White Willow

"To Nadia,
Happy Christmas.
Pete."














"To Nadia,
luv Pete.
Christmas '73.

White Willow."

LEARNING TO REVERSE

'having a jolly good time hoping this will find you nothing the worse of standing on your head'

A Young Enthusiast

Noir Amusements

OLYMPIC

From Miss Carlisle Xmas 1920

Left Southampton for New York Oct 27th 1920
Returned from New York Nov 27th 1920 on the Olympic.
(A pencil drawing of the Olympic in miniature, a souviner from the the Titanic's sister ship).

"ROCKET TRAM" AND TOWER, BLACKPOOL ILLUMINATIONS. ET.2259

"You name it - Blackpool has it - a kind of gigantic Whitley Bay.
In spite of very mixed weather I am feeling better since coming here & enjoying the bright lights after my spell of 'lights out at 9pm' etc, etc.
Hope all's well & look forward to seeing you all soon.
May & Jack. " (Oct 18 1967)

4854785

The Invisible Man

Held to the light this postcard reveals the silhouette of a gentleman doffing his hat.
The effect is simply three layers, front and back with silhouette between.

FROM A TO B AND BACK AGAIN REDACTED

How To Read A Postage Stamp

The subtle and not-so subtle meaning behind the placement on a postcard or envelope of a postage stamp. Many of the meanings are lost on today's audience so this key is a handy piece of reference for future posts.
This card was intended for Miss J. McGrath of 6 Riverside, Antrim. It was never sent. The epistle on the back reads; "Take this gift though poor. The token letting speak is indeed mine."

How lucky I am . . .

Here I am at last

Glee Club!

There's not much I know about this picture except that there were others but they were expensive and I had to choose one out of a bundle.
This one stood out at the time for obvious reasons though the memory of the others will haunt me for a long time. They were about half a dozen in number, all taken in this same room and were of boys of various sizes astride what appears to be a brand new racing bike, the faces of the other boys looking on were reflected in the mirror on the wall behind. I suppose they were photographs from a very happy Christmas past.

bird man . . .

Collecting can be fraught.
There's a moment when you're torn whether to get something or not, regret can be costly and reason has little to do with a choice . . . this picture almost never made it . . . surprising really because its a great photograph and after a few moments its possible to place it, the location that is and therein lies the reward.
The town in the foreground is San Francisco because the island in the bay, the focal point of the photograph, is Alcatraz.

Doodling whilst waiting for Godot.

Our Borrower wouldn't be best pleased with this well-worn copy of Waiting for Godot which is peppered throughout with underlining, highlighting, marginal notes, doodles and a few stray dog-ears.

BE KIND REWIND . . .

This is a press clipping from the Irish News (Belfast). It was laminated some years ago to stop it foxing. The tone is classic indignation signed-off exquisitely by making two words of perspicacity creating a syllabic gap and a back-hand slap between s and p.

GOD AND THE ATOM

This book was written in 1945 just months after Hiroshima and Nagasaki and is a very reasoned and eloquent appeal for humanity to step back from the atomic age, though the author accepts that the atom was the genie unlikely to return to its bottle. The fifties saw the introduction of iconic atomic furniture heralding the new age for consumers and the Cold War made shopping ideological.

MIT LUFTTORPEDO

By rocket! By jove! Adhesive labels for rocket mail.

. . . her sweetness when she's sweet.

Pages from an autograph book bought in Glasgow last weekend.

John's Economy Cookery Book!

I bought this in 1997 probably for the magical sum of fifty pence. Most good things I've found (most things worth having) cost 50p. Of course to me its priceless, that's the quirk of the collector I wouldn't want to pay a fiver for it (but would because I have to have it) and now wouldn't part with it.
Its a beautiful Tate Gallery Diary from 1972, the cover is Peter Blake's brilliantly titled 'The Fine Art Bit' 1959. The legend, John's Economy Cookery Book is written in a thin flat-headed black felt tip.
Inside recipes have been added including 'Common Market Casserole' and 'Mock Cream' the latter written in the 1st of April entry.

H.M.S. HOMAGE

Edna Welthorpe hoaxer perhaps or a gorilla in the roses?
I bought this book for 20p at a bootsale.
The cover has been blacked-out in permanent ink and the title obscured by an ominous Malevich white square. The blurb on the back has been covered in a tall white triangle of paper, now yellow and slightly transparent.
The book is a trashy thriller called The Red Sailor by Patrick O'Hara and the fronispiece where the title appears has been blacked-out so that it now simply reads SAILOR in block capitals and below this in red ink and handwritten the year '1963.' followed by 'Reprinted 1965.'
At the time I thought it worth having perhaps because it might well be some further prank on the part of Joe Orton or a fan following the spirit of his library 'interventions' as inferred by name of the ship on the sailor's hat, the H.M.S HOMAGE

The Death of Grass

This has just been re-issued as a penguin classic.

Rocket mail

I bought this on ebay I just had to have it! The composition, the colours, everything is just perfect. It also illustrates the hope once held that we'd all be racing around the solar system in rockets by now. Go figure!

The kid stays in the picture.

These photographs are among my prize possessions I got them about five years ago and they still make me smile. The inscriptions on the back read, Broadstairs August 1951. A prequel to Donnie Darko perhaps.

Apollo moon landing?

This is Apollo Magazine (Arts & Antiques) from April 1967, a whole two years before the Apollo moon landing. It looks like Faberge got there first.

H.M.S. EXCELLENT

This pack of Players playing cards came from portobello too, the moustache is a wonderful later addition. I had hoped there would be fifty-two other moustaches in the pack making the ultimate marked deck but unfortunately not.

Manhattan House of Fashion.

Manhattan House of Fashion, Barking, Essex.

The Manhattan House of Fashion, Barking, Essex.

I'm not sure of the history of this album other than that I bought it for eight pounds at Portobello market and presume it was a fictitous company created by a philatelist with friends in the diplomatic service.