A few weeks ago I went to Hebden Bridge with my friend Rachel, where I bought a few pieces of costume jewellery from the 1950s and 1960s. I’m finding it incredibly difficult to find out anything about these pieces. In the past I’ve had some success just by Googling the marks on the back. However,…
Tag: 50s
Your House in 1956
We moved about a month and a half ago, and apart from ordering (and receiving) our stove, we’ve yet to start decorating the house. Last weekend, we moved up into the loft room – currently named ‘The Cocoon’ – in readiness of preparations. I’m not sure what Aidan’s got in store for us this weekend;…
Merry Christmas from the 1950s!
There are some beautiful covers and images from the 1950s contained within the pages of my vintage Woman’s Own magazines: There are so many gorgeous images in these Christmas specials that I just can’t show them all. I took nearly a hundred pictures! So, I will choose my favourites to wish you all Merry Christmas…
Little Owl Ski @ Obsessionistas
A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be asked by the lovely people at Obsessionistas if they could feature my collection of vintage women’s magazines on their site. The full interview and gallery can be seen at their website here. Obsessionistas is a beautiful website run by Helen and Graham Powell. They feature…
Big Pot, Little Pot: Scheurich and Jasba
It’s been a little while since I’ve done a ‘Big Pot, Little Pot’ post, but thanks to the powers of my wonderful other half, I’ve got not one, but two sets of BPLP to share with you. He’s even made these lovely pictures for me to show off the vases in their best light. These…
Mel-O-Toons: Treasure Island
I’m teaching ‘Treasure Island’ to my Year Eights at the moment, and they’re struggling to get to grips with the basic storyline, as we – unfortunately – don’t have time to read the whole book. So, last week I was looking for a quick summary on Youtube to show them and found this: Well, I…
Gerry Fancett: Romantic Illustrations
Before I bring on the beautiful images, I should tell you I’ve really struggled to find any information on Gerry Fancett. I just can’t believe that an artist, a fantastic illustrator, who was so prolific and created such beautiful images can disappear from the public consciousness with half a century. It seems a little strange…
The Fabulous Fifties in Pottery
The Mid Century Era, particularly the 1950s, is quickly becoming my favourite era: along with the rest of Mad Men obsessed public! I’ve always loved this decade, the atomic prints, fantastic design and colour palette of grey, turquoise, mustard… What’s strange then is that West German Pottery from this era has only recently started to…
Retro Delights on Ebay
There are so many things I want at the moment, but with a house full of West German pottery and various other vintage treasures, we’ve really got nowhere to squeeze anything else. Doesn’t stop me looking though… Tretchikoff Style Heads Mid Century Print 1950s Silk Print Bag Maio Vintage Print Louis Shabner ‘Glamour Girl’ Print Tretchikoff…
Illustrations: Joe De Mers
Joe De Mers (1910-1988) was an American production artist who spent most of the 1930s working at Warner Brothers, creating production art, before moving onto illustration. In New York, he found massive success with the Charles E. Cooper studio, where he became one of their star artists. His work has appeared in Woman’s Own and Woman…
The Saturday Sale!
Last week was spent frantically sorting out and preparing for the Saturday Sale in Glossop of West German Pottery. Saturday morning dawned and everything was ready: Wowie Zowie owners Jenny and Goff were first in at the crack of dawn… well, not quite. But they were first in as the shop needed to be opened. A…
More Retro-ness from Germany
Well, we are now back safe and sound in our little house in Glossop after a stonkingly good trip around Deutschland. It really is becoming a home away from home. In the last few days of our trip, we stayed near to Bremen, scouting out the retro and vintage goods around there and up to…
Little Owl Ski 