Over one hundred colourful and vibrant designs show the amazing art of the biscuit label. Along with four hundred shaped biscuit tins that have adorned British homes since the Victorian times, this exhibition demonstrates the printing prowess of the biscuit trade.
Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising
2 Colville Mews
Lonsdale Road
Notting Hill
London, W11 2AR
United Kingdom
http://www.museumofbrands.com/
John Vinycomb: The Hand is Still a Masters
Until 30 August 2008
John Vinycomb came to Belfast in 1855 to work as an engraver in the art department of Marcus Ward and Company, a stationery, colour-printing and publishing business that gained an international reputation for the quality of its products.
An authority on heraldry and renowned designer of bookplates Vinycomb was active in the cultural life of Belfast, becoming President of the Belfast Art Society, the Belfast Naturalists Field Club and the Ulster Arts Club. This exhibition celebrates his life and work, providing a rare opportunity to see some of his unique and beautifully illuminated addresses.
Detail from Illuminated Presentation Album given by Marcus Ward & Company Limited to Mr George Petty on the occasion of his retirement from the position of General Manager, 15 August 1898.
Belfast Central Library
Ground Floor
Royal Avenue
Belfast
BT1 1EA
Ellen Bell: Hard Words
9 - 13 September 2008
This forthcoming exhibition by Ellen Bell is called Hard Words. It is both a literal and figurative title since “Hard Words” was a name used for the first printed dictionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries.
It is dictionaries and thesauri - as found objects - that form the basis for many of the works in this exhibition; cut about, re-formed and re-presented back to the viewer. Bell is interested in the different interpretations of words that the dictionaries provide, as words fall in and out of popular usage.
Found objects and ephemera have always been a foundation in Bell’s work. Several works use antique maps of places that for Bell have a special significance. She lived in Cambridge, which features in the piece “Aground” with its disconcerting stripe of red cotton bleeding down the page and its tiny, metaphorical origami boat. In “Twin-Bedded Room” small, wrapped paper boxes form two mattresses, made from an antique Baedeker map of Rome.
In this exhibition we are given a palette for contemplation - for finding in Bell’s work our own meanings, and parallels with our own histories and experiences. It is as though her stories and ours weave together, to bring meaning to the work, a conversation of many layers.
Four Square Fine Arts
The Air Gallery (Lower Gallery)
32 Dover Street
London
W1S 4NE
United Kingdom
http://www.foursquarearts.co.uk
The Performance on Stage & Screen Fair
Saturday 11 October 2008 10.30 - 19.30 Admission free
Fifteen specialist dealers will display for sale books and ephemera including
playbills, posters, autographs, programmes, prints and photographs, at
prices ranging from a few to several hundred pounds. Items will feature
personalities from the world of entertainment, especially those from
cinema, music and theatre, and on the history and technique of all
performing arts.
The Performance on Stage & Screen Fair is unique and
attracts collectors from all over the UK and is a bonus feature for
those attending performances at the National Theatre. The fair is
organised by the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association and the
Ephemera Society.
Olivier Stalls Foyer
Royal National Theatre
Southbank
London
United Kingdom
Enquiries: Peter Wood +44 (0)1954 251056
Jack the Ripper and the East End
Until 2 November 2008
Museum in Docklands is returning to the scene of London’s most infamous crimes in Jack the Ripper and the East End, the first exhibition to explore the Jack the Ripper murders and their enduring legacy.
From police files and photographs to letters from the public and the supposed Ripper himself, examine, for the first time, surviving documents and artefacts from the investigation and follow the crimes as they unfolded.
Step back in time to the labyrinth of late-Victorian Whitechapel, and uncover the human stories behind the sensational reports and explore the lives of the victims, witnesses, suspects and police, and the world they lived in.
Although no one knows who he was, Jack the Ripper is probably the capital’s most infamous son, his story passing into legend, shaping the way London and the East End are imagined. Full of objects attesting to the never-ending public appetite for this story, the exhibition will ask why the tale of the Whitechapel murders continues to resonate 120 years on and why this one unknown figure has become so iconic, and so much a part of London.
Museum in Docklands
No1 Warehouse
London E14 4AL
United Kingdom
http://www.museumindocklands.org.uk/
Titanic: The Ship That Shook America
Until 2 November 2008
In partnership with White Star auctioneers, Henry Aldridge and Son, the American Museum has gained access to private collections of Titanic memorabilia in Europe and America. “The great Titanic collectors form an exclusive club,” comments curator, Laura Beresford, “If we didn’t have the Aldridges on board, we would never have had the chance to display these amazing objects. They remind us of the individuals behind the statistics.”
Over 1,500 perished in the tragedy – more than 1,200 of whom were third class passengers and members of the crew. Just over 700 people survived.
Objects in the exhibition – including letters written on the ship, key Marconigrams, menu cards and the personal effects of those who were lost and those who survived – will change throughout the year. Enthusiasts can keep returning to make new discoveries.
The American Museum in Britain
Claverton Manor
Bath BA2 7BD
United Kingdom
http://www.americanmuseum.org/
The Big Smoke
Until 21 September 2008
One year on from the smoking ban, this display looks at the history of smoking in London. Using objects and images from the Museum’s collections, the display will chart the history of smoking from the first introduction of tobacco in London to the present day, following changes in attitude over the centuries.
Main foyer
Museum of London
London Wall
London EC2Y 5HN
United Kingdom
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk
Smoking 1835 (detail)
A Century of Olympic Posters
Until 7 September 2008
This vibrant new exhibition will explore the fascinating representation of the Olympic Games through the intensely visual medium of the poster. Coinciding with the Beijing Olympic Games of 2008 and the build-up to London 2012, exhibits will be drawn from the V&A's rich collections of posters and ephemera, including stunning recent acquisitions.
Posters are an important means of communication for the Olympic Games and shape expectations of the Games to come. The exhibition explores how the posters were used to convey messages to an international audience about the look and feel of individual Games through eye-catching and memorable imagery.
In addition to the posters will be examples of the original programmes of events, a ticket from the Paris 1900 Games and an Olympic torch from London 1948. An extra display at the Museum of Childhood will be a selection of official Olympic mascots dating from the 1960s to the present day.
V&A Museum of Childhood
Cambridge Heath Road
London E2 9PA
United Kingdom
http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/
What Women Want: Stories from The Women’s Library
Until 13 September 2008
90 years on from the award of the parliamentary vote to women this exhibition uses historic photographs, documents, posters and ephemera to bring to life the struggle for political representation and equality at work, and reveal unexpected insights into the worlds of leisure, beauty and the home.
The exhibition includes an impressive display of original suffrage banners marking the 100th anniversary of the March of the Great Women, when up to 15,000 women paraded through the streets of London to demand the right to vote.
What Women Want showcases the range of material in The Women’s Library collections, from cookery books old and new, through Spare Rib and Asian Bride magazines, to posters campaigning against domestic violence.