Shiny

While I was pretending to have no children on Saturday I whiled away some of the hours when I wasn’t selling angling magazines to total strangers by taking pictures of some of mum’s lovely stock.  Naturally I want it all, but Jason would kill me, so I have to live vicariously through photographs.

Here is the front cover of an envelope of Kodak negatives from the 1920′s:

I know I am a Luddite, but I do think advertising and packaging were so much more elegant back in the day.  Compare this to a lurid yellow Snappy Snaps bag and there is no contest.

Here is the back cover of a delightful book on how to make children’s party costumes from crepe paper, also published in the 1920′s:

I love this book. It has a pantone chart in the middle for hues of crepe paper, and then pages of the most exquisite costumes you can make.  They are beautiful.

Here is a brochure which claims to teach you how to swim with skill and grace.  Judging from the picture I can believe it:

Or how about this rather cute Mabel Lucie Atwell Hovis recipe book:

Or if you prefer more serious stuff, this is an iconic picture of a soldier from a 1950′s magazine:

or some German propaganda magazines from the 1930′s.  This one shows a fierce eskimo:

I’m not entirely sure whether this was supposed to be propaganda showing that the eskimos were angry that national socialism hadn’t got to their part of the world, or whether he was just fending off a rabid walrus. It’s hard to say. Still, I liked it anyway.

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