To celebrate our wonderful ephemera category and the unique and quirky items it holds, our World of Rare Books employees have had a chance to pick out their favourite items this week. You can read more about our Ephemera collection here in a previous blog.

Here they are…

 

Weekly Illustrated – Coronation Programme and Guide – No. 45 by Weekly Illustrated

The Weekly Illustrated was a large format magazine between the years of 1934 – 1939, it brought the photojournalistic approach of Germany to the UK under the editorship of Stefan Lorant. Weekly Illustrated shortened its name to Illustrated and merged with Passing Show, though Lorant had left by this time to launch a pocket format called Lilliput. The last issue of the Weekly Illustrated was on the 25th February 1939. This is a coronation programme and guide from 1937, it features 27 pages of photos for the coronation that year.

 

15 Arsenal F.C. Official Programmes Season 1949-50 & 1950-51 by Arsenal Football Club

We have a collection of 15 programmes produced by Arsenal Football Club in their football season in 1949 -1950 and 1950 to 1951. With the Second World War having suspended all Football League games for seven years, Arsenal returned in 1947-48 to win in the post-war season. They also won the FA Cup in 1950! Arsenal have gone on to win 13 FA Cups over the years and 14 FA Community Shields (Fa Charity Shield pre-1994)

 

Waddington’s Lexicon Card Game: The Game of Skill, Exitement and Interest by Atozed

With the introduction of cartons and jigsaw puzzles, another change was taking place in 1933. Dave Whitelaw, a writer persuaded Waddington’s to produce and sell a word game – Lexicon. It is a pack of cards but the face features letters of the alphabet. It initially didn’t sell well, but with a newspaper advertising campaign, the game was selling thousands per day instead of the hundreds per month. This game made it possible for Waddingtons to get Monopoly because it gave credibility to the company.

 

Victorian Photo Album Family Approx 20 Photos by Anon

We see many photo albums pass our hands here at World of Rare Books, this one peaked our attention, due to it being of a Victorian family, it features 20 photos that are all black and white, the photos feature family shots, but mostly individual headshots. We find it fascinating with vintage albums and what the stories were of the people in the photos.

 

Robert Morden Hand-Coloured Map of Huntington shire 1695 by Robert Morden

The map is from the 17th century of Huntingdonshire which appeared in the first edition of Camden’s Britannica in 1695. The map from this publication was produced by Robert Morden. On this map in the first edition, there were a number of errors that were corrected for the next edition, for example, a fictitious village called Crane Street is marked near to Brampton.

 

Find all this and more here at World of Rare Books.