Archive for the ‘books’ Category

New York, New York

Friday, October 29th, 2010

"New York, New York" blog post banner

illustration from Miroslav Sasek's vintage children's book, "This is... New York" showing Brooklyn Bridge with cars passing beneath it

Our recent post I is for Ireland featured the This is… series of books by Miroslav Sasek.

illustration from Miroslav Sasek's vintage children's book, "This is... New York" showing a view of water tanks in a city scape

In it we promised some more photos from a recent acquisition – This is New York.

illustration from Miroslav Sasek's vintage children's book, "This is... New York" showing people in the aisle of a grocery store

The book was published in 1960 and, as per usual, the illustrations are fabulous!

illustration from Miroslav Sasek's vintage children's book, "This is... New York" showing various types of vending machines

New York is one of those cities that works particularly well…

illustration from Miroslav Sasek's vintage children's book, "This is... New York" showing a traffic copillustration from Miroslav Sasek's vintage children's book, "This is... New York" showing an American footballer

…with it’s distinctive buildings, day to day goings on and familiar characters.

illustration from Miroslav Sasek's vintage children's book, "This is... New York" showing a view of a city street lined with cars

The artist captures the 1950s/60s era – the sights and the vibrancy of the city.

illustration from Miroslav Sasek's vintage children's book, "This is... New York" showing firemen in a fire engine

We had a 10-day holiday there a few years ago. It had changed a bit since Sasek wrote these books but lots of the unmistakable landmarks and energy of the city were still there.

illustration from Miroslav Sasek's vintage children's book, "This is... New York" showing a street vendor selling hot dogs and soft drinks

Flicking through these pages reminds us of the great time we had – hopefully we’ll get back there again one day…

illustration from Miroslav Sasek's vintage children's book, "This is... New York" showing an aerial view of Manhattan's skyscrapers and the Hudson River in a pixelated style

…and it would be a real dream to cruise up the Hudson river to arrive in real style!

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I is for… Ireland

Friday, October 15th, 2010

"I is for... Ireland" blog post banner

detail of vintage book cover, "This is Ireland" by Miroslav Sasek

It’s been a while since we’ve done one of our alphabet blog posts – but the arrival of this book fitted in nicely with where we left off… so, I is for Ireland.

page from vintage book, "This is Ireland" by Miroslav Sasek featuring Irish green double-decker buses

The book is from the This is… series by Miroslav Sasek.

page from vintage book, "This is Ireland" by Miroslav Sasek featuring Irish pub interior

We’ve mentioned him quite a few times in blogs but, any excuse!!

page from vintage book, "This is Ireland" by Miroslav Sasek featuring rolling green fields and sheep

We absolutely adore his stuff!

page from vintage book, "This is Ireland" by Miroslav Sasek featuring shop frontage of Patrick O'Brien general store

This is Ireland, published in 1964, is no exception. He captured the quiet countryside and the hustle & bustle of town life with equal charm – the scenery, buildings, characters – day to day life.

page from vintage book, "This is Ireland" by Miroslav Sasek featuring the busy main thoroughfare, O'Donnell Street

It’s been added to our ever growing pile of Sasek books – a pile that shows no sign of abating. Each new book is greeted with the same excited anticipation.

collection of vintage books by Miroslav Sasek

There were two more arrivals this week – This is Israel and This is New York.

pair of vintage books, "This is Isreal" and "This is New York" by Miroslav Sasek

They’re both very welcome additions to our collection…

page from vintage book, "This is New York" by Miroslav Sasek featuring skyscrapers and pink stretch Cadillac

New York in particular lends itself to his stylised characters and distortions of scale – just wonderful! Page after page of classic illustrations. The accompanying words are very sweet too.

page from vintage book, "This is New York" by Miroslav Sasek featuring an all Ameriacan diner

We’ll post more illustrations from this particular book – they deserve a post of their own!

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Spanish sing-a-long

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

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vintage Spanish sing-a-long boxed set of records and song book

In our most recent e-mailout, we featured this somewhat eclectic mix if items seen below.

collection of recent antique and vintage finds including Spanish music boxed set

Amongst them was this fabulous record set… Escuchar y cantar or “Listen & sing”.

detail of cover of vintage 1950s Spanish song book & record box set contents of vintage 1950s Spanish song book & record box set

It’s a sing-a-long teaching aid for learning traditional Spanish songs, helping with pronunciation etc.

illustraion of Mexican bean wearing a sombrero

It comprises a set of records and an accompanying booklet written by Raymond N Jacovetti.

vintage illustration of identical red birds looking through telescopes

It was printed in New York by Holt, Rinehart & Winston and published in 1965.

vintahe illustration of little girl and old woman holding crooks looking for their sheep

The most striking feature is the gorgeous illustrations that the booklet is packed with.

vintage illustration of the heads of a man and several women with him holding a red heart above his favourite

They’re by someone called Mac Shepard.

vintage illustration of a little girl with a rocking horse

We’ve never come across his work before, but we were immediate converts.

He’s got his own distinctive style, but if we were going to compare him to anyone it would be Bill Charmatz who we’re big fans of… click here to check out the Flickr group we started.

vintage illustration of four mules

We’re now on the hunt for more examples of Mr Shepard’s artwork!

Garden Helper

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

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vintage "Do it Yourself Gardening Annual 1960"

We wrote a short blog about growing our own recently…

detail of vintage gardening annual from 1960

… or our attempts at least!

detail from vintage 1960s gardening annual

How about this for the perfect companion?

cover from vintage 1960s gardening annual

This fab 1960s garden DIY annual should help. Even looking at the cover makes us want to get out there and dig!

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Pop Up

Monday, November 9th, 2009

It’s full steam ahead for the new Child’s Play department on the H is for Home shop website – vintage books, toys, room decorations etc. The section should be up & running by this weekend.

These fab vintage pop up books we bought this week will fit in there perfectly.

They all date from the early 1970s and feature some very familiar characters a lot of you will recognise.

The collection includes Trumpton, Noddy, the Wombles and Play School.

For a trip down memory lane have a look at these original opening sequences to their TV incarnations!

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