A window into the past for both the curious and the collector — find rare, unusual and historic paper items, priced from £2 to over £2000. A huge range of ephemera will be on display. The fairs will be on for one day only so make a note in your diary now, we look forward to seeing you there!
Interested in booking a table for the fair? Reserve your space - download the booking form
For more details call 01923 829079 or email
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Ephemera Society Fairs 2020
Make a note in your diary for next year's fairs: Sunday 31 May & 6 December 2020
Holiday Inn London Bloomsbury
Coram Street
London WC1N 1HT
United Kingdom
Entry £3 · 11am - 4pm · All welcome
Members from 10am with membership cards
Bloomsbury Ephemera, Postcard & Book Fair
27 October 2019 · 9.30am - 3pm
The fair will include all of the following: books, ephemera, maps, prints, posters, postcards, photographs and many unusual printed items across the whole of the Galleon Suite.
Cut and Paste: 400 Years of Collage is the first survey exhibition of collage ever to take place anywhere in the world. Collage is often described as a twentieth-century invention, but this show spans a period of more than 400 years and includes more than 250 works.
A huge range of approaches is on show, from sixteenth-century anatomical ‘flap prints’, to computer-based images; work by amateur, professional and unknown artists; collages by children and revolutionary cubist masterpieces by Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris; from nineteenth century do-it-yourself collage kits to collage films of the 1960s.
Highlights include a three-metre-long folding collage screen, purportedly made in part by Charles Dickens; a major group of Dada and Surrealist collages, by artists such as Kurt Schwitters, Joan Miró, Hannah Höch and Max Ernst; and major postwar works by Henri Matisse, Robert Rauschenberg, and Peter Blake, including the only surviving original source photographs for Blake’s and Jann Haworth's iconic, collaged cover for the Beatles’ album Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Owing to the fragility of much of the work, the exhibition will not tour: it can only be seen at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh.
Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art (Modern Two)
Image: Baby, c.1890, Collage on paper, England and Co, London. Anonymous.
1-2 November 2019
The ABA Chelsea Rare Book Fair is returning to the beautiful Chelsea Old Town Hall for the 29th edition on 1st and 2nd November 2019.
With more than 80 exhibitors specialising in all type of books, manuscripts, maps, prints, and ephemera, this is the perfect opportunity to find that special Christmas gift or add something wonderful to your own collection.
Apples and pears, one should not compare with each other, so the saying goes, but this is exactly what the current exhibition in the museum Alexandrowka does by using chocolate packagings with apple motifs and views from Russia. Apple fillings in chocolate bars are rare and more likely to be found in Russia.
Three Brandenburg personalities have played a special role here. One of them, Theodor Ferdinand von Einem, founded the Red October factory in Moscow, which to this day successfully produces the most famous Russian chocolate bar with the portrait of the girl with the apple-coloured cheeks. The second, novelist and poet Theodor Fontane (1819-1898), dedicated verses not only to Ribbeck’s famous pear tree in the Havelland, but also to the apple tree.
The third, Sven Stabroth, Ephemera Society member and collector of chocolate wrappers, chocolate advertising and packaging. For over 30 years he has collected more than 22,000 chocolate wrappers from over 70 countries with hundreds of different flavours. They reflect the food and consumption culture of society, marketing techniques and show how adaptable packaging design can be.
An insight into his vast collection can be seen in this exhibition at the Alexandrowka Museum (Alexandrowka is the Russian Colony in the north of Potsdam, Federal State Brandenburg, Germany).
Much of Cuba’s iconic graphic design is instantly recognizable the world over. But alongside the familiar image of Che
Guevara, Cuban artists have produced uncompromising design and illustration to deliver Cuba’s revolutionary message
around the world. These works have rarely been seen – until now.
The House of Illustration will open the first major exhibition of graphic design from Cuba’s ‘golden age’, which
will bring together work distributed across the globe by OSPAAAL: Fidel Castro’s
Organisation of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America, an organisation founded to promote
cooperation between socialist countries and liberation movements.
OSPAAAL’s designers used the tools of the capitalist advertising industry to create compelling graphics for entirely
opposite purposes. Their work – revolutionary in both style and substance – stands as a prime example of art for
political persuasion. While originally distributed freely in editions of thousands, OSPAAAL posters and magazines are now rare and highly
sought-after.
The works in the exhibition, drawn from a single UK private collection - The Mike Stanfield Collection -
offer a rare insight into this defining period in Cuba’s design history.
Displayed throughout the whole Museum, this interactive exhibition will delve into the mechanics of theatre and concert going in eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain. With more than 100 objects on display, discover the surprising similarities and astonishing differences between theatre and festival-going then and now, including advertising, ticket sales, audience behaviour and dress code.
Going to a show flourished as a popular pastime in the eighteenth century and as a result the entertainment industry saw rapid expansion: many theatres were built and music festivals began in both London and the provinces. These growing forms of entertainment contributed to the vast range of audience experiences we know today.
A fascinating glimpse of behind-the-scenes roles, from theatre managers, set designers and scenery-painters, to the refreshment sellers and ticket collectors. Learn how leading artists of the day, including Hogarth, Hayman and Lambert, crossed over into the world of show business as set designers and scenery painters.
An exhibition celebrating the Bank of England’s 325th anniversary through 325 objects featuring some notable ephemera.
From Roman relics to a nuclear fall-out calculator from the Cold War, the exhibition features a variety of fascinating artefacts to celebrate the Bank's 325th anniversary, the objects explore how money and the way we pay for things has transformed since the Bank of England was established in 1694.
This major exhibition explores the life and legacy of the iconic designer Abram Games, focusing on his time as 'Official War Poster Artist' during the Second World War.
Always direct, and occasionally controversial, Games's wartime posters have left a legacy that continues to influence the art of persuasion employed by visual designers today.
Inspired by his Jewish heritage, his experiences as a soldier, and the turbulent politics of the time, Games used his talent for visual communication to recruit, educate and influence soldiers and civilians alike.
In helping to transform new conscripts into trained soldiers, encouraging support for the war effort and presenting an idealistic vision of post-war Britain, Games's work offers a fascinating picture of a nation at war.
The art of persuasion examines the techniques Games used to communicate his messages effectively. From stark imagery and visual puns to innovative use of the airbrush, his unique artistic approach changed the face of British graphic design.
The exhibition includes posters from the National Army Museum’s collection alongside objects on loan from the family of Abram Games.
Cut and Paste: 400 Years of Collage is the first survey exhibition of collage ever to take place anywhere in the world. Collage is often described as a twentieth-century invention, but this show spans a period of more than 400 years and includes more than 250 works.
