The web is truly an amazing thing. There is not a day goes by that I learn something from it that I would otherwise have been completely oblivious to back in the days when computers didn't sit on your lap but occupied vast rooms. I had an email from a friend in Christchurch saying they had read an article on a New Zealand blog about my article in the Daily Telegraph on posters. I naturally went in search of it.
The blog is called New Zealand Fine Art Print News and it is linked to a company that sells prints, and especially New Zealand prints. On their web site prints.co.nz thay have a massive selection of prints including some lovely vintage travel prints. Here's to the power of the web!
I've just posted an article about music boxes and their enduring appeal even in our iPod obsessed world that can read HERE. I decided to have a little look online at various auctions to see what music boxes are available to buy. There is a huge number ranging from a 19th century cylinder music box by Nicole Freres, in inlaid walnut box, 26" wide, playing ten airs, which unfortunately the Auction House of Bridport have not put a guide price on to a Lever-Wind Overture Musical Box by L`Epée, circa 1870 which has a guide of %,250 to £6,000. The latter is on offer from Auction Team Breker
Something else I notcied at Breker's was a very early example of a juke box, although they were not called that in the early 1920s when this Regina Style 33 Automatic Disc Changing Musical Box for 12 Discs, that was made in New Jersey was originally offered for sale.
Juke is a West African word, in one language it means wicked or disorderly and in another Congolese language it means, a building without walls. The word juke passed into popular usage with a sexual overtone among black Americans from the Southern States, it later came to describe a sort of dance. Like many derivative words it’s almost impossible to get to the complete truth.
Generally Juke (or Jook) joints were found in rural areas of the South and it has been suggested that there is a link to the jute fields and the jute workers that frequented makeshift bars. A juke joint typically had a bar that fronted onto the street, often with a dance floor and a back room for gambling or other activities; some Juke joints doubled as a brothel. The need for music in such a place is obvious. During the 1930’s itinerant musicians, often bluesmen, used the Juke Joints as their regular gigs.
In 1928 Justus P. Seeburg invented one of the first modern jukeboxes (right, a Seeberg Audiophone) and by the mid to late 1930s they could be found in bars, cafes, and juke joints right across America, but particularly in working class areas where people were less likely to own their own phonograph. In late 1938 Billboard began a new chart, which was a survey of the most popular records on Juke Boxes in America.
By 1939 there were 225,000 jukeboxes in America, which prompted James Caesar Petrillo, the President of the American Federation of Musicians to declare that records were “the number one scab”. He and his members felt that records and record companies were taking work away from musicians. Largely because of the juke box the AFM called a strike of its members in 1942; their motive was to persuade record companies to create a trust fund to compensate musicians who might lose live work as a result of records played on juke boxes and the radio. The strike ended in 1944 and the spread of the jukebox and the availability of an increasing number of phonographs was what the musicians strike had hoped to address. In reality the strike, along with the war, helped bring on the demise of the big band. The singer was the star; the traditional bandleader would never again be preeminent.
Black music of the late 1940s and early 1950s was what was most commonly found on jukeboxes. It was what evolved into rock ‘n’ roll and the beautiful looking jukeboxes that are so collectable today became pivotal in spreading the gospel according to rock ‘n’ roll.
Fresh on the heels of my post about wartime posters comes news that posters of a different kind have sold for a large sum in New york. A rare collection of British Rail travel posters has fetched more than £166,000 at an auction in the United States. The posters date from the golden age of rail travel, between the 1920s and 1950s and were designed by leading artists. Many of the posters depict iconic Scottish locations including the Forth Bridge, Loch Ness, Loch Lomond, Edinburgh's Princes Street and Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire.
Like many advertising or promotional posters they became extremely scarce having served their purpose. The collection of 198 posters went under the hammer at the Bloomsbury Auctions' sale in New York.
If you are interested in reading more about Railway Posters Mark posted this article in our archive last month – just click HERE
For many years now it's been popular to stay in hotels that boast rooms full of antiques – I even owned one at one point! It's easy to see the attraction of staying in rooms full of beautiful things, four-poster beds and all the accoutrements of those halcyon days. However, I've just been told of a new phenomenon. A trailer park in Arizona houses a collection of 1950s vintage trailers that are available to stay in. There's a 1949 Airstream, one of those beautiful sleek silver machines, there's a 33 foot Royal Mansion built in 1951 with leopard carpet, martini glasses, Diner-style breakfast booth and phonograph with a collection of 78rpm records, or a 1947 Tiki Bus Polynesian Palace, complete with hand-carved outrigger bar and your own Tiki God.
They play 1950s music and show old movies on the TVs and help visitors recreate holidays when the world was a simpler place. You can find out more HERE
The web is truly an amazing thing. There is not a day goes by that I learn something from it that I would otherwise have been completely oblivious to back in the days when computers didn't sit on your lap but occupied vast rooms. I had an email from a friend in Christchurch saying they had read an article on a New Zealand blog about my article in the Daily Telegraph on posters. I naturally went in search of it.
Something else I notcied at Breker's was a very early example of a juke box, although they were not called that in the early 1920s when this Regina Style 33 Automatic Disc Changing Musical Box for 12 Discs, that was made in New Jersey was originally offered for sale. 
In 1928 Justus P. Seeburg invented one of the first modern jukeboxes (right, a Seeberg Audiophone) and by the mid to late 1930s they could be found in bars, cafes, and juke joints right across America, but particularly in working class areas where people were less likely to own their own phonograph. In late 1938 Billboard began a new chart, which was a survey of the most popular records on Juke Boxes in America. 
Fresh on the heels of my post about wartime posters comes news that posters of a different kind have sold for a large sum in New york. A rare collection of British Rail travel posters has fetched more than £166,000 at an auction in the United States. The posters date from the golden age of rail travel, between the 1920s and 1950s and were designed by leading artists. Many of the posters depict iconic Scottish locations including the Forth Bridge, Loch Ness, Loch Lomond, Edinburgh's Princes Street and Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire. 
For many years now it's been popular to stay in hotels that boast rooms full of antiques – I even owned one at one point! It's easy to see the attraction of staying in rooms full of beautiful things, four-poster beds and all the accoutrements of those halcyon days. However, I've just been told of a new phenomenon. A trailer park in Arizona houses a collection of 1950s vintage trailers that are available to stay in. There's a 1949 Airstream, one of those beautiful sleek silver machines, there's a 33 foot Royal Mansion built in 1951 with leopard carpet, martini glasses, Diner-style breakfast booth and phonograph with a collection of 78rpm records, or a 1947 Tiki Bus Polynesian Palace, complete with hand-carved outrigger bar and your own Tiki God. 
In my Collectors' corner column this time I have looked at the the rise of vintage posters. You can read the whole thing 
