The Resurgence of Art Deco Typography in the 1980's

The Art Deco style, adopted by architects and designers around the world, spanned the "Roaring Twenties", the Great Depression of the early 1930s, and the years leading up to the Second World War. It suffered a decline in popularity during the late 30s and early 40s, when it began to be seen as too gaudy and ostentatious for wartime austerity, after which it quickly fell out of fashion. The first resurgence of interest in Art Deco occurred in the 1960s - coincident with the movement's affect on Pop Art - and then again in the 1980s, in line with growing interest in graphic design. The style appeared in a number of jewellery and fashion ads. 

From: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/art-deco.htm

Here are a few examples I found of Art Deco typography used in the 1980's, found on matchcovers. These Art Deco fonts are meant to evoke a feeling of glamour.

These four covers use the popular Art Deco typeface Broadway Engraved, the last using an unknown Art Deco style font.

The same goes for these two covers, they both use Broadway. Usually, this Art Deco style of lettering uses All Caps or all capital letters, but as the the second cover shows, it sometimes works using lowercase.

A series of ten strike covers, all of which use variations of the Monotype Broadway and Elegant typeface.

New Matchcovers From Keystone-Lehigh Swapfest

I acquired lots of new matchcovers from the Keystone-Lehigh Swapfest, so I thought I'd share them here.

These are a few covers from a different categories I thought were really nice. I've told people who ask about our hobby that there are matchcovers for just about everything and here are some to prove that, especially the Yale lock and Gould Dice covers.

Royal Flash Billboard covers are very popular, especially the older, colorful ones pictured here.

Two different AIDA Brand food product covers both have nice vibrant graphics.

I recently become interested in the older college matchcovers because they usually have a nice logo of their mascot, such as these ones from California State, University of New Hampshire, and California State Polytechnic.A collection of these look really great in an album.

I came across a handful of feed and seed covers, all of which display nice looking graphics. Tuxedo and Texo are two new brands I have not heard of previously.

A few nice 30 strikes including one for Rough-In brand work clothes and Eagle light switches and power outlets.

Found on the freebie table were these nice food product covers. That's the first Ovaltine cover I have seen,

More food product covers, including Viviand macaroni, Gioia macaroni and the fantastic TNT Pop Corn.

Keystone-Lehigh Swapfest 2014

The Keystone-Lehigh Swapfest of 2014 was held on October 23rd, 24th and 25th and was a huge success and a lot of fun for everyone.

The drive up to Morgantown, PA from Arlington, VA was nice and there was lots of Fall colors to be seen throughout the 3 hour drive.

The sky was overcast most of the day on Thursday, but that made for easy driving with no sunny glare.

A panoramic view of one of the auctions held at Keystone-Lehigh.

The matchbook collectors overwhelmed the staff at Zou's Garden Chinese Restaurant on Thursday night. Service was slow, but the food and company was great. Jimmie Close came up with a great idea, to pay individually at the counter instead of waiting at the table, so we could all be back in time for the night's 7 PM auction.

Thursday night's Bingo was a lot of fun and the matchcover prizes were fantastic. I had a very lucky run at Bingo and won (see image above) at least 12 packs of covers, including some really, really nice auto dealer covers. A big thank you to Grant for watching my card as I picked up my prizes.

Clem Pater auctioned material from a couple different estates while the ladies jokingly kept track of his mistakes. 

Friday afternoon Bill Calhoun and I went down to Claire's and had lunch. Bill's a great guy and has an amazing collection of toilet and outhouse matchcovers. Duane joined us for lunch shortly after.

Bill and Duane outside Claire's Restaurant.

Friday brought us really nice weather and an amazing sunset.

The Halloween costume contest had some great entries this year.

The winners.

Grant brought an absolutely amazing display of 1940's RMS photo matchbooks. 

Saturday night's banquet was great and the turkey I had was very good. The awards ceremony is always a nice way to end the convention. It's very easy to look around that room and consider everyone there part of your extended family. I know I do.

Keystone is always a fun event and this year was even better. As always, it was nice to see everyone again. They held three great auctions and the freebie tables were very, very good. The hospitality room was also very nice and supplied us with sodas, cookies, chips and other snacks. It's also a good place to socialize. I think everyone had a lot of nice material to take home with them and work with during this coming winter.

A big thank you to everyone involved in the Keystone swapfest, especially Bob Hofacker for keeping the freebie tables full (and everything else he does for all of us), Gayle Hofacker for getting everyone signed in, Clem Pater for being our auctioneer, Donna Longenecker for handling all of the auction items, and everyone else, the list is immense. Thank you all for a great convention.

Here are a few good quotes I heard during the Keystone-Lehigh Swapfest of 2014:

"You can't take it with you, but you can't go anywhere without it."

-Chuck Cummins

"A million dollars isn't what it used to be, unless you don't have it."

-Bob Hofacker

"Get off the table, Mabel, the money's for the beer." (in immediate response to Bob Hofacker asking that everyone get off the freebie tables so we could all go to lunch)

- Jack Blackburn

Recent Acquisitions

I recently bought a large lot of matchbooks and matchcovers and was pleased to find a lot of nice stuff. There were six of these mint condition Cadillac Glass Co. features.

There were about 25 features and printed stick matchbooks in the lot, all in brand new condition. 

Some of the nicer material, WWII patriotics, train lines and World's Fair covers had duplicates.

This late 1930's David Lionel Press cover for a beauty shop offered permanents. For more on this manumark, see:

 http://matchpro.org/Archives/Know%20Your%20Cover/dlionel.pdf

Found On eBay

First up is this gorgeous Diamond Quality Nehi cover, which looks unstruck. This was part of a large lot of DQ's that were sold at auction on eBay recently.

One seller had quite a few beautiful, unstruck contours available if the price was right.

Laurel and Hardy

The comedy team of Laurel and Hardy made hundreds of movies, both shorts and features, and the two men were among Hollywood's biggest stars from the 1930s to the 1950s. Stan Laurel was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in Ulverston, England (16 June 1890) and Oliver Hardy was born Norvell Hardy in Harlem, Georgia (18 January 1892). They both ended up in Hollywood working for Hal Roach in the 1920s. They appeared in their first feature as a team in 1931's Pardon Us and went on to make a string of classic comedies, including Sons of the Desert (1933), Babes in Toyland (1934) and Way Out West (1937). Their last film was a French production, Atoll K (1950). Easily recognizable, they almost always played themselves in the movies: Laurel was the skinny, innocent one and Hardy was the round, blustery one.  

Found on eBay

Found on eBay

I had never really thought about where exactly the major political matchbooks we find had come from until yesterday when I saw this on eBay; two covers from the 1960 Kennedy and Johnson campaign, an envelope, card and order form for more matchbooks from the Democratic Match Book Headquarters in Washington, DC. 

According to the order form you could order either the Kennedy - Johnson design or the Kennedy For President design by the case, starting at $15. 

Next up is a lot of 7 Up covers, all of which unfortunately,all look bobtailed. Anyway, the most interesting fo the lot is the Guntersville, Alabama Drink Like Helen B. Happy (Drink like hell and be happy, a phrase that dates back to at least the 1910's) cover. There's no manumark, so who knows what it was advertising besides 7 Up.

Helen B. Happy is a different image when turned upside down, on left.

Industrial Matchcovers

Three matchcovers advertising box manufacturing companies

Underwater cutting.

Great colors in this older McMurty House Paint matchcover.

Interesting robot looking mascot.