It’s New and….Old!!!!

47 Replies

Ihave made another one!!! I know!!! You are getting really bored with me posting over exposed photographs of random pieces of paper!!! Soz.

mixed-media-collage-constructed-narrative-made-from-recycled-and-new-materials-uk

I could murder a bakery product right now….

Okay, let me try to explain. I was really taken by Looby’s comment on my previous post where he said that he liked the juxtaposition between the dramatic headline and the ebullient wrapping paper. This got me thinking. I realised that I’m curious about what lies beneath the veneer of British middle-class domesticity, and I decided to further my curiosity with my next collage.

The wrapping paper reminds me of chintzy 1950’s wallpaper, so it became the perfect backdrop. I then needed some text, so I randomly opened an old Scarlet Blue post from 2013, and chose a comment that grabbed my attention. The comment referred to frozen bakery products, so I then spent a day looking through my stash of 50’s vintage newspapers for a relevant image to go with it, et voilá, from bits of scrap and a recycled blog comment, a fresh narrative was born!

vintage-fridge-advert-and-constructed-narrative

Weapons to chew on…

detail-of-collage-using-both-new-and-old-paper-uk

To whom it may concern…

For my next post I hope to bring you something I seldom speak about. But it might end up being something related to a vintage newspaper….

47 thoughts on “It’s New and….Old!!!!”

  1. LẌ

    Very cool idea! [ducks thrown frozen pizza]

    PS: Are the slash numbers after the £ amount some sort of other monetary reference, e.g. pence, farthings, furlongs?

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    2. Scarlet Post author

      Thank you, Mr Lax!
      Ah, this is old money – pre 1971, i.e, Pounds, Shillings, and Pence. I am not very good at it, but apparently there were 20 shillings to the pound. And 21 shillings to a guinea. There’s an interesting article about it HERE.
      Sx

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      1. Scarlet Post author

        The fridge costs 63 guineas, which is….
        Erm…. I’ll let Jon work it out! Blimey, that’ll teach me, the last thing I wanted was to have to sort out a maths problem!!!
        Sx

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    3. dinahmow

      Yes. It’s how we wrote monetary sums back when we used pounds, shillings and pence. Or, to express it another way…back when we had money.

      On a side note…I worked(very, very briefly) at Selfridges. Dear gods of the darkest realms! It was positively feudal! Whenever Sir Charles Clore came into the building there was system of signalling so that all departmental managers would rush to the escalator on each floor to bow and kiss his hem. OK, perhaps there was no hem-kissing, but there was some sycophantic fawning as he progressed through the store.

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      1. Jon

        I just read up on Charles Clore – a remarkable story, really: from Jewish tailor’s son to owning a string of department stores from Liverpool to Oxford Street, he bought racehorses, owned two oil tankers and a house in Monaco, was a client of Christine Keeler <b.and bestowed £6 million to the Tate Gallery to build a new wing to house the world’s biggest collection of Turner paintings. I’d doff my hat to him! Jx

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      2. Scarlet Post author

        Dinah – I have a couple of jackets from Selfridges, bought when I had money. One of them I’d still wear if I had an occasion to wear it! Yes, back in the day I recall how we used to hush and stub out our fags when the big boss deigned to come down to our office. And back in the day we were taught to doff our caps before we learnt anything else.
        Sx

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      3. Scarlet Post author

        Jon – One of my ‘Big bosses’ was a bit famous. He requested that I tone down my signature because it was flashier than his! Still, happy days really.
        I’m related to Jewish tailors, sadly not Mr Clore!
        Sx

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  2. Jon

    I wonder if Selfridges still has an exhibition hall on the third floor, with space for Scottish pipers, fencing teams, etc as well as a display of historical military equipment through the ages? I doubt it. It’s probably lingerie nowadays. Jx

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  3. Scarlet Post author

    I know, Jon!! These old papers are fascinating. I have some gems to post some time in the future… I think I even have some lingerie adverts!
    Sx

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  4. batarde

    Selfridges actually sell fridges? That had never occurred to me. 63 guineas does seem rather a lot given that it only comes in cream … looks like a big ‘un though. Plenty of room for storing the instruments of cold, calculated murder I suppose.

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      The ultimate storage unit for the British army, Mr Batarde!
      Erm, I am struggling with my maths. 63 guineas is 1,323 shillings, which is £66 and 15 shillings? Or £66/15/- Is that right? Or is it £66/10/5d ???? I have no idea! So thankful for decimalisation!
      Sx

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      1. Scarlet Post author

        ….I don’t think I can calculate anything. Perhaps I ought to go and put my pinny on and lock myself in the kitchen.
        Sx

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  6. Inexplicable DeVice

    Where is it? where is it?!?

    * moves various dishes, plates and bottles about *

    I can’t find the trifle! Doesn’t every 50s fridge have a trifle in it?? I WANT TRIFLE!!!

    * sulks, but is secretly thankful that was born too late to have to understand pre-decimalisation currency, and laughs at Batarde’s “sell fridges” observation *

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  7. Scarlet Post author

    Mr Devine – I know! AND ALSO, wouldn’t the collage be better if I’d simply written Selfridges sell fridges across the whole thing?! Damn it. An opportunity lost. This is why two/three etc heads are better than one.
    Sx

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  8. lisleman

    “stash of 50’s vintage newspapers” – interesting but be careful not to tip into hoarding because a stack papers may tip on you. Now a freezer full of murder weapons, that’s a plot for a British detective show.

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Thank you for the tip, Bill! My studio is already a tip, and I need to buy a large cupboard to contain it.
      And, yes, a freezer full of murder weapons has already been a plot in a TV series!!
      Sx

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  11. Scarlet Post author

    Looby – We did used to do a lot of filth on The Scarlet Blue blog! After I visit the old place I usually feel the need for a good scrub down.
    Sx

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  13. nick

    Well I never. My parents had a Kelvinator fridge that looked exactly like that. It occupied pride of place in a corner of the breakfast room (yes, we had a breakfast room as well as a kitchen – weren’t we jolly posh!) And you’re absolutely right about murder weapons. A solidly frozen quiche could do some serious damage to an unsuspecting burglar. He could even have some solidly frozen broad beans to complete the meal. If he was still alive to enjoy it, that is.

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Hello, Nick!! Now do you recognise the comment in the collage? Did you click through to the original SB post? All I can say is Thank You! And if I ever sell it I might owe you a small percentage of the profits 😉.
      Sx

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Crikey, sometimes this blogging malarky is hard work…. I point people in the right direction, make everything simple to understand…. and yet….
      RIGHT. Mr Nick, click on the link to the old Scarlet Blue post. Find the comment YOU made on the aforementioned old SB post. Does it make sense now?
      In my imagination you were chuffed that I’d used your comment!!! I try… I really do….
      Sx

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      1. Scarlet Post author

        Just to clarify:-

        nick said…
        I think just about anything in my freezer would be a perfect murder weapon. I’d be spoilt for choice. The rock-hard naan bread perhaps. Or the rigid pizza. Or the frozen rolls of puff pastry. The burglar would be out like a light in a second.

        The trouble with the frozen bottle of milk is having to sweep up all the milk and broken glass afterwards. Of course the burglar might help if he was still alive.
        26 March 2013 at 22:34

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      2. nick

        Ah, eureka! How did I manage to keep missing the link? Clearly my brain has a strange aversion to underlinings. Well, yes, the usual brilliant comment that historians will interpret for centuries to come. I am indeed well chuffed that you used my comment. I shall have to reciprocate. You’ve been warned!

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  15. 63mago

    I vaguely remember a story involving a dead husband (bonce bashed in by blunt force object) and a big hock (“Haxe”, effectively the leg of an animal, perhaps a pig, a lamb ?) gently roasting in the oven.
    I forgot whether the detective was invited to dinner. Maybe van de Wetering’s inspector Saito ?
    I’ll keep an eye on these seemingly innocent single letters.

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      1. Jon

        That was certainly the plot of one episode of Tales of the Unexpected, starring Susan George and a leg of lamb. I think the leg of lamb won the BAFTA. Jx

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  16. 63mago

    I’m sorry, I should have read the original post first, dearest MsScarlet !
    But I am sure that I read this story – sorry Jon, I have no tv for roughly twenty years now, and have not watched British tv on a regular basis ever. I heared that one or another actor won a BAFTA for appearing s a piece of wood, but who’d shun an excellent lamb chop ?

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    1. Jon

      Tales of the Unexpected was a series that was (originally) based on short stories by Roald Dahl collected in the books Tales of the Unexpected, Kiss Kiss and Someone Like You. So there’s every chance that even if you never saw the telly programme, you may well have encountered the books… Jx

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      1. 63mago

        I remember that here is a pretty ample volume of Dahl’s stories somewhere around, a German edition, (Lamm Aemirstan (that restaurant where they eat their guests)) – thank you Jon.

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Apologies, Lulu – I thought I had replied. I remember when I was very small that my family had a very funky fridge – I like to think it was a Kelvinator – but probably not!
      Sx

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Found you, Rog! I know! Juxtaposition is a wonderful word to chuck into the mix, I do it when I want to look smarter than I am 🙂
      I do indeed own a typewriter, but it’s a German make – Privileg 300T. It’s bright orange and I love it.
      Sx

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