13 'Festival' Keepsakes of 1951
FIRST COLUMN: TEAPOT STAND; STUD-BOX; TOBACCO BOX; HORSE-BRASS
SECOND COLUMN: POTTERY ASHTRAYS; SLIPPER SOX; PLATTER
THIRD COLUMN: COMPACT; JOLLY OLLY TOY; CIGARETTE CASE
FOURTH COLUMN: PARASOL; TIE; PENCIL SHARPENER
(the two highlighted in bold are the only ones I have got!)
"Once upon a mantelpiece..." I remember a children's book not long since beginning with these magic words and going on to describe the surprising adventures of some china pig or whatever the ornament may have been. Well, once upon a mantelpiece in every home in England there would have stood, a century ago, some souvenir or keepsake from the Great Exhibition of 1951 - a highly decorated mug perhaps, a glass paperweight or a Staffordshire figure of the Prince Consort, symbolically appropriate in white and gold. The nineteenth century was the great age of keepsakes. Every notable event of history would be suitably commemorated; every small but personally important event such as an excursion to London or the seaside would be enshrined by some memento until the parlour of those days became a temple of hallowed nicknacks. The whole effect might seem a little stifling to our tastes today and too suffused with sentiment perhaps, but individually these keepsakes were usually as pretty as they were useless. Those, in fact, were the two characteristics of the old-fashionned souvenir - to be trifles but to trifle as prettily as possible.
Today we live in a sterner and more realistic age. We are half ashamed of our sentiments; we are frightened of prettiness. The canon by which we judge all things and all people is that of utility. I think we overdo this materialism. I think, too, that secretly in our hearts we all of us cherish some of the simple sentiments of our great-grandparents, and that if we dared admit we can still share with them their love of make-believe, of the miniature model, of nonsense for nonsense sake and of even prettiness for itself alone. At any rate I hope so; and I hope that in the great flood of souvenirs which will be made to commemorate this Festival year there will be opportunity enough to satisy such feelings.
The Souvenir Committee set up jointly by the Festival of Britain office and the Council of Industrial Design has, since the middle of last year, been selecting from this flood those which it thinks are the most original, the best designed, and from all other points of view to be of good value. Only those so selected are on sale in the official exhibitions of the Festival. It must be admitted that most of the souvenirs submitted have been of a sternly utilitarian nature; a regrettably large proportion have consisted simply of ordinary merchandise stamped with the Festival symbol or with suitably commemorative wording. Relatively few seemed to have been designed specially for the occasion - which seems curiously unadventurous; but at the time of writing the flood is still in full spate, and perhaps this tendency will mend. In any case many excellent and enchanting ideas have been put forward, a very small selection of which is illustrated on this page and overleaf.
Certainly the range of goods sent in is enormous...There have been scarves, head-squares, ties, braces - the prettiest scarf, perhaps, a replica of one sold in 1851; the most surprisingly, a pair of braces with a picture of Nelson's column sewn into the elastic so the height of this landmark depends on the proportions of the wearer. There have been ashtrays, tea caddies, spoons for every imaginable and unimaginable purpose; buttons, medals, and costume jewellery galore; paperweights, pincushions, pencils and pens; torches in the shape of Big Ben, pencil sharpeners concealed in models of St. Paul's; purses and powder compacts; balloons, bookmarks, brass door knockers...the list is interminable and the choice infinite. Some charming, some - well let us say that in their very vulgarity there lies some charm. One way or another all epitomise the age in which we live, and so I hope that a century hence many will still be preserved as keepsakes of this extraordinary year, 1951.
Taken from "Design in The Festival Illustrated Review of British Goods": Keepsakes of 1951 by Robin Darwin.