Hungerford Arcade have yet another very interesting article from our dear friend, Stuart Miller-Osborne. It makes you think of the every day items we see mainly as trivia and throw away when in fact, some of them are little treasures for the future shining a light on the past for future generations.
On the 2nd of June 1953, a seventeen year old boy named John Parker caught a train from James Street to Seaforth Sands on the Liverpool Overhead Railway. He was due to watch the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on a small black and white television at his Aunt Pat’s. It was an uneventful journey and the lad became engrossed in the Graham Greene novel he was reading. When he arrived at Seaforth Sands there was nobody to collect his ticket so he placed it into his book.
Eight years later when he married Monica, he gave this book and many others to his younger brother Tom. The railway ticket was still in the book. Tom did not care for Graham Greene and soon the book was relegated to the attic.
In 1986 Tom sold his house and the Graham Greene book was given to Oxfam along with the railway ticket on page twenty eight. The book was then purchased by a student named Shirley who used the railway ticket as a bookmark. She passed the book on to friends at university and incredibly the railway ticket remained in place. That was until a railway enthusiast named Peter spotted the railway ticket which had now become more interesting and collectable than the book. He retained the ticket until the early months of 2016 when he sold the ticket on the internet under the title of railway ephemera.
On February the 19th 1910 Clara Phyllis Kenny was baptised at a church in Ipswich.
On the 16th of March 1910 she was confirmed at the same church (St Mary’s) and took her first communion on Easter Day of the same year.
From the 1st of June 1940 to the 31st of December 1944 Roger Oliver Grant was a member of The Home Guard.
On the 21st of February 1869 the French newspaper La Chronique Illustree ran with the headline Messieurs les Deputes.
How do you ask yourself would I know all these facts? Here is the answer although I do not really collect ephemera, I have purchased these items over the years. I have the Liverpool Overhead Railway ticket (although the timeline is my fiction). I have Clara’s confirmation card as well as Roger’s Home Guard certificate. I have two copies of the French newspaper La Chronique Illustree dating from February 1869. They rest casually in my study. Gathering dust.
The word ephemera comes from the Greek and in its true meaning describes items that do last not more than one day. Obviously today, the word has a slightly wider meaning.
In a pile in front of me I have the following publications.
The Day & Mason Football Annual 1950-51 and the Day & Mason Cricket Annual for 1949.
By their very nature these publications were designed to last more than one day. Indeed, I have had the pleasure of reading both in the last few weeks over sixty years after their original publication. But items such as these are still considered as ephemera. To add to the pleasure of writing this article, I deliberately stopped writing for a month to see how many pieces of ephemera I could find without really looking.
This is a short list of items located in Oxfordshire and West Berkshire between the 5th of April 2016 and the 14th of May 2016.
A George the Fifth Silver Jubilee stamp dating from 1935 that cost a penny-halfpenny (Those were the days when one did not have to secure a mortgage to write to one’s favourite aunt).
The English Jersey Cattle Societies Annual Report from 1927 (No this did not change my life).
The Driving Licence of a certain Mrs Dorothea Dillaway who lived on the Bath Road in Maidenhead dating with inserts from August 1931 to September 1955.
The Maidenhead Permanent Benefit Building Society Savings Book of a Joy Lillian Dillaway which reflects the history of the savers deposits from the 14th of September 1942 to the 12th of March 1947.
A mysterious photograph of a young couple and their child taken I would imagine between the wars (The man has more than a passing resemblance to the artist Duncan Grant).
The Philips A.B.C Pocket Atlas Guide to London dating from 1923 (With a splendid plan of the British Empire Exhibition for your information).
The London’s Country Guide No 1 by Road, Stream & Fieldpath (What a lovely word) North of the Thames.
These were just seven items purchased deliberately at random during the last month. But these items of ephemera illustrate the diversity of choice. I might have found the minutes of the annual meeting of the Jane Austen Society dating from November 1961. Or an FA Cup Final ticket from the 25th of May 1963 (Manchester United 3 Leicester City 1 was the score on that occasion but if it was played this month one might think that the result would be closer and maybe in Leicester’s favour).
The Jane Austen Society might not have existed in 1961 so I would have been very lucky to find the annual report. But the cup final ticket was a possibility. However, I did not come across one and had to be satisfied with my seven items of choice. All the items I purchased were vintage and from another era and they all reminded me of the Housman poem.
Into my heart on air that kills From yon far country blows: What are those blue remembered hills, What spires, what farms are those? That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain, The happy highways where I went And cannot come again.
But ephemera need not be vintage. when I was in Deal recently I was approached by the candidates of both the Right and the Left. Whilst the Right Wing candidate warned me of the dire consequences of staying the EU he did not furnish me with any literature. The Left Wing candidate who shared part of my surname (Osborne) informed how life would be joyous in The People’s Republic of Deal & Dover under the Great Leader Jeremy and he gave me a flyer with a rather fetching photograph of himself. Neither party made much impression on me as I belong to the Common Sense Party but his handout was interesting (Human Rights for Kent Crabs, Seagull’s Against Trident etc etc.).
As I strolled towards the beautiful beach in Deal, I longed to bury this piece of ephemera in a time capsule for future generations to enjoy (or not). Like a railway ticket or a bus ticket I had been presented with an item of contemporary ephemera.
Each of us on most days of our lives are presented with items which could be considered as ephemera. They are disposable and we mostly get rid of them in the nearest bin. But certain items linger and these will be the items that are found in the future.
The bus ticket from Dover to Canterbury
The flyer from the Deal Labour Party
A theatre ticket inside a theatre programme
The postcard from St Margaret’s Bay (I saw where Noel Coward once lived today,the villa was much dilapidated which is sad).
I collect books and frequently find items of interest between the pages. These range from an 1825 letter from Leigh Hunt to a bill of sale for a Cyril Lord carpet. Indeed, today I found a short note from Marjory to Violet in a first edition of Henry Williamson’s The Sun in the Sands. I wonder if Violet found the Lyons Tea House and if the girls enjoyed the naughty Max Miller show?
If you enter the Arcade or any antiques establishment then your senses will be assaulted by the amount of ephemera for sale. You will find thosands of items.
You will find funeral cards and notices of marriage
Photographs of couples in a carriage
Football programmes by the score
Singed by players wanting more
Movie posters showing stars
Tired flyers from smoky bars
But enough of this poor verse. You might find stock certificates; Pamphlets and bookmarks; Trade cards and zines; Newspapers and magazines. The list is endless.
Often I walk around the Arcade and am amazed how much ephemera there actually is. It is a feast for the inquisitive eye. A majority of the units stock some kind of ephemera, no matter how obscure. For a month I deliberately collected ephemera again and was very surprised by the variety of my finds. Postcards are fun collect. They are like mayflies only existing on the day of posting.
Dear Lucy
Arrived safely at the resort.
Little Jonny left his daps on the train and Joan was off colour on the first day here.
She was sick on her best dress
But the landlady is nice and Weston-Super-Mare is all I wanted from it.
See you Monday
Love Minnie x
You will find thousands of postcards such as these, each with its own history.
If this article has stimulated your interest then go to an antiques shop or come to the Arcade and just swim with the flow. You will not be able to guess what you might find and that is the excitement of the hobby. You will not be bankrupted as it is a very cheap passion. I spent less than a fiver on all my items.
Good Luck and Happy Hunting.
Stuart Miller-Osborne