Showing posts with label Bookmarks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bookmarks. Show all posts

Friday, 5 July 2013

THINK!

 I have a fondness for 'things' that say "Think", it is a very underrated activity.  If you ask your child what they are doing and all they can say is "Thinking" then you know they will be alright.

This bookmark was put out by  The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. RoSPA came into being in 1917 in response to the 'alarming increase in road accidents' during the First World War blackouts. A campaign to change the pedestrian rule so that walkers faced oncoming traffic was so successful that fatal accidents caused by pedestrians stepping into the path of vehicles fell by 70 per cent in 12 months, which is an amazing result. Of course RoSPA has been accused of being professional "killjoys or busybodies" especially in relation to children being allowed to have fun with a touch of risk taking, but I gather they are trying to get past that sort of 'Thinking'.

Front
Back



Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Parsons Bookshop

One of the pleasures of second hand books is finding the assorted treasures that people use as bookmarks; old photographs, Lucky Kiwi tickets, ancient library cards, postcards...there are times when these objects seem to belong to the book, so I leave them in place, but many items join my ever expanding collection of ephemera. Here are two of my favourite actual bookmarks.

Front of bookmark


The first is an early one from Parsons Bookshop - now known as Parsons Library Supply. That is the Auckland Parsons - Roger and his wife Helen, not to be confused with Parsons Books & Music in Wellington, run by Rogers brother and sister Julian and Beatrice. Though to add to any confusion I shall include pictures of the Wellington store...just because it was so darn stylish.

Kitchener Street, c1973
Back of bookmark






 
Massey House


"In 1958 Parsons relocated his shop to 126 Lambton Quay, a capacious ground-floor space in Massey House, designed by the Austrian architect Ernst Plischke; Plischke and his wife, Anna, were among the close group of friends that the Parsonses, as immigrants themselves, formed in Wellington. Roy and Nan embraced Plischke’s concept of ‘design and books’ on a central city street. The walls were lined with Penguins in single-colour dustjackets (orange for fiction, green for crime), and the best new books from Britain and America."  Bridget Williams. 'Parsons, Roy George - Parsons, Roy George', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara. - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 30-Oct-2012







 Then, in an entirely different vein there is this Government Bookshop bookmark, which I vaguely recall thinking was 'neat', but then I was about 9 years old at the time. I have been unable to find any real reference to these bookshops, other than that they sold parliamentary papers, copies of the Budget, that sort of thing, a market killed off by the Internet as early as 1999.

Friday, 21 June 2013

Chinese Checkers.



We have a large range of vintage board games in store, everything from Cluedo to Ulcers - "The fun game which gives you power over people." - Good Grief!!. But then I was always too polite to manage a game of Snap! with the cousins...Chinese Checkers is more to my tastes.



 And while you're here, sheltering from the cold, don't forget to pick up one of our stylish new bookmarks:

A fine copy of Karl Marx's - Capital

Wednesday, 12 June 2013

Bookmarks.

            Our new bookmarks are all ready for printing (Thanks to Fane Flaws for helping us figure out the art work and technical stuff), fingers crossed they will be here by the end of next week, fantastic bookmarks.......