Granny's Kitchen Cupboard: A lifetime in over 100 objects

By John Alexander

Accumulated over many years, 'Granny', the enigmatic collector behind this book, presents a selection of quirky post-war goods, advertising and kitchen items.

In Granny’s Kitchen Cupboard you’ll find a remarkable array of British twentieth-century ephemera. From children's toys, boil dressings and chocolate wrappers to butane fuel and TCP, this selection is an incredible collection of innovative advertising designs, odd curios that have long since been replaced by modern technologies, and recognisable old brands. After the end of austerity in Britain in the early 1950s, consumerism boomed and these objects portray the societal change that followed.

Beautifully arranged throughout, the contents of this book reflect aspects of a long life, most of it lived in a single house in the Home Counties. Nothing was thrown away – everything was recycled and reused in a way that says something about their time, in particular the thrifty mindset instilled by rationing in World War Two.

The collection features old household brands that have evolved into various iterations into the present day, such as Harrods, Johnson’s, Vaseline, Vicks, Elastoplast, the AA, Strepsils, W H Smith, Boots, Hoover, Happy Shopper and Lego. But this collection also features some odd items that may evoke nostalgia or even amusement, including fascinating catalogues, vintage pastille tins, an apothecary of unusual medicines, odd household cleaners not to mention rifle cartridges. The book also includes text that divulges the history and use of each object.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Oct 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781911624516

John Alexander

John Alexander’s mother, Jennifer Alexander, was born into an army family in the early 1920s. She lived a full life; spending her childhood in India and travelling throughout Europe before air travel became unremarkable. During the Second World War, Jennifer served in the WRNS, hopping on planes to London for the weekend from her naval airstation in the Lowlands. Afterwards, Jennifer had two stints working at Queen magazine in the 1950s. In 1960 Jennifer married and the following year moved into the house in Surrey where the contents of Granny’s Kitchen Cupboard were brought to light more than 50 years later.

Book preview

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GRANNY’S

KITCHEN CUPBOARD

JOHN ALEXANDER

illustration

In Granny’s Kitchen Cupboard you’ll find a remarkable array of British mid-century household items and twentieth-century printed ephemera and packaging, as well as memorabilia from holidays abroad, all gathered by one woman, Jennifer Alexander. The contents reflect aspects of a long life; most of it lived in a single house in the Home Counties. None of these were brought together with the eye of a collector. Instead they were kept and reused in a way that says something about their time, in particular the thriftiness instilled by rationing in World War Two and after.

Paper bags from London department stores like Gamages, Lillywhites and Selfridges were put away for a rainy day. String was tidily wound and placed in a drawer. Tins that started out holding throat lozenges or Will’s tobacco continued their useful life storing screws, nails and electrical fuses. For a lifetime, a Fortnum & Mason chocolate box held buttons and thread on a drawing room shelf, and wrapping paper for Christmas and birthday presents came back every year.

Jennifer was born in Worsley, Lancashire in the early 1920s. Her father, Cyril (Peter) Keitley, was a regular officer in the Manchester Regiment, an infantry unit in the British Army. He and his wife Joyce, also known as Billy, had two children: John and his younger sister, Jennifer. Her mother’s family, the Gibsons, lived in London. Jennifer remembered how scared she was as a little girl taking the long staircase to bed in the dark Edwardian interior of her grandmother’s tall terraced house in Warrington Crescent, Maida Vale. She was no doubt delighted to reach the top and be reunited with her extraordinary orange spotted cuddly dog and Pekingese pyjama case.

The peripatetic life of an army child had its plus sides. In the 1920s, Jennifer’s father was stationed in Burma and India and, on Christmas Day 1929, the officers of the battalion clubbed together to buy her a baby donkey that she subsequently rode happily to school. Like most army children, when Jennifer was old enough, she came back to England to continue her education. Leaving behind the donkey and a menagerie of other pets, she was sent to a girls’ boarding school in Bushey, Hertfordshire. Jennifer remembered sitting in her dormitory