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Jacques Callot's Temptation of St Anthony as Decoration
This is an interesting little book from a large collection I have recently purchased, an anthology of fiction and non-fiction writing about all manner of dark arts from Witchcraft to Werewolves with...
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Vintage Meditation
Almost every other day I visit the tumblr called Loverofbeauty. And you all should too. I'm sure I've mentioned it before. Almost everything posted on it is something I would like to own and/or hang on...
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A Masterpiece of the Ridiculous by Jocelyn Brooke
In 1956 Jocelyn Brooke, who had been quietly publishing a series of well-received novels for ten years, released The Crisis in Bulgaria or Ibsen to the Rescue with Chatto & Windus. It is a piece of...
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Influx of Vintage Swimwear
A few days ago I mentioned that I had treated myself to a few new vintage swimwear pictures on Ebay, and apart from the one I then posted, they all had to be delivered from the US and they contrived to...
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Callum James Books Catalogue: March 2013
A few day ago, those of you my mailing list were sent details of our first full-length catalogue and I've been delighted by the positive comments and the many orders you have made - I'm grateful for...
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Sydney Stanley Illustrates Algernon Blackwood
I'm aware that I put up this post at my peril! Back in 2008 I posted a few illustrations from the Collins Illustrated Classic The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (illustrated by Helen Monro) and...
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W Graham Robertson illustrates Algernon Blackwood
...and while we're on the subject of illustrators of Algernon Blackwood's work, meet W. Graham Robertson. The image above is the fantastic endpapers that Robertson designed for Blackwood's 1911 novel...
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Campers at Swim
The lovely chap who shared the photograph of the lads diving into the Thames the other day has very kindly agreed to pass it to my collection and it arrived today, along with another image, this real...
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The True Face of Retro
To say these images are the "True" face of retro is probably slightly misleading as, even in this small selection, all taken from the The Armstrong Book of Interior Decoration (1962), I am aware of...
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Latest vintage swim and others...
The latest batch of vintage photos. These top two are, in fact, negatives. For Christmas I asked for, and received, some darkroom chemicals. Scanning negatives onto a computer when they are anything...
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Photos of Beardsley, Beerbohm and Brooke
On the 10th April, Bonhams in London will be auctioning the first half of the Roy Davids collection of poetic manuscripts and portraits. It's an astonishing collection by any standards and the...
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Richard Kennedy Illustrates Rosemary Sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff (1920-1992), a childrens' author who published mainly in the 1950s and 60s has featured now a number of times on this blog, in connection with both Jamie Bell's bottom and, more...
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Hannes Bok at Arkham House
I am still cataloguing my way through a large collection of strange and supernatural fiction and, having laboured for days to release myself from the 'B's I now feel almost light-headed by the speed at...
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Vintage Boxing Sailors
Delighted to find this on the mat this morning - not least because I had imagined the postman might just bunk off today - but no, a small bundle including this photograph from the strongly recommended...
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Random Vintage
Happy Easter to you all...As I trip my way around the interweb, I guess like most of us, I am quite prone to right clicking and saving the odd image here and there that takes my fancy. Years go by and...
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Raymond Howgego and the Invented Voyage
As often happens in this business, I have been a little distracted this afternoon. I sat down to list, online, a number of booklets published by the Hakluyt Society which champions research into...
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Vintage Smoking Cricketers
Sorry not to have been around for a few days. I will try and feed the beast a little more regularly for a while. This photo is one I picked up in a charity shop in Alton the other day. It has...
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Alberto Martini Illustrates Raw Edges by Perceval Landon
Perceval Landon (1869-1927) was a lawyer, journalist and author and was best known in his day as a war correspondent during the Boer War. Raw Edges was his only collection of stories that verged into...
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Art Deco BBC in 1933
The BBC's Year Book from 1933 has provided a few moments' diversion this afternoon. The stunning image above appears to be an advert for the company that provides the cable for the BBC Empire Short...
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Richard Middleton: the too-late decadent
Richard Barham Middleton was born a decade too late, he came to his maturity in the first decade of the twentieth century and thus missed his chance to wallow in the decadence and dark romanticism...
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