Lothar Meggendorfer's International Circus

       So, it has been a while and I thought I should come back to this blog with something truly beautiful and amazing! I was gifted this pop up book by a family friend who is a self confessed hoarder of amazing things. Since she knows I love the circus this was the perfect present for me. 
       The book she gave me is a reproduction pop up book which was printed in 1979, the original production of this book was printed in 1887! The book is a panoramic scene, the "book" folds out to create a circus tent with a different act in each section. The Frankfurter Journal reviewed the book in 1887 calling it:

"the most spectacular of Meggendorfer's surprises... a book that is certain to astound and delight everyone"

  

In the year we are celebrating 250 years of circus, it is great to go back and look at images of the original circus with it's classic big top. 

The below images show some of the amazing and humorous illustration, with captions from the book. Enjoy! 

"Miss Ella rides her stately horse while the clowns have trouble riding their Donkey."

"Mr Funtolo performs on his horse as he leaps over a flaming gate."

"The Bravo family show their graceful skill riding bareback on two horses"

"The sultans courier straddles his galloping horses"

"Clara Springel leaps and somersaults through a hoop"

 

Woman Magazine Circa 1954

My last post featured some very wonderful old typography books from the days when letterpress was the norm. This blog features some more very retro imagery and type from an amazing magazine found in my grans flat. The "Worlds Greatest Weekly For Women" dated March 20th 1954 has survived over 60 years and has some truly retro, beautiful imagery which I thought I should share!

First we start with the slightly sexist, housewife orientated imagery, which truly shows the era and how much things have changed.

God I love the fashion in these, sometimes I wish my work uniform could be replaced with circle skirts and blouses!

Moving on to slightly creepy children and babies.

And a clown...

These are some of my favourite bits of type from the magazine:

So much retro goodness! Let me know which of these are your favourites :) 

Vintage Letterpress Goodness

I have always had a love for the craftsmanship that goes into old things. I have nothing against new and contemporary design, but I think there is something about things which have been around for a long time that gets me intrigued! 

My grandfather Frank Maskell worked as a typesetter, I always remember him noticing mistakes in newspapers after all the years he had spent proof reading. I also remember them having type cases on their walls for many years which held various nik-naks along with some beautiful pieces of lead and wooden type.

I never really appreciated type until I was half way through my degree. Plymouth has one of the biggest collections of lead type in the country, and while I only had a couple of sessions in that room I loved all the mechanics which went into making even just a few words of type! 

I have inherited some beautiful things from my grandparents, I am hoping to do a few blog posts to share them but this one starts with type. More specifically - vintage font books, I love the smooth paper and slightly faded pages in these. I also love the huge variety of fonts which you can flick through for inspiration.

Love these decorative borders!