Sepia Saturday 60 - anyone want to buy a Roller?

Unlike last week I have actually managed to follow the theme this week for Sepia Saturday. This advert is taken from the March 1959 edition of Motor Sport magazine and offers a selection of Rolls-Royce, Rolls-Bentley and Bentley cars for sale ... and all at not much more than an iPad would cost today. Some superb models here ... I wonder if any of them are still around today.

Advertisement for Simmons, 12 Rex Place, London W1, c.1959

More vintage magazines can be found on my web site

Vintage Cult TV Paperbacks - U.F.O

This is a blog post I published back in 2010, but am recycling it for this week's Sepia Saturday. Whilst it's not sepia, it does fit nicely with the 'space' theme that Alan has suggested this week.

U.F.O. was another cult TV series I remember as a child. It seemed at times to have quite an edge to it, and I remember being distinctly scared by some of the episodes. The books were published in the early 1970's and set in the future, albeit only 1980, in a time when 'Unidentified Flying Objects race through the skies like bats out of hell, blasting... killing... vanishing to an unknown alien world'. I also vividly remember seeing various toys as a child, and although I coveted one, I never owned a S.H.A.D.O. vehicle. I imagine they are real collector's items today.

Having seen some re-runs fairly recently, the vision of what we would all be wearing in the future, remains quite amusing. Silver sting vest like all-in-one outfits, short skirts, purple hair with matching eye shadow, etc. As for the aliens, they were of course archetypal baddies, and only intent one one thing.

First UFO paperback, written by Robert Miall, c.1970

 Second UFO paperback, written by Robert Miall, c.1971

More vintage books and magazines on my web site

    

Theme Thursday - Test

A more obvious choice for me for today's Theme Thursday of 'Test' would have perhaps been the Test Valley or the Test Way, which are not to far from where I live, but alas I couldn't find anything to hand. So, searching through my vintage magazine collection, I came across this Road Test report on the new Austin A40 Saloon de Luxe. The report was taken from the February 1959 edition of Motor Sport magazine.

More vintage magazines on my web site

Vintage illustrated guide book of Swanage and South Dorset

I've been meaning to blog about these wonderful illustrated guide books I picked up last summer for some time now but for some reason have only just got around to it. The books are all published by Ward, Lock & Co., and come in a red, linen type cover. They date around 1929 or 1930 and offer a fascinating glimpse into tourism of 90 years ago. There are articles on all the local chutches in each area, restautants, hotels, steam boat rides, railway routes (many of which are now sadly long gone), detailed, fold-out maps, and of course some wonderful adverts. For today I've decided to share the Swanage and South Dorset guide.

Front cover of Swanage and South Dorset guide

Various adverts from the guide book

Advert for Wright's Coal Tar soap

Back cover of guide book

As always, other vintage books and magazines, and also vintage postcards can be found on my web site

Theme Thursday - Food

I found this advertisement card inside a Blue Ribbon cook book that I picked up at a local village fete last summer. Thought it fitted in reasonably well with this week's theme of food.

As always, more vintage postcards and vintage magazines and books on my web site

Vintage magazines - Drive, from the early 1970's

I've now finally managed to find the time to scan in the rest of the Drive manazines that I picked up a few weeks ago. For now I'll just concentrate on the front covers, but may at some time in the future also blog about the great advertisements inside.

Drive Motorist's Magazine, Autumn 1972

Drive Motorist's Magazine, Spring 1972

Drive Motorist's Magazine, Summer 1972

Drive Motorist's Magazine, Summer1973

As always, more vintage magazines and vintage postcards on my web site

Vintage Drive Magazine, c.1972

Whilst out looking for vintage postcards a couple of weeks ago I was delighted to stumble across 6 issues of Drive magazine from the early 1970's. I don't remember ever seeing this before but I'm fairly sure it's something my dad would have read. All of them have great covers, bizarre stories with classic 1970's fashions in the pictures, and some even better adverts. For this blog post I've chosen the New Year 1972 edition, which features an article and front cover dedicated to Spaghetti Junction. For readers in the US, perhaps this does not seem an especially large or complex intersection, but I do remember the stir it caused at the time. It was positioned at the junction of the M6 motorway, the A38 Sutton Coldfield road, the Aston Expressway to Birmingham city centre, and numerous other local roads, effectively joining up the M1, M5 and M6 motorways, and demolishing 130 buildings to make way for it. At the time this feature was written, it was already behind schedule, and had cost over £8 million. The junction is still in use today but has a network of other motorways to help ease the traffic.

Front cover of the New Year 1972 edition of Drive magazine

Feature on Spaghetti Junction

More vintage magazines can be found on my web site