Festival of Britain

It's the 60th anniversary this year of the Festival of Britain and it's being marked this weekend at the Southbank Centre's vintage festival.

I was very pleased to find this commemorative Festival of Britain teapot a little while ago at antique fair so I thought this might be a good time to feature it on the blog!

Vintage coffee table

This unusual coffee table is one of my most recent finds. I love the design of the cityscape and its buildings and I think the illustrative style is slightly reminiscent of the work of the artist John Piper. It doesn't have any makers marks but I think it probably dates from the early 1960s..

Sadly I don't have space for this nice table so its for sale on ebay this week!

stylish stainless steel

 Here are a couple of nice stainless steel items that I am selling on ebay this week..

Old Hall gravy jug or sauce boat, designed by Robert Welch

Tankards made by Viners

Flowers and Figgjo

I always like using the bits and pieces I have collected over the years. This Norwegian Figgjo jug is a favourite of mine (the design is Maja) and looks great holding flowers. I bought this big bunch of peachy dahlias in the Highgate Horticultural Society auction yesterday afternoon..

Clock

Here is the latest addition to our retro home, a lovely reconditioned vintage clock. This was originally a Post Office 'slave' clock, ie. it ran off one central clock in an office block or factory. We really liked the distinctive double line typeface by Colin Banks (1932-2002) and the nice pointy hands. The 24 hour style numbering is also an interesting feature.

Colin Banks, who designed the Post Office typeface seen on our clock, was one of Britain's leading typographers and worked on the modernisation of corporate identities in the seventies and eighties, including British Telecom, London Transport (updating the Johnston typeface still in use today) and The British Council.

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June Vintage Market photographs

Here are a few photographs from the June North London Vintage Market in Crouch End. It was a really enjoyable and successful day and am hoping to be at the next market in October. Until then I am going to be concentrating on hunting around in my own collection and out and about so I should have some great new vintage finds for sale next time..



This photo shows some of the nice bits of kitchenalia I sold, inclduing a nice set of pyrex bowls, some stainless steel salad servers in a fantastic original box plus an unusual cheese board featuring a tile designed by Anne Wynn-Reeves..



This picture shows some nice fishy dishes and two pieces of Piazza ware...

 These are some of the vintage buttons I spent hours sorting and colour coding!