Issue 183
Winter 2018
£10.00
In this issue: William H. Helfand, Michael Twyman / Stand well back! The Hirayama Fireworks Company catalogues, Sara Chapman / Patent envelopes of the twentieth century, Arthur H Groten / Underground poster puzzle (almost) solved Graham Twemlow, ‘Omnium-gatherum’, John & Heather Raybould / Panko and Pank-a-Squith, Amoret Tanner / Mrs. Pepys / The Ephemerist Detective
I am inclined to call The Ephemerist 183, the ‘correspondence’ issue. In our (mostly) digital world, the sending of cards, postcards and letters, is often reserved for special events rather than everyday transactions. This issue not only presents a touching collection of late nineteenth Christmas greetings cards, but information about the industrial developments that allow messages to be sent securely through the post — namely stamps and envelope patents, the basis of several of our members’ collections. It remains to wish our readers an ephemeral 2019 ! We shall celebrate with a Japanese firework catalogue from 1883. The Editor
