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Bathing With Swords
I was struck yesterday by this rather fun illustration. Now, if you're thinking the humour doesn't sound very Victorian, you would be right of course, this is in fact taken from a re-captioned...
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John Betjeman selects the 1890s
The Saturday Book is a fixture of almost any secondhand bookshop in the UK. It was a ...well, it's difficult to describe really. It was an annual (always out in the weeks before Christmas), it was an...
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Tim Schmeltzer: A Short Film
Many thanks to the Front Free Endpaper reader who found and recommended this delightful short piece of artwork by Tim Schmeltzer. The very short film is quite the meditation on many of the things that...
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Aubrey Beardsley Posters
Sadly, these days, interest in Aubrey Beardsley has waned somewhat. From the 1960s to the 1980s however it was a different story altogether and you couldn't move in London poster shops for cheap...
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Some Pen and Ink Originals...
Found these original pen and ink sketches in a bookshop the other day. Really charmed by their skill, subject matter and size (only about 3.5 inches at longest sides). They were all mounted in one...
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A Vintage Swimwear Post to be back at the Blog-face
Hello, it's good to be back! Thank you to those who emailed or messaged to ask if everything was okay: actually I have been dealing with my annual bout of winter ill health and haven't had the energy...
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Narcissus in Berlin
I am no expert on Greco-Roman sculpture but regular readers will know I do have a bit of a thing for a finely carved piece of white marble. Berlin, where R and I have been on a break recently, is full...
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Paul Thevanez
It is strange how these things happen. For two years, whenever we have visited a town not far from us here, also in Hampshire, we have popped into a rather nice, unconventional charity shop which...
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A Pointer to Peter Knoch
On our recent trip to Berlin, R and I passed a gay bar called Hafen and outside they had a holder with the above postcard in as a little advert to take away with you. I thought having a woodcut...
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Magic Lantern Slides in Hove
If, like me, you have often thought it would be great to have a collection of glass magic lantern slides, and yet, for lack of a magic lantern projector, can't quite imagine what you might do with...
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Couple of Vintage Swimwear Additions
These two vintage swim photos arrived in the post today and you know how I like to share the goodness with you! I have even provided a pre-cropped version of one of them to suit all tastes...
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A Discovery: Winifred Welles
More than anything else I just love the way that these things happen. I was working today on a new book about the artist Albert Wainwright and I was flicking through a folder of scans I have of his...
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Astronomy, Ephemera and Gay History in the Skies
I've been lucky today to be able to have a play with this really great piece of rare ... ephemera I suppose you would have to call it. These are a few of the 32 cards that go to make up Urania's...
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Algernon Blackwood: A Bibliographical Note
This kind of thing is a collector's dream. I found this copy of Algernon Blackwood's Dudley & Gilderoy in a 'bargain bin' in a London bookshop. The outside is in such bad condition it should be...
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Walt Whitman Meets A British Public School
On the face of it, I wasn't sure there was much promise in the title In Praise of Winchester: An Anthology in Prose and Verse (Constable, London: 1912) but flicking through there are some rather choice...
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Showing Off
Regular readers will recognise this chap I am sure, he featured on this blog last year in August when he first arrived here at Callum James Heights and became part of 'The Collection'. At the time I...
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Cupid by Laurent Marqueste
A dear friend gave me the postcard above recently as a little addition to my collection. The Cupid is by Laurent Marqueste (1848-1920) and according to the card it resides at the Museum of Luxembourg....
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Early Puffin Books Artwork
Time to say goodbye to the Puffins. Three years ago I acquired a collection of first edition Puffin paperback books dating from the 1940s to the 1960s and I have loved going through them, enjoying the...
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Easter Vintage Photos
So those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that yesterday R and I were sampling the vintage wares of Brighton. Just to prove that it isn't ALL vintage swimwear, and to add a little chocolate...
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Sea Farmers
I couldn't resist the cover on this 1920s novel published by Ernest Benn. The jacket suggests that this may be a mysterious stranger (clothed) who turns up at a Dorset pub one night and drugs a load of...
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