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Whilst looking for this on ebay, I came across this Merit "Six Memory Games" box. I'm not entirely sure what the six different games are, but I was more interested in the retro illustrations. They look like they must be out of some childrens' books and have a Provensens feel about them ... but I can't be sure. I can't find any info about them anywhere ... anyone have any suggestions?
Another vintage card game. This time SNAP designed by the Austrian company of Piatnik but I guess manufactured by "Benno Products London". Ebay find ... haven't seen anything like it since!
So, I have some "Lucky Finds" posts I've been lining up for ages ... I'd like to start them off again. This one I go at the same time as this. Another Abbat Toys' picture dominoes set - this time a "what-goes-with-what" one. The Abbat ones are harder to come by than say Galt ... felt very lucky to stumble upon two at the same time...
I found this thick tome (175 pages!) a while ago at one of my favourite charity sales where they have a whole container (as in back of a truck) of books. You never know what you're going to get - and this is what I got.
Its full of lovely illustrations by Alan Howard who I had not heard of before. Not much out there on the internets about him unfortunately :( There are about 8 colour plates and almost every other song/rhyme has a gorgeous ink drawing to go with it. Looking through flickr I found this image which is also in this book.
One day when I have more time I'll photograph a few more illustrations from this lovely lucky find :)
Today we went to one of my favourite flea markets ... we haven't been in over a year so it was really nice to have a wonder round. Now that we have a house - we can start looking at kitting it out with nice accessories - for example nice vintage coat hooks and stands and other such stuff. We didn't buy any though - it was more of a reconnaissance mission. (We also had the added insentive that the Dommakes were there selling off some of the vintage china and lampshades they had collected for their wedding).
But something I did find - and buy, as it was such a good price - was this vintage Escorial Grun bottle - in an aviation theme! Escorial Grun is a German herbal liquer manufactured by a company called Riemerschmid from Munich and back in the day (60s/70s?) they used to come in these beautiful ceramic bottles. I first came across them here, and have been looking for one ever since. The aviation ones are fairly rare - and being surrounded by aviation enthusiasts, I was really chuffed to have found this ... its BEAUTIFUL :)
And, erm, I also bought a couple of wicker baskets and a suitcase for my selection of sewing/knitting/etc stuff ... I'm starting on a 6 week knitting course (with one half of the Dommakes) in a few weeks and I need a "handbag" to carry my needles and wool ... of course ;)
I found this just last week - for 20p ... TWENTY PENCE! - at a local charity shop. Haven't had much luck with childrens' books at charity shops lately but this was quite the find. Had never heard of it or the illustrator- but oh my it is so delicious!
Based on a story written for children by famous German writer Goethe; told by Laurence Collinson and illustrated by Keiichi Tanaami. Beautifully painted in true late 60s style. I looked up Keiichi Tanaami, but the wikipedia entry doesn't list this book so I don't know if it was by the same man - and I can barely find any other mention of this book anywhere apart from some Australian library catalogues. Image searches also yield nothing ... a little treasure for myself me thinks :)
I haven't done one of my "lucky finds" posts in a while so here you have a new one... Remember my Carlton Ware guards money boxes from last year? Well, I did manage to find the other two ... See Mr Policeman and Mr Scotsguard. They look really great all together the four of them.
I had planned to display them in Little Wind's nursery when he arrived - but it was not to be. They still live temporarily on a window sill - but hopefully with all the house re-decorating going on, they will find a good spot to be admired from.
I noticed the jumble of stuff on our dining table this morning and had to take a photo ...
In the foreground amassive load of flowers from the Dommake's wedding, in a vintage ceramic jug (the jug is actually from Sunshine's side of the family); a lush bouquet of sunflowers sent to me by the lovely Vicky who I'll be doing an illustration commission for very soon, in my Stig Lindberg designed Bersa jug; more random flowers in one of the vintage clear glass jugs I collected for our wedding at the back; peaking through is my retro Norwegian Cathrineholm enamel bowl filled with fruit; some of the left over apple crumble we made last night using cooking apples from my friend and gym teacher Wendy's tree; "Steve and Rachel", our two potted some-kind-of-mini-palm-that-looks-like-spider-plants-on-sticks (Dragon plants?), inherited from our friends Steve and Rachel when they emigrated to New Zealand (we miss you guys ...); an orchid on the far left that we also inherited from them but that we then managed to get to flower(!) - they never did; a Marks and Spencer's Scottish Shortbread tin I picked up recently - full of delicious shortbread AND with the most lovely vintagey illustrations - can't find who its been illustrated by; and last but not least my super favourite gift from the lovely Lapworths, an Alexander Girard "Mother and Child" tray by Vitra that is so super special that it still lives in its plastic sleeve; ALL on our vintage Ercol dining table set ....LOVE :)
Ah, I do like vintage picture dominoes ... especially like the fox on this Abbatt Toys one.
I've been collecting vintage children's games like this for illustration inspiration for a couple of years now. Galt has a wonderful collection of these things including this lovely "Remember Remember" memory game with many tiles by the wonderful Kenneth Townsend, as also seen in these small dishes I have here.
My two Hornsea bird ashtrays (although sometimes referred to as spoon rests). I absolutely love the simple graphics designed by John Clappison. Clappison did lots of other designs for Hornsea including owl/cat/fish cruet sets and these bird ashtrays. As far as I know, there is one more design that is a chicken. As much as I'd love to have the cruet sets too - I'm restricting myself to the birds (and they have to be in blue!)... for the time being ;)
Quiet times at PlanetMithi ... we've been busy living life and enjoying the company of friends but somehow keep forgetting to take the camera with us - like our tandem trip last week to Bath to make samosas (yum!) with the lovely KimStar.
Anyways, one other lovely thing that happened this last week was that I entered a competition over at Roddy and Ginger to win one of her cushions ... really didn't espect to win - but Virginia's stuff is SO lovely and I've just been waiting to have our own house (and Ercol Studio bed/sofa) before I blew the budget on a bunch of Roddy and Ginger originals; so I thought I'd just try my luck ...
My lovely win came in the post over the weekend - doesn't Roddy look smashing on our Ercol Windsor chair (inherited from the sister-in-law) on some Dandelion Clock by Sanderson seating?
It took us a year to get round to getting the seat cushion cut for that chair; another year to source a fabric we liked; and another further year to actually get round to cutting the fabric; plus a few months on top of that to finally sew the seat up (thank you mum for that!). Now its all done and has its own Roddy cushion too ... Happy Mithi!
Some of my favourite finds - a vintage limited edition Nymolle of Denmark little dish and matching little cup (slightly larger than a shot glass size) designed by Paul Hoyrup illustrating a lovely little scandinavian habour sceen ... I've not found out much about Hoyrup but all the stuff he did for Nymolle is Adorable!
A quite recent find and in really good condition ... This is fairly simple (illustration that is) - and absolutely adorable in its simplicity. Although if you Google image search Jan Balet, you'll find a plethora of other work, including this lovely multicoloured version of this same book. The drawings (although I seem to have not included the best of them) are quite entertating too - you can see what I mean from the mother and crying child. The text is great as well - and its really nice to find an illustrator/writer combo in one person like that.
Two of my more recent finds - a couple of small trays or pin dishes by Chance Glass with illustrations by great British illustrator Kenneth Townsend. I think I have a thing for 'London' based paraphenalia :)
The bright colours and simple shapes make me go "Yay!" ... what I wouldn't do for a Chelsea pensioner.
I first came across Celestino Piatti back in April whilst looking for Italian illustrators that I could look up on our trip to Milan for the design festival. Piatti is infact Swiss, but it didn't stop me squeeling with delight when I came across his work - wish I could draw like that... and squeeling even more when I finally got my hands on a copy of "The Happy Owls" ...
Its the story of two little owls who are asked by the local barnyard fowl why they never quarrel. And so they proceed to tell the barnyard birds all about the things that make them happy with the changing seasons ... oh my God SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
Can I just say - that is pretty much Sunshine and I ... we ARE the happy owls. And you can often find me reading this to myself and hugging the book whenever I need a little cheering up.
Squeeeee :)
Happy birthday to our favourite niece, Sophie ... photos from her joyfully pink birthday party a couple of weekends ago (its her birthday today - but her parents decided to have an early celebration so we could fit all the family in). All the lovely decor by her smashingly talented mum, my sister-in-law Lucy.
I can't remember where I first came across these, but my heart was immediately smitten. A year of hunting has resulted in two of these gorgeous vintage Carlton Ware ceramic money boxes - a Cold Stream Guard and a Beefeater. I would love to find the other two - a policeman (Bobby) and a Scots Guardsman - am still on the lookout for them. Wouldn't they look fab in a kids' room? They currently sit on the window sill behind my desk, protecting my unruly pile of stationary. One day they will have pride of place on their own shelves.
I've been collecting illustrated children's books for a while and thought it would be nice to catalog them here. This lovely charity shop find is by one of my favourite illustrators, Tomi Ungerer. He has such a soft loose style and a gorgeous sense of colour ... mmm... makes me smile lots :)
I've been wanting to start cataloging my vintage/charity-shop/ebay* finds for a while now but didn't know where to start. Then this lovely thing came in the post today and turned out to be the perfect piece to start with: found going for a song on Ebay; a vintage Air France Happy Families card game set with an aviation theme and the most gorgeous retro illustrations.
* My interests are usually either mid-century modernist, or illustration based (especially retro/vintage children's illustrated books).
Another vintage card game. This time SNAP designed by the Austrian company of Piatnik but I guess manufactured by "Benno Products London". Ebay find ... haven't seen anything like it since!
Today we went to one of my favourite flea markets ... we haven't been in over a year so it was really nice to have a wonder round. Now that we have a house - we can start looking at kitting it out with nice accessories - for example nice vintage coat hooks and stands and other such stuff. We didn't buy any though - it was more of a reconnaissance mission. (We also had the added insentive that the Dommakes were there selling off some of the vintage china and lampshades they had collected for their wedding).
I found this just last week - for 20p ... TWENTY PENCE! - at a local charity shop. Haven't had much luck with childrens' books at charity shops lately but this was quite the find. Had never heard of it or the illustrator- but oh my it is so delicious!
I haven't done one of my "lucky finds" posts in a while so here you have a new one... Remember my Carlton Ware guards money boxes from last year? Well, I did manage to find the other two ... See Mr Policeman and Mr Scotsguard. They look really great all together the four of them.
I had planned to display them in Little Wind's nursery when he arrived - but it was not to be. They still live temporarily on a window sill - but hopefully with all the house re-decorating going on, they will find a good spot to be admired from.
In the foreground amassive load of flowers from the Dommake's wedding, in a vintage ceramic jug (the jug is actually from Sunshine's side of the family); a lush bouquet of sunflowers sent to me by the lovely Vicky who I'll be doing an illustration commission for very soon, in my Stig Lindberg designed Bersa jug; more random flowers in one of the vintage clear glass jugs I collected for our wedding at the back; peaking through is my retro Norwegian Cathrineholm enamel bowl filled with fruit; some of the left over apple crumble we made last night using cooking apples from my friend and gym teacher Wendy's tree; "Steve and Rachel", our two potted some-kind-of-mini-palm-that-looks-like-spider-plants-on-sticks (Dragon plants?), inherited from our friends Steve and Rachel when they emigrated to New Zealand (we miss you guys ...); an orchid on the far left that we also inherited from them but that we then managed to get to flower(!) - they never did; a Marks and Spencer's Scottish Shortbread tin I picked up recently - full of delicious shortbread AND with the most lovely vintagey illustrations - can't find who its been illustrated by; and last but not least my super favourite gift from the lovely Lapworths, an Alexander Girard "Mother and Child" tray by Vitra that is so super special that it still lives in its plastic sleeve; ALL on our vintage Ercol dining table set ....LOVE :)
I've been collecting vintage children's games like this for illustration inspiration for a couple of years now. Galt has a wonderful collection of these things including this lovely "Remember Remember" memory game with many tiles by the wonderful Kenneth Townsend, as also seen in these small dishes I have here.
My two Hornsea bird ashtrays (although sometimes referred to as spoon rests). I absolutely love the simple graphics designed by John Clappison. Clappison did lots of other designs for Hornsea including owl/cat/fish cruet sets and these bird ashtrays. As far as I know, there is one more design that is a chicken. As much as I'd love to have the cruet sets too - I'm restricting myself to the birds (and they have to be in blue!)... for the time being ;)
Some of my favourite finds - a vintage limited edition Nymolle of Denmark little dish and matching little cup (slightly larger than a shot glass size) designed by Paul Hoyrup illustrating a lovely little scandinavian habour sceen ... I've not found out much about Hoyrup but all the stuff he did for Nymolle is Adorable!
Happy birthday to our favourite niece, Sophie ... photos from her joyfully pink birthday party a couple of weekends ago (its her birthday today - but her parents decided to have an early celebration so we could fit all the family in). All the lovely decor by her smashingly talented mum, my sister-in-law Lucy.
I can't remember where I first came across these, but my heart was immediately smitten. A year of hunting has resulted in two of these gorgeous vintage Carlton Ware ceramic money boxes - a Cold Stream Guard and a Beefeater. I would love to find the other two - a policeman (Bobby) and a Scots Guardsman - am still on the lookout for them. Wouldn't they look fab in a kids' room? They currently sit on the window sill behind my desk, protecting my unruly pile of stationary. One day they will have pride of place on their own shelves.
