel.  It’s dated 1954 and caught my eye because one of the many things that I have been known to sell on eBay (through a different name) were vintage Lionels.

Take a moment to visit Bernie’s main site.. and his second site to get a better feel of just what Ephemera is (from a British perspective) and to take a look at some of his lovely images.

I’m Tom Murphy and thanks for helping me give Ephemera the encore it deserves.

Tom

Take a look at my current Bonanzle items or
Visit my storefront.

Technorati tags: Bonanzle, Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, The Ephemera Network, The Ephemera Album

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Have you ever heard of the Wolfsonian Collection?  To be honest, neither had I until today.  And to think, it’s located right here in my back yard.. Miami, Florida.

Actually, Wolfsonian is a part of the Florida International University - It’s a museum located in the heart of historic Miami Beach, within easy walking distance of the world-famous Art Deco hotels.

I was primarily attracted to their Worlds Fair and Exhibitions section where they say:

Another central element of the collection is materials produced for or exhibited in world’s fairs and expositions since 1851. The Wolfsonian collection remains unique as an all-inclusive compilation of world’s fair materials, encompassing catalogs and rare books, furnishings, sculpture, paintings, and ephemera (such as scarves, postcards, pamphlets, toys and ashtrays). Imbued with nationalistic implications, these objects stand out as some of the best examples of their kind in the world.

Having originally come from New York, this 1939 Worlds Fair poster caught my eye both for its location, and the design of the poster itself.

Along with that poster, the Wolfsonian also exhibits this vintage post card, also from the 1939 Worlds Fair.  It’s described on the site as

The Theme Center was the central display of the Fair. Designed by the architecture firm of Harrison and Fouilhoux, the structure was a symbol not only of the Fair itself, but also of modernism.

Using huge, unadorned geometric forms, the Theme Center dominated the grounds and clearly established the Fair’s overriding message – that a positive future was possible thorough modern technology.

When the design was first presented to the Fair’s president Grover Whalen, he commented: “We promised the world something new in Fair architecture and here it is – something radically different and fundamentally as old as man’s experience…We feel that simplicity must be the keynote of a perfectly ordered mechanical civilization.”

“Simplicity a keynote of perfectly ordered mechanical civilization” … hmmm, let me mull over that a while.  In any event, have a click over to the Wolfsonian.  If the Worlds Fair’s are not your thing, perhaps something else will catch your eye.

I’m Tom Murphy and thanks for helping me give Ephemera the encore it deserves.

Tom
Take a look at my current Bonanzle items or
Visit my storefront.

Technorati tags: Bonanzle, Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, The Ephemera Network, Florida International University, Wolfsonian, Worlds Fair

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