All images in this post are from the wonderful Symbols of Australia by Mimmo Cozzolino and Fysh Rutherford, first published in 1980. It has since been re-issued several times and is still available, including here. I don't own a copy, but I borrow it from the library time to time. Interestingly, each time I am drawn to different symbols. Above: Happy Foot: a foot powder symbol from 1925. The Keene Co., London.
Above: The lovely moustached Edwardian man seems to have been plonked onto the duck's body, but it works: he makes rather a handsome mandrake. Label dated 1919. B. Herbert, Sydney.
Above: Toppy Toppa. Toppa Ice Creams Ltd., Melbourne, 1952. Now that is a clever use for a "ribbon device".
Above: The Cricket Match. Sweden, c.1903. Double wordplay there: clearly it takes a non-cricket playing, non English speaking culture to note that. This one is for my cricket loving friend Kate Constable.
Above: This is where the anthropomorphic thing doesn't quite work. Art director asks "Could you please do that fashionable anthropomorphic thing with this box, and turn it into a lady?" Even Handy Ann looks bemused by her pathetic little square chest. Lever Bros. Ltd, Sydney. Perfumed soap, 1910.
This is where it does work. Above: 'Screw Man': the symbol that must have sparked my interest in these strange little anthropomorphic beings. I was so terrified of him when I was a kid that every time I would see him in my father's workshop on that little blue box, I would make a run for it. (Ditto that scary Michelin Man.) Funny how the things that you fear end up taking over your life. Sidney Cooke Pty. Ltd. Melbourne. Metal fasteners; 1940 version. Designed by Paton Advertising Services.
1 comment:
Thank you for my cricket(er)! Isn't he elegant. He looks a little tall to be a truly effective batsman though.
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