The chemical melamine has many uses; from an ingredient in some mixtures of concrete, to an additive in industrial fertilisers.  But mix it with formaldehyde and it becomes an incredibly strong, light and easily moulded plastic.  

The relative light weight and strength of melamine led to its use as dinnerware aboard some ships in the US Navy – which in turn led to its use in millions of homes in the US and here in Great Britain.

 

 

During the Second World War, metal was expensive.  But aboard a Navy ship, it is my assumption that dinner plates falling on the floor was a very common occurrence, so everything had to be made out of tin – a light-weight and durable metal.  As I mentioned, metal was at a premium and an alternative was needed.  I’m sure they tried with other plastics such as bakelite, but it was brittle and didn’t stand up to repeated exposure to moisture and heat.  This is where melamine comes in.  The manufacturers touted it as “Break resistant” and “Virtually unbreakable” and that turned out to be quite accurate which made it the perfect material to use for military dinnerware.

 

After the war, designers such as Russell Wright and Joan Luntz worked with companies in America to bring melamine into the nations kitchens with modern designs and bright colours.  It wasn’t long before the craze made it to this side of the Atlantic and for some time, ceramics companies such as Midwinter were so worried about melamine taking over completely, they released their own range of modern dinner sets using the revolutionary material.

 

The set I have taken pictures of here is most probably of 1960s English origin.  The box seems like it is original as all the pieces fit nicely inside internal compartments but I am unable to find any other evidence that Royal Tudor Ware ever made any melamine crockery. But as I mentioned before, some English ceramics companies did produce melamine for a short time to try to keep up with a changing market.

   

As with all things, fashion changed and a move back to the traditional china and ceramic dinnerware was inevitable.  By the 1970s melamine had been relegated from the dining room to the picnic basket and the camper van (which is where I keep mine!).  But today, if you were to do a quick search on eBay or Etsy you will find some of the big names in melamine are making a comeback.  Mid-century design hasn’t been this popular since… well, since the mid-century!  

 

Alex Rogers

Happy Saint Patrick’s day from everyone here at Hungerford Arcade!  As everyone knows, today is a commemoration of the day Saint Patrick died.  Another thing that everyone knows is that he famously drove all the snakes out of Ireland.  But apparently, that isn’t true!  I read today that there were never any snakes in Ireland to begin with.  The allegorical snakes he drove out were actually druids, in his crusade to bring Christianity to the Emerald Isle.  

Today, St Paddy’s day is a chance to celebrate all that is Irish!  It is the most widely celebrated national festival around the world, with parades and parties taking place as far away as Argentina, Australia and the USA.  Wherever you are, we wish you a happy Saint Patrick’s day!

Here are some Irish treasures spotted in the Arcade today!

 

 

James Whittle came into the Arcade looking for Himalayan singing bowls for use in his “sound therapy” sessions.  Unfortunately we didn’t have any – and I have to be honest, I dont think I’ve ever seen one in here!  But what he did find was something a little bit different – a large gong, made by the cymbal company Paiste.  Although not very old, the gong is clearly high quality.  You don’t have to hit it very hard to get a lovely drawn out tone from it.  James said it resonates to the tone of C with overtones of F# and F and it has a lovely sustain.

 

Sound therapy is believed to improve a patient’s physical and mental well-being and can help in several areas, such as cognitive functioning, motor skills, emotional development and quality of life.  Sound and Music have been used to stir emotions in the human race since the dawn of time, so sound therapy is by no means a modern practice.

 

James has been in the industry for over 20 years and is always looking for a new instrument that can make a relaxing and calming sound.

We will look out for the Himalayan Singing Bowls for James and I look forward to hearing one being “played”.

Thanks for the visit James, we always appreciate learning about where the items we sell end up.

If you would like to contact James to find out more about what he does in his sessions, he can be reached by email at harmonicbalance@btinternet.com

We always get excited at Hungerford Arcade when looking forward to the Victorian Extravaganza as do all of Hungerford.  The following is a special announcement by the Committee on the Town’s website

 

With an estimated 7000 visitors expected, the Victorian Extravaganza on December 11th will again be the busiest day of the year in Hungerford.

This year, for the first time, The Town Hall will be opening its doors to the public for a very special event, in keeping with the traditions of the evening. As well as theatre and a Christmas Cafe there will also be space set aside for a Christmas market.

Local producers are being offered the opportunity to rent stands both inside and outside the building. It is expected that the outdoor pitches will be allocated to food and drink vendors, particularly with an international or very local offering , while the indoor stalls will cater to artisan and local producers of quality Christmas foodstuffs and those all-important last minute gifts.

 

Spaces are strictly limited and subject to application so if you are a vendor or producer and would like to apply please contact us here or call John Laker at Hungerford Townsite on 01488 680900 or Dani Winslet, Events Manager at the Town Hall, on 07880 311731.

 

We had a most welcome visitor in the Arcade the other day – Tony Hammond, otherwise known as The Cheese Agent.  

Tony is attending a number of local farmers markets and craft fairs in the run up to Christmas, peddling his delicious range of local cheeses.  He will even deliver a Christmas cheese board to your door in time for the big day.  

The next time Tony will be in Hungerford is on the 29th November for the Spiral Xmas Market in the Town Hall, just a couple of doors down from The Arcade.  It will be well worth a visit to the town.  

The Cheese he brought in to show me is called Barkham Blue from down the road near Wokingham and it was as tasty as it was smelly!  

Call Tony on 07766244978 with enquiries.

Hungerford Arcade would just like to remind everyone that The Antique Experience and Pledge Auction takes place this coming Saturday, 14th November at 7.00 pm at The John O’Gaunt School.  Its going to be great evening so do come along and support this wonderful cause.

 

 

 

 

 

Hungerford residents were out in their hundreds today to witness the annual Remembrance Day parade. Pictured here are The Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers from the local Army Garrison at Arborfield.  

Hungerford is honoured to have such a fantastic turnout to events such as this and we at the Arcade consider ourselves lucky to be so close to the centre of town where these events take place.

The parade takes place every year on Remembrance Sunday to honour the fallen, wounded and serving members of our armed forces, at home and overseas. 

We Will Remember Them

Hungerford Arcade is well known its wide range of antiques and collectables and also for the wonderful quirky items that are always to be found here.  The one that caught my eye this week, is a fantastic late Victorian steel and brass yarn winder, made by John Nesbitt of Market Street, Manchester.

 

 

The hexagonal shaped wheel is mounted on a turned steel shaft with winding handle, counter and bell on a mahogany base with four skein holders.  This is a very impressive machine which drew lots of attention from customers and stallholders alike.  Many people would have liked to have purchased this amazing machine, including me, but because of its size this was not possible.  However, a very happy customer fell in love with, snapped it up quickly and rushed it off home.  Customers and staff clapped in delight for this very excited lady.

Hungerford Arcade’s great friend and author, Stuart Miller-Osborne has written a wonderful article about Mr Punch.  Judy and the baby are not featured but then again, its all in the name as you will see.  Great writing and a joy to read.  I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I did.

Meeting Mr Punch 

 

When wandering around the Arcade recently, I noticed something which, as I normally sleepwalk through life, I had not noticed before.

 

 

Mr Punch was beginning to make inroads into the ancient building.  Was he a Fifth Columnist and what was the reason that he was beginning to show his face in our fair town?  But there was no need to worry, as his mission was to amuse and educate us about trifles past and if the subject was serious, then make serious points but with the trace of a smile on his face.

 

 

I am of course, talking about our beloved Punch magazine which, like many things, is no longer with us having expired finally in 2002 aged 161 years.  For many years, Punch was the staple diet of the railway bookstand with many of the travellers purchasing their paper and a copy of Punch to read on their journey.

 

 

It was also obviously sold in many other outlets but this was my memory when I worked at main line termini during the 1970s.  It was always of interest to me why people purchased certain magazines. The radicals would buy Private Eye whereas for some reason, men in suits purchased Punch.  I suppose it was seen as too square for the young men with their bushy sideburns. But this was not always the case.

 

 

Punch or The London Charivari to give its other name, was founded in 1841 by a certain Henry Mayhew and his friend the engraver, Ebenezar Landells and at once helped to change our perception of the word cartoon which, in its modern meaning, supposes a humorous illustration away from the lesser known artistic meaning.

Rock on Leonardo, as Mr Punch might say.

 

 

The title was taken from the beloved glove puppet and became a favourite of the Victorians as it favoured sophisticated humour and was not grossly offensive like other magazines (this said, Punch did share Charles Kingsley’s view of our Irish neighbours which historically is to be regretted).

 

 

 

 

Some of the newspapers of the day, such as The Times and The News of the World (RIP), often stole items from Mr Punch to fill up their columns which further increased the popularity of the magazine.

 

 

It sat comfortably with The Times and The Westminster Review and because of this, its readership spread and spread.  To name but a few people such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edward Fitzgerald and Charlotte Bronte, read Punch as well as Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.  Across the pond, Americans such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville and the reclusive Emily Dickinson were also enthusiasts.

 

 

 

 

Did you know that Mr Punch gave the phrase “ Curates Egg” and “Crystal Palace”  to the English language and that classics such asThe Diary of a Nobody and 1066 and All That , were all serialised initially in Punch?  I did not know this fact until I embarked on my research.

 

 

By 1910 the circulation of the magazine had reached some 100,000 and peaked just after the war at 184,000 in 1948.  The magazine was especially popular in the colonies and India was quite often satirised in the magazine.  But as society changed then Mr Punch became less popular.  Britain no longer had her Empire and people’s tastes were changing.  A revolution was taking place but few were really aware of this.

 

 

By the freewheeling 1960s, I suppose that Mr Punch’s humour was seen as old hat, a humour enjoyed by the older generations.  There was the Oz magazine and Private Eye to name but two which were much sharper in their humour and satire and often crossed the line and were sued or worse.

 

 

 

 

Mr Punch lingered on for a number of years but in 1992, suffered a serious illness was hospitalised and suspended for four years until an Egyptian businessman named Mohamed Al-Fayed raised the magazine again in 1996.  However, Punch appeared to have been raised as a weapon in his conflict with Private Eye which was often critical of him, which was sad as the magazine lost some of its bite.

 

 

 

The new incarnation did not last long and at the end of May 2002 it ceased publication again.  It was reported that there were only 6000 subscribers in 2002 and that over the six years of publication, it lost some £16 million pounds.  Whether this was true or not is open to question.

 

 

At the time of writing, Mr Punch is still at rest.

 

 

He may have been laid to rest in 2002, but I think in Highgate Cemetery, the old scoundrel is still alive and well and is witnessing the usual fun and games associated with this country of ours.  What he might make of political correctness would be fun to behold.  Someone has to understand it.

 

 

As I noted at the beginning of this piece, Mr Punch has been seen in Hungerford also.

Keep this quiet and do not spread the word.

 

 

If you look hard enough, then you will find him and not just in the book section up the stairs at the Arcade.  He is a crafty old sod and will make appearances where you least expect to see him.  Only today, I was walking past one of the stalls and there he was as bold as brass sitting on top of a chest full of model cars.  This copy of the magazine dated from the 1930s, but I suspect there were others.

 

 

Beware, Mr Punch sometimes wears his best coat and often appears behind stiff handsome covers which enclose a years’ worth of his magazines.  In other words, collecting copies of Punch magazine is not a hard task as they are quite easily available and do not cost that much.

 

 

 

 

 

Quite recently, I purchased a number of copies of Punch dating from the 1930s and they are a joy to read.  It is not just the cartoons and the silliness of the articles that was amusing, but the advertisements were just as funny (yes Mr Punch stooped that low).

One told me that if I smoked Craven A, my throat would be left alone but the ad did not mention the rough time my lungs were having.

 

 

 

Other ads told me that Ever Ready batteries were ever ready and never tired or that if I wanted to keep warm in the winter months that I could purchase aRobin Hood Boiler which was very suitable for the kitchen or the scullery.  My favourites were the full page ads which were often presented in the Art Deco style, although the one I am looking at as I am writing, shows a young lady in a Japanese gown looking at a lone crab on a beach.  The catchphrase is, “The Early One”   which I suppose I understand, but the ad is very cryptic and incidentally, was promoting the values of Wills Gold Flake.  I suppose Mr Punch was just having fun.  But seriously, every time you open a copy of Punch then you are really opening up a time capsule whether it be the articles or the cartoons or the advertisements.  Even the later editions are memorable.

 

 

I also possess a couple of the hard back collections of Punch dating back to the 1870s and they are fascinating to read. Issues such as Home Rule were discussed and satirised as well as the mechanics of empire.  The ads date from the period and are equally as fascinating as the ads were from the 1930s.  These magazines were as disposable then as magazines are today but thankfully, thousands survived and that is why they are so easy to find.  

 

 

I paid £1.00 for my 1930s copies which is a little on the cheap side, but you should be able to pick up inter-war copies of the magazine for about £3.00 or so. Like everything else it is where you shop.

 

The same applies to the hard back collections of the magazine. I have seen these collections on sale for as little as £3.00 and for as much as £20.00 but expect to pay around £7.00 to £8.00.  As I have noted these are often to be found in Hungerford, although at present (June 2015), I can only recollect seeing Mr Punch sitting on top of the toy cars although, only a few months later, he was everywhere.

 

 

No doubt he is now hiding deep in the recesses of the Arcade just to prove me wrong.

 

 

Remember when you buy a vintage copy of Punch magazine then you are preserving it for future generations to read and enjoy.  I have a feeling that we will see Mr Punch again, but when he returns is up to him.

 

 

I feel that satire wise, we have lost the innocence that Mr Punch presented and this is fast becoming a lost art.  Private Eye is a fun magazine to read and I am often highly amused by its contents and some of the cartoons are second to none (Action Man Deserter anyone?).  But I have always felt that Private Eye lacked the subtlety of Punch and was designed to hurt and not poke fun at its chosen subject.  Satire is in my view, is at its funniest when it is subtle and this is where Mr Punch wins hands down.

 

 

For the present then, let us preserve Mr Punch and ensure that he is around for many years to come.  He may be a cantankerous old bugger, but like your favourite uncle, he is always fun to be around.

 

 

 

 

Long live Mr Punch!

  

Stuart Miller-Osborne