Giant Jack Rabbit Postcard

Yet another variation on the "giant produce gag" postcard, this vintage linen example from the Western USA features a giant jackrabbit being ridden by a cowboy. The caption: "Punching Cattle on a Jack Rabbit." Circa the 1940s.

Giant Fish Postcard

A takeoff on the "giant produce gag" postcard, this variation from Port Huron, Michigan features a giant fish eating an angler, with the caption "They're Biting Well Here In Port Huron." Circa the late 1900s.

Giant Potato Postcard

I love old postcards, the kookier and kitschier, the better. There is a whole sub-genre of postcards that can perhaps be classified as "giant gags." These are often souvenir cards from rural areas, featuring gag photos of giant produce, like this one of an enormous potato on a flatbed train car from New Brunswick, Canada. Circa the 1950s-60s.

The caption reads, "We'll grow them bigger when flat cars are made longer! Famous New Brunswick Potatoes."

Swift's Space Guide Advertising Premium

This 1950s space guide is one of the coolest advertising premiums I've come across recently. Released by a meat products company called Swift's, the 5 1/4 inch space guide has a turning wheel and die cut windows that reveal all sorts of interesting astronomical trivia. Need to know the surface temperature of Mars? Just turn the wheel and find out.

If you find yourself wondering, as I did, what meat products have to do with outer space, the connection is revealed on the back of the guide:

I believe this is the same Swift's Premium Company that distributed this ham shaped charm or watch fob in the 1920s (seen here in the kitchen of an old dollhouse).

Antiquing Trip to England: Day 9, Faversham

On our way back to London the day before we left England, we stopped at one last town, Faversham. This area was inhabited in prehistoric times, and was home to a Roman settlement before becoming a thriving medieval market town.

One of Faversham's most famous landmarks is its Guildhall, first built in 1574! On the day we visited, it was hosting a plant and flower sale.

 Faversham Guildhall.

Buildings in Faversham were rich in architectural detail. Particularly eye-catching was this gargoyle, adorning the front of a stationery shop housed in an 18th century edifice.

For such an old town, Faversham was rather lacking in antique stores. Fortunately tour leaders Terry and Doris came to my rescue again and led me to a lovely one, which had an equally lovely old bear sitting in a child's wicker chair in the window. (He's not visible in the photo below, as I had already snatched him up. At lightning speed.)

 See the empty chair on the left in the window? 

That's where my latest bear had been sitting,

moments before this photo was taken.

This was a beautiful antique shop, with a wonderful, huge, old fireplace inside, and lovely soft lighting.

And here's the bear, as found, about to be wrapped 

up for the journey home:

With his purchase, I completed my teddy tour of England by finding a bear in every town. (Sometimes more than one bear!) This one was very special, though. Purchased by the shopkeepers from the original owner, he had belonged to a little girl born in 1930, who received him the year of her birth. He went through the war with her, was much loved, and it shows. He is a very characterful bear, and one of my favorites of the whole trip. Doris kindly gave me some hand knit bear sweaters she found in a charity shop, and once he had put one on, he looked much more comfortable.

 His button with its WWII slogan gives us all 

good advice for difficult times: 

keep calm and carry on! 

Today, we tried something different from our usual scones: Brown Derby, a very odd dessert comprised of a plain brown donut, refried, and served while still hot with a heap of vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and peanuts on top. It was good!

If you look very closely, you can just see the donut on the bottom.

Finally it was time to head home, after a fabulous 10 days in England on the trip of a lifetime. My suitcases were full of great finds, while my checking account was (almost!) empty.

My carry-on bag.

A group photo at home.

Antiquing Trip to England: Day 8, Rochester

The city of Rochester was built on the site of earlier Neolithic, Celtic, and Roman settlements along the river Medway. Needless to say, it is rich in history. England's second-oldest cathedral is here, founded in 604 AD, right alongside an atmospheric ruin, a Norman castle dating to 1127.

Rochester Cathedral

This cathedral was filled with particularly beautiful and interesting doors. Here is a sampling:

An intriguing passageway in the Cathedral.

Rochester Castle, like its cousin in Lewes, suddenly pops up between two buildings in the shopping district:

 Rochester Castle

Unlike Dover Castle, which is in good repair and was used militarily until recent times, Rochester Castle is a spooky ruin, open to the elements:

A tea break with more scones was followed by a visit to a dollhouse miniatures shop, where I got a tiny tea cake stand filled with itty bitty pastries, the perfect thing to bring home to my dollhouse residents.

Real tea cakes.

Don't they both look delicious?

Not real tea cakes.

A second-hand bookshop had a wonderful surprise inside. In one corner, shelves, cabinets, and cases were filled with small items dug up from local river banks, Victorian outhouse sites and rubbish dumps, and old cellars, the places where people disposed of things in the days before trash pickup services. (The centuries-old clay pipes mentioned in an earlier post came from this riverside.) The shop had shelves and shelves full of dug up old stoneware beer bottles, Victorian quack medicine containers, and even poison bottles! I got a handful of miniature china doll heads and a dollhouse chamber pot here, all locally excavated.

Everything seen here was dug up locally. 

Note the "Poison Bottle" sign on the top middle shelf, 

and "Victorian Quack Cures" below.

Dug up dollies, all miniatures.

 A dug up dollhouse doll head and chamber pot.

Rochester had a number of antique shops, and this one turned up two wonderful vintage teddy bears well-spotted by tour leaders Terry and Doris, who pointed me to the store. (Thank you Terry and Doris!)

 I got this 1950s Chad Valley ted with lovely curly mohair,

and a characteristically goofy-looking 

Pedigree, made in Ireland.

Coming up next: Day 9, Faversham (our last day in England.)

Antiquing Trip to England: Day 7, Eastbourne

Our seventh day in England was spent at the seaside, in the Victorian resort town of Eastbourne, which lies along the southeastern coast between Brighton and Hastings (as in The Battle of Hastings, 1066).

In 1859, local landowner the Duke of Devonshire hired an architect to redesign the town, creating a resort "built by gentlemen for gentlemen." Fortunately, Eastbourne is no longer so exclusive, but still retains its genteel atmosphere.

Eastbourne's seaside has been thoughtfully kept clear of development, so the beachfront is open to the public. A beautiful pier built in 1866 stretches 1000 feet out into the ocean, and hosts a Victorian Tea Room, souvenir stores, a dance hall, sweet shops, and a camera obscura.

 Eastbourne Pier.

 A view along the Pier.

The Pier's Victorian Tea Room.

Eastbourne didn't seem to have many antique stores, but it was rich in souvenir and charity shops. I bought snowglobes, tea towels, magnets, postcards, keychains, miniature tea sets, and other assorted bric-a-brac in the store below.

 A colorful souvenir shop.

And in a charity shop, I found these two homemade bears. During WWII, when mohair was scarce and teddy bear factories were converted to supply the war effort, British mothers excelled at crafting teds from whatever materials they could find, and some especially talented mums even knit bears for their little ones. These two teds are not so old, but I thought they were still rather charming. 

Coming up next: Day Eight, Rochester, with a cathedral and a castle, and lots of dug-up treasures (literally!)

Antiquing Trip to England: Day 6, Canterbury

Our day in Canterbury was one of my favorites, as it included a tour of a teddy bear factory. Canterbury Bears has been making uniquely English teds for 32 years, sending them to collectors all over the world from their workshop just outside the ancient city.

The workshop may look quietly unassuming from the outside...

...but inside, it's a riot of bears, parts of bears, piles of mohair, shelves of trims, boxes of eyes, intriguing machines, and friendly ladies stitching teddy bear smiles.

 Colorfully dyed mohair waits to be cut into bear parts.

 Metal dies for cutting out bear parts.

The machine that stamps out the bear parts, 

using the dies like a cookie cutter.

 A box full of newly stamped out bear parts.

The stuffing machine. The nozzle (just touching the chair back) is inserted into a bear, then the machine blows it full of stuffing.
We were told the bears' eyes are not sewn on until after this step,
"so they can't see what's being done to them."

Speaking of eyes, here are some of the varieties:

Hand-sewing the eyes, nose, and mouth on a nearly-finished bear.

 After a tour of the workshop, we were invited to browse the shelves and purchase bears to take home. We got to see prototypes and archival pieces too, and it was lots of fun to poke around.

I got this little ted, whom I absolutely adore.

A shelf of bears. The little white one was 

a never produced prototype

that went home with a very lucky tour guest.

After our factory visit was over, we headed into Canterbury. The skyline of the medieval walled city is dominated by the famous cathedral, which looms over everything:

The cathedral's origins lie all the way back in 597 AD, but the oldest remaining section, the crypt, is from the 11th century.

A particularly beautiful corner in the cathedral's cloisters.

The cathedral is full of monumental stained glass windows; the oldest is this, the Adam Window (so named for the figure of Adam, digging with a spade, in the bottom row, third from the left) which dates from 1176!

No scones today: instead I tried something new, a Bakewell Tart. It was a pastry shell filled with raspberry jam and almond sponge cake, with a shortbread star on top. Completely delicious.

Speaking of delicious things: we saw fabulous candy shops in every town we visited. They had an almost magical quality, like the candy store in the Harry Potter books. This one, The Sugar Boy, was one of my favorites.

There were surprisingly few antique stores in Canterbury; in fact, we were told by the owner of the one we did find that it was pretty much the only one. Good thing we found it, too: it had a case full of old bears.

Repairs were ongoing at this old antique shop.

 Inside: a big, beautiful vintage bear greeted us. 

Sadly, he was too big and heavy to get home (42 inches!)
so as far as I know, he's still sitting there now.

At the back of the store, though, was this case
filled with smaller bears:
some old, some new, and all wonderful.

I got this unusual ted, which I think may be from Australia, made by Barton Waugh. In the case above, he's on the right side, back row, in the middle. Noseless. Below, he here is after his nosectomy:

Just before leaving Canterbury, we stopped by its Information Centre and loaded up on postcards. Sitting by the register was this great little Canterbury Bear I hadn't seen at the factory earlier: a small version of their Union Jack patterned bear, appropriately named...Jack. He is clearly very happy to have gone back to the States with me.

Coming up next: Day 7, the Victorian seaside resort of Eastbourne.