I recently discovered a film about flat-track racing that I should have know about years ago called, “Once A Jolly Swagman”. If you haven’t seen it I encourage you to check it out. Coincidentally I just acquired a half-sheet for the film, which was retitled, “Maniacs On Wheels” for the American market.
I just spent 5 days and 800 miles in the car with both my wife and my parents… and we survived. Along the way we hit every antique store we could find and came up miserably thin in great finds. The future of antique stores is grim, I am afraid. It seems that the internet has finally put a wooden stake in the antiques market, with anything great either super highly priced or not in stores at all. They all seemed to have nothing but the leftovers and LOTS of glass and dishware. Even great furniture was rare to find. I did come away with these 3 gems:
An Amazing Portland Raceway Motorcycle Races Poster from the 1950’s. I paid alot, but I was so happy that the guy dragged it out of the basement, and his personal collection, and then was willing to part with it after owning it for more than 30 years.
A fantastic 1940’s Pontiac Service back-patch for a servicemen’s jacket. It is 13 inches in diameter and all loop-stitched. I will have to find the perfect vintage jacket for this one.
An 18″ Heineken Bar Back in chalkware.
Finding these gems broke the depressing cloud we had hanging over our heads from striking out so many times. There were still some inspiring objects out there, it just seems I am going to have to find a way to make bucketloads of money to afford the good stuff. And to think that I can’t sell great items in Casarama at half the price…
This is a 1937 Favor Cycles poster from France I just acquired from a dealer in France. It measures 15″ x 23.5″ and has metal borders on the top and bottom with a metal loop for hanging. I have seen this poster in several sizes, including a large 6′ x 4′ version. It was designed by Bellenger, who designed many French posters of that period.
A nice 1969 Belgian Motorcycle Race poster I just bought from a dealer in France. Great flat track image advertising mixed-class races, including side-cars, called Rumesm Mettet.
Found this great motorcycle poster for a client in Casarama. It is a 1 Sheet for the 1969 film called Run, Angel, Run!
I missed out on a great 1972 Harley Davidson Dealership promotional poster featuring champion flat track racers. It went for a whopping $264. Way more than I put in for…
I have a few reproductions of these hill climb posters in my collection, from back when I actually bought reproductions. This original beauty just arrived at my doorstep. It is a window card sized poster from the 50’s. This one is no repro.
I posted a few weeks back that I came across a stack of vintage circus posters. Instead of posting them here I put them up on my PaperMadness Blog. You can check the post out over there. Here is a small taste:
Vintage OCD 