I've always liked papers and documents. As a kid I loved exercise books and scrap books.
Nowadays old papers are called ephemera by collectors.
here's a bit of ephemera I found in my drawer from days gone on Moonbase. All early 1990's: a Steve Flowers die-cast repro parts catalogue; a Forbidden Planet mail Order lost and a Movie Boulevard catalogue.
I used to love buying repro parts from Steve Flowers mail order. I enjoyed restoring the odd die-cast car in my early Thirties including the Austin with the revolving tyre on the roof.
Forbidden Planet was never a huge deal for me to be honest. although I used to pop into the Leeds branch when I worked round there and browse the toy magazines. My shop of choice back then in Leeds was called Millennium where I bought Toy Shop, Action Figure Digest and Model and Toy Collector by the great Bill Breugman of Toy Scouts Inc. I have a big collection of these wonderful American magazines.
Movie Boulevard was a shop inside two arches of the Leeds railway in the city centre. I don't think it's there anymore. They offered thousands of movie stills and press packs and all forms of film ephemera. The catalogue lists the lot. They had a few old toys too and I recall seeing the Stingray Lone Star pistol on the counter.
Have you piles of old ephemera like this?
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ReplyDeletePiles of old ephemera like this sums it up. Yes, as a graphic designer I found many printed items of interest and invariably collected/saved them. This started at a very early age with London Transport Bus and Tram tickets which had the names of the fare stages printed on them. I learnt local geography that way.
ReplyDeleteOver the years there were some items like cigarette cards, Brooke Bond Tea picture cards which were really intended to be collected unlike bus tickets but these now have become printed ephemera. Collections included, comic books, catalogues, scraps, postage stamps, old packaging, labels, tickets, paper toys and others.
Over the last few years various items have been on Moonbase Central including comics, picture cards & scraps.
At one point in the 1970's I belonged to The Ephemera Society which legitimised the collections as there were others doing the same. I raised the stakes above hoarding to systematic collecting. Since then moving has disrupted collections into numerous boxes.
The Ephemera Society used to organise shows in the US, the last one I attended really annoyed me by charging members full price admission but had discount coupons in local newspapers. Most of the dealers were antique rather than ephemera specialists at that point.
I love the idea of a Ephemera Society. I take it it didn't last! that was a poor attempt at humour. I have seen some of your collection on the blog Terran and have enjoyed it, things like the VHS cover you designed. That was great. I found a scrap book at a car boot sale the other day, which was full of scraps from football programms in the 1960's. Footy is not my thing but the rocket on the book cover drew me in and for a quid I couldn't say no. Yet more paper in the house!
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