A Gay Balloon

Vintage, Richard Scarry ABC Word book

9 Abandoned Warehouse Street Art: The Warehouse Itself

Here is a series of shots taken in and around various locations at 

the abandoned warehouse, former jeans factory, thus concluding this series.  

This blogger here has done a more extensive post featuring images and history of the site. 

Like her I would not have explored as much as I did if I was alone. 

Fortunately I had a good male friend with me so I felt safe.

Two knights kissing on a gravestone

I'm not sure why.

I tried reading some of the back story but it still didn't make sense. I understand that they must have been happy to see each other. I wasn't aware that heterosexual men used to kiss each other on the mouth at all, let alone for this reason. That said, my knowledge of medieval history could be written on a large postage stamp in small letters.


"They took off their helms and kissed each other"

Sir Tristram of Lyonesse
'...At last the knight clad in white spoke, and said:
"Knight,thou fightest wonderfully well, as ever I saw knight, therefore, if it please you, tell me your name."
"Sir," said Sir Tristram, "I am loath to tell any man my name."
"Truly," said the stranger, "if ever I were required, I was never loath to tell my name."
"It is well said," quoth Tristram; "then I require you to tell me your name."
"Fair knight," said he, "my name is Sir Lancelot of the Lake."
"Alas," said Tristram, "what have I done? For you are the man in the world I love the best."
"Fair knight," said Sir Lancelot, "tell me your name."
"Truly, my name is Sir Tristram."
"Oh," said Sir Lancelot, "what adventure is befallen me!" ...
...Then forthwith they went to the tombstone, and sat down on it, and took off their helms, and kissed each other. And afterwards they rode to Camelot.'

Image by A.G. Walker (sculptor). Text from Sunday Reading for the Young, Wells Gardner, Darton and CO, London 1905

Benjamin Robert Haydon and the Elgin Marbles

'The ambition of Benjamin Robert Haydon was to be a great painter,and he believed that he achieved it *... What is he is remembered for to-day (sic) is his journal, which he kept practically all his life.'

'His custom of taking casts of his friends' faces was sometimes rather dangerous to the sitters, and they were nearly suffocated.'

'Lord Elgin ... saw with distress how the marvellous sculptures by Phidias, decorating the Acropolis at Athens, were being neglected and destroyed. They were rescued by his agents, and brought to London. The incident caused a great stir, and there was much difference of opinion about the statues. Haydon saw their beauty, recognising the sublime in art. He took up the defence of the Elgin Marbles vigorously, and it was really due to him that after a parliamentary inquiry they were bought for the Nation, and are now in the British Museum. He obtained leave somehow to make casts of some of the figures.

"16th November, 1815. I hurried away for a plaster man! As I was passing Prince's Street, I passed two inside a shop moulding. I darted in, and said: 'Get some sacks of plaster, and a cart, and follow me. I'll put money in your pocket.' They obeyed me directly. As we got down at Burlington House I said: 'Now, lads, as soon as this gets wind we shall be stopped, so work away.' They took fire, for with Italian quickness they perceived the truth...

...So we went on up to 8th December: when they alarmed Lord Elgin ... it was too late, the cream of the collection was secured." The casts were afterwards sold to Russia.'

Image and text by Ruth Cobb from children's annual Chatterbox, J Erskine Clarke MA, Wells Gardner, Darton and CO, London 1927

*The fact that he is in major art collections like the Tate's suggests that he was at least better than 'mediocre' as the text by Ruth Cobbs describes. These days the mediocre artist is unlikely to enjoy such a priviledge.

St George Grillmaster Manual

When we moved into our rental property just over a year ago I regarded our electric stove with some uncertainty. I was only familiar with gas stoves and their quick response to change when required. It’s actually a great appliance. You can even buy parts for it online.



As it turned out the old stove is of an excellent vintage from a highly regarded brand, manufactured in NSW c. 1970s by St George. In one of the drawers of our kitchen was the original manual! The vintage Owner’s Manual includes detailed product specifications and a wiring diagram. Apparently it came with a rotisserie attachment but we have seen no sign of it in our time here.



When we first came upon it my BF read it out loud in a typical 1950s voiceover. We were surprised by the vocabulary for such a document. Manuals these days make such dull reading by comparison. Among other words you don’t usually find in oven/stove top manuals these days are; fierce, imperative, indiscriminate, elapse, depress, abnormal, abovementioned, foregoing, utmost.



From the manual for the Grillmaster Model XG370:
‘A Message to the Owner
You are now a possessor of a St. George fully automatic Electric Range, and in order to assist the reader in following the directions more easily we mention hereunder the salient features of the St. George Grillmaster.

…

Please read this booklet carefully until you are thoroughly conversant with every phase of the range’s operation. This will ensure you obtaining the best results from your range.

…

Most authorities agree that provided there is ample time a better result is achieved by cooking for a slightly longer period at a slightly lower temperature.

…

Asbestos mats also should not be used as in each case the heat is trapped around the top of the range and may, after constant misuse in this fashion, cause the vitreous enamel to craze.’





EDIT 15/09/2013 - 27/12/2014
For FULL MANUAL images online CLICK HERE

Vintage Aero knitting needles: Note the points!

Some vintage knitting needles I gave my housemate for Christmas.


You don't find wording like this on packaging anymore:
'...PRODUCED TO MEET AN INSISTENT DEMAND...' 
'...WILL NOT INJURE THE FINGERS'
'CAN NOT SOIL LIGHT WOOLS'
'NOTE THE POINTS'

Victorian Iron Man

If Iron Man's Tony Stark lived in the Victorian period he might have looked something like this:



Original image from Cassell's Family Magazine, 1886, page 576

The light source was powered by a similar sized battery, just to add to that likeness. Accompanying text:

'A very neat portable hand electric lamp has been introduced for use in mines, gunpowder works, and other inflammable places, besides being adapted for use as a railway or carriage reading-lamp ... the box, B which is of varnished teak, and has a flat, flexible leather handle ... The size of the box is 6 by 5 by 4 inches, and the weight of the whole is only 6lbs ... can be put under the seat of the carriage, or in the hat-racks, while the lamp is held in the hand, or fixed to the button-hole of the coat.'

The rest of the text discusses the chemistry behind the batteries suitable for such a device which I won't go into.

Robert Downey Jnr as Mr Stark wired up to a car battery: 

Solo Chainsaw - Vintage Ad. 1969

A start so effortless, even a tamed model in a leopard print bathing suit can use it.

Clipping taken from some newspaper, found under some old vinyl flooring at my old family home in Melbourne.

New fangled button

A patented design that became so ubiquitous in its success we now take it for granted.



'UNDER the appropriate name of "The Very Button," Messrs. Green and Cadbury have patented a two-hole linen button, which will be found to be among the most servicable that are made As a rule, buttons are a fruitful source of annoyance to nearly everybody, but we venture to think that "The Very Button" will be considered an exception to the rule. We can recommend its use for all kinds of under-clothing, and we think that no one will ever regret having given it a trial.'

Original image from Cassell's Household Guide, c. late 19th century. Estimated to be before electricity in houses, pre 1881/1882. Gas lighting and manual washing machines are mentioned elsewhere in this double volume.

More Vintage LOLrus

Original image source: The Boy's Own Paper, Saturday, July 29, 1899, No. 1072. - Vol XXI, page 1

According to the text this is an illustration of a 'bladder-nose'. That's 'Mr. Bladder-nose to you, and not to be confused with the elephant seal, who is quite another bucket of fish.

'Dear' Old Aunt Sally

Original image and text from The Boy's Own Paper, Saturday, November 12, 1899, No. 1035. - Vol XXI, page 13

 'The following games will not only cause much amusement to the different players joining therein, but will afford that healthy exercise which is so necessary for the maintenance of health...

... Fig. 1 gives "dear old Aunt Sally," who, no matter how much we may knock her about, still smiles, and keeps it up too, as if in encouragement and invitation to have another shy. Aunt Sally's head should be carved out of a block of wood, and the sculptor's art exhibited need not be of any high order, as the more grotesque the features the better. When the head is carved it must be painted black, in imitation of a neggress* with a sweet smile, bright red lips, and pearly-white teeth**. A hole should be made underneath the head, large enough to insert the end of a broomstick, the other end to sharpened to a point, as seen in the illustration, so that it may be easily pushed into the ground ... A small hole should be drilled in the nose to receive a short clay pipe, a quantity of which may be obtained from the tobacconists' shops for a few pence ... round sticks, as A in fig. 1, about eighteen inches in length, can be made by sawing up broomsticks into the required length.

All is now ready. Stand Sally up, and place a pipe in her nose. Three sticks are to be given to each player, the game being to break the pipe by aiming sticks at it...'

I'm not going to dissect the obvious racism, and violence against women such a game suggests'. Almost one hundred and thirteen years later I think we can all agree this is so many levels of wrong. Additionally, promoting waste and destruction is hardly healthful exercise ... the modern equivalent would be to gather several empty glass bottles together to throw rocks at them, thus 'fostering quickness of sight'. I have put in italic the parts I found especially abhorent and leave it at that. I'll be flippant and say: Good luck finding an intact broom afterwards to clean up all that broken pipe!

*Blogger's dictionary doesn't know what this word is :) Good!
**We know that no one actually looks like this!

Taxman/highway man same diff: both like to bowl!

Generously proportioned, red wine glass/trophy with shiney silver rim and graphic was bought from Savers in Brunswick. Depicts Australian highway man/hero (WTF? I've never understood that, he was no Robin Hood) Ned Kelly.

Top Dog something something...

Top Dog bathers for men and women, image from the 1929 annual of The Draper of Australasia.
I'm not sure what is going on in this image but it's odd. The first thing that caught my eye was the inflatable crocodile. I didn't know they made them back then! Next, the woman's right leg is tucked away or resting at a weird angle or is possibly being eaten by the crocodile. The man's left arm and hand is invisible, then my brother noticed that his fingers are in weird positions for holding a ball. If you're on the look out for odd things with a vague sexual connotation well there's that in this picture as well...

Funky little lion logo

This is the first of a short series of images scanned from the 1929 annual of The Draper of Australasia. Sure I could have scanned a great many images of the fashion of the time, but let's face it I think we're all quite familiar with that sort of thing. This blog is more about the quirky rather than the quaint. I don't find 1920s fashion particularly exciting anyway.


Trademark, John King and Sons and Glasgow, drapers specialising in curtains
He looks like he's holding up his thistle with a grin, a spring in his step, a slightly flamboyant curl to his mane, and tiny round sunglasses perched on his nose.

Amazing Rare Things.

Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery
by Martin Clayton, Susan Owens, Rea Alexandratos, David Attenborough, soft cover edition

Prior to this I read Eaten by a Giant Clam by Joseph Cummings, which proved to be quite a good companion text.

In some ways you can judge this book by its cover; there are some equally gorgeous illustrations inside; David Attenborough's contributions are insightful; it's too small in format to be an art book. Visually it's an appetiser rather than the meal its title promises to be. The text makes up the bulk of the book providing background to some illustrations whilst directly referring to others. It's the referencing that is let down by the format size. Smaller pages means more pages of text between illustrations. Being the diligent reader I am, I endeavoured to view each referenced illustration to give it context which made my progress through the book slow and something of an effort. I strongly feel this book would be a better read if the pages were bigger so that not only could you get more text to a page but the highly detailed illustrations could be better appreciated.

An interesting read and beautifully illustrated but any subsequent editions should be in a larger format.

Eaten by a Giant Clam

'The English naturalist Charles Waterton would often startle guests to his Yorkshire manor, Walton Hall, by hiding behind the front door and biting them as they entered. (His pretentions to being a dog were no idle fancy - he was perfectly capable, even when well past sixty, of scratching the back of an ear with his big toe). '
From Eaten by a Giant Clam by Joseph Cummings

Adel Rootstein mannequins of the 1980s

I was chucking out my unused resource files when I came across these old Adel Rootstein mannequin promotional sheets. They were too funny not to share before condemning to recycling. Enjoy!


Ah, the 1980s: when men were effeminate and women were drag queens.


Ms Tracy Leigh is actually modelled on Ms Tracy Leigh. Adel Rootstein have a history of modelling their mannequins on real people, in particular famous people.


The very model of chillaxment apparently. I reckon he's frowning too much to be considered laid back but maybe that's just me.


We are the goon squad and we're coming to town.

Beep, beep!

Posing! Posing like a swan. Posing! Posing for a portrait ... Posing a threat!
Some rather contrived poses on the reverse page of the Runway ladies. I put some modesty patches over their 'bits' so it should be safe for work!

'The Art of Tidying', for girls in 1886,

A room that needs tidying.

‘One of the few anecdotes intended to prove a warning to my heedless youth, which I can now remember, related to the homely subject of tidying up. It was to this effect, and was short and sour. Miss Smith had long been engaged to be married to Mr Jones. That gentleman was invited to sleep a night at Mr Smith’s house, and coming down to breakfast he passed his intended wife’s bed-room, from which she had gone down, leaving the door wide open. There he saw such a scene of confusion that he felt sure his home would not be a comfortable one under Miss Smith’s management, and so he broke off the match.
“Mean man!” all you girls cry in chorus; and I am not the least commending Mr Jones’s behavior; I am merely telling you what effect on his conduct the sight of that untidy bed-room had.
My own view of untidiness is that it is an indication of a very inferior mind – a mind lacking in imagination, lacking in the sense of the appropriate, lacking in will-power.
…
It sees that the armchair cannot be used to sit on because a skirt lies across it; the floor cannot conveniently be trodden on because a wrap would trip up the feet; the sunshade must be removed before the smaller chair can be taken from the wall; and the children may catch their heedless little heads against the corners of the open drawers.
…
By acting thus the untidy girl shows herself lacking in the sense of the appropriate. I strongly suspect she is the kind of girl I meet with a fur cape on her shoulders in July, and thin summer shoes on her feet in December. In common language, she never knows “what’s what”.
…
Let it be every woman’s ambition to lead a perfectly beautiful life, and to do that she must try to cultivate a very beautiful mind; for surely we know that the outward is only a picture of the inward, and that a little drop of water can contain a miniature picture of the world; therefore all great results can be accomplished in a very small space, and every little life, in any humble sphere, be so exquisitely lived that it would be a fit subject for a poet’s verse, a painter’s picture of home-life, or a heart-refreshing biography from the pen of a loving friend.’

Image and extract from: Power, Helen, ‘The Art of Tidying’, Cassell’s Family Magazine (annual), 1886, p172-173

Proposed close time for seals, 1873

Click image to see bigger version.
Proposed close time for seals
S.E. Waller
from the editorial by Frank Buckland in The Animal World, A Monthly Advocate of Humanity, Issued by the R.S.P.C.A, No. 43 - Vol. IV, April 1873

This was on the cover, illustrating an article proposing the creation of a hunting season of baby seals to allow them to reach a bigger size. Regulating this would offer the seals as a species a better rate of survival since the babies would not be quite so helpless when the time came. One would expect the later hunting season would require a swifter killing method than what was happening - leaving the younger seal pups to starve to death after killing their mothers. It would appear to ease a collective conscience albeit temporarily. He went into some gory detail about the inhumanity of the then current 'slaughter of the innocents' method. He did not call for an outright cease to hunting nor change in technique, acknowledging the economic value of the animals.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

In a nutshell: STFU about the fish and get on with the adventure.

The plot when there was plot was rivetting, and Verne's occasional comic relief through both Conseil and Ned Land was entertaining as well. I'm told that comprehensive detailing of the science in SF is characteristic of the period. If it were published today it would probably be half as long because as a modern reader that is tiresome and we like to be entertained by the non-fiction aspect don't we? The modern reader has access to books, journals like New Scientist, the internet if he/she desires to learn more. We don't need that level of detail. There is extensive discussion of maritime history, geography, specifics of longtitude and latitude, physics and waaay too much coverage of every single fish and lifeform encountered.

This reader understands that the narrator is a marine biologist but is this text written for the benefit of fellow scientists? The use of scientific names only in some cases was particularly annoying! The text would be at least a quarter if not a third as long if these piscine descriptions were pared back to the essentials.