From the reference box # 87

#87 - British Discovery First Day Cover Stamps. Issued on 19 September 1967 this set of stamps commemorates, "four aspects of British discovery which have changed the course of modern living".

4d - Designed by Clive Abbott depicts a radar screen to pay tribute to Sir Robert Watson-Watt and his discovery and development of radar.

1/- Also designed by Abbott, celebrates Sir Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin and shows spores of penicillin.

1/6d - Designed by Richard Negus and Philip Sharland this stamp illustrates 2 jet engines on a VC10 aircraft to commemorate the invention of the jet engine by Sir Frank Whittle.

1/9d - Also designed by Richard Negus and Philip Sharland the final stamp in this set celebrates the work of John Logie baird and an invention we all enjoy - the television!

I always find it odd when different people design stamps in the same set as they always appear disjointed when put together with no consistency of type sizes, fonts, size of the Queens head or even overall layout/style.

Here's the First Day Cover Envelope (designed by David Gentleman) showing portraits of the inventors...

There are many more First Day Covers and stamps in the reference box - check them out here.

Jay B Sauceda Photography

Great photos of traditional sign writing by Texan photographer, Jay B Sauceda - I love that feeling of faded glory they portray.

"Before there was vinyl printing there were big brick walls and craftsmen who covered said walls with their commercial artwork. This is my ever growing collection of those that I find while on the road."

Check out more of Jay's images here.

Via Oh Joy.
Images copyright Jay B Sauceda.

From the reference box # 86

#86 - Vintage Catarrh Pastilles packaging. I love the colour combo of this Boots packaging, not what you would expect for throat sweets.

I had thought it was circa 50's/60's but after looking at the Boots timeline I think it's more likely to be from the early 70's as it has both the original name 'Boots Pure Drug Company' and 'The Boots Company' (which it became in 1971) on it?? Still not convinced, but it's a great example never-the-less.

See more fabulous packaging and items of ephemera here.

Vintage Milk Bottles

Who knew milk bottles could be so gorgeous, this lovely collection belongs to milk bottle collector and member of The National Association of Milk Bottle Collectors, Bill Kaiser. He has pages of bottles, the ones above are just a selection.

All the bottles have great graphics and decorative type, my personal favourites are the Crescent Milk graphic and the United Dairy type. It must have been lovely to start the day with one of these fine bottles on the table and don't forget how fabulous the bottle tops also used to be.

All the bottles above are available for sale on Got Milk Bottles. There is no mention of date, but my guess would be that they're from the 40's and 50's (I could however be very wrong!).

All images copyright Bill Kaiser.

Holiday Magazine Covers

These Holiday magazine covers from the 50's and 60's are great, they have a dash of humour and wit which never goes amiss on a cover design in my mind and I love the collage style graphics on a couple of them, especially the big '2'.

The fabulous Gono have all the covers from 1946 - 1968, many are photographic, but there are quite a few graphic ones as above - check them out here.

Holiday was a US travel magazine from 1928 - 1977, first published by the AAA (American Automobile Association) until the mid 40's when it was sold to Curtis Publishing Company who ran the magazine until 1977 when it was sold to Travel magazine who merged it with their publication to form Travel Holiday.

Via Covenger + Kester.

PROSIGN - traditional signwriters

I've known of Prosign (Neil and Mandy Melliard) for a few years now and even been lucky enough to have my car signwritten by Neil! They're renowned in car and racing circles for their amazing work hand painting and pinstriping hot rods, race cars and promotional vehicles (above).

But I wasn't aware until today when I checked out their blog that they also do shop facias and window signage. In fact Neil has been working on window signage for Adidas in their Carnaby Street store earlier this month.

There's something lovely about a real hand-painted sign that other more modern techniques can never replicate. Here are some of the fabulous shops he's painted recently...

I've always been a huge fan and a great admirer of traditional signwriting and signwriters. I remember when I first started working in Manchester there was a really old guy, Moose he was known as, that used to paint the windows of all the curry houses in the Northern Quarter. It was great to catch him painting on my lunch hour. I find the process almost as amazing as the finished product. I love on their blog that Neil and Mandy show pics from the initial sketch through paint and sometimes gold leaf, to the final outlines and the finished sign, it really is interesting. Check it out here.

All images copyright Prosign.