MODERN MAGAZINES

We have just got a load of 1950s era magazines in at the shop and they are proving highly entertaining for our customers. I find myself reading them during quiet moments. The really interesting aspect of the magazines is the adverts because a lot of what we sell at the shop is from that era.

For a long time, vintage stuff has been ‘in’ and it’s very easy to think that everything from that era is cool and kitschy but, my goodness, looking at what people were buying back then you realise that the current ‘vintage’ look is very selective and turns a major blind eye to some of the rubbish that was available.

On advert in particular caught my eye. It showed a happy young bride clutching to her bosom an Addis gift set as though it was her dream possession.

Yes..the Addis gift set contains a nylon broom heard, a non-rotting scrubbing brush, a pot scrubber, washing up brush and pan scouring brush...all within a polythene bowl, gift wrapped in cellophane with a satin ribbon. Lucky lady!

The ‘Revo-luxe’, an automated cooker, allows the lady to shop knowing that the dinner is safely on. I wonder how many houses burned down on that one?

Melamine was a pretty crazy new thing back then. The advertisers all rejoiced in the ‘fact’ that it was childproof, accident proof and age proof. Ignoring the fact that by definition nothing is ever accident, child or age proof, they were actually pretty durable. The only slight problem with melamine being, that once it’s buggered there ain’t a lot you can do with it. We sell melamine topped tables from time to time and none have been mark free! Marks in an old pine table come under the umbrella of patina....marks in melamine are just marks!

I could go on. Those old magazines are fascinating. But we have some news just in – our lovely stuffed parrot has sold – we shall see a suitable replacement. That buyer, of course, wins random purchase of the day...just ahead of the guy who bought a concrete otter...