Folio Archives 125: Ephemera - 1990 to 2019

Ephemera - 1990 to 2019

Over the last 70 years the Folio Society has given away and/or sold numerous pieces of promotional ephemera including paperweights (2011), umbrellas, playing cards (2011), pens (1997 & 2012), coffee mugs (2012), drink coasters, metal bookmarks (2010), note pads, key rings (2007), address books, hard bound note books, bookplates, tote bags, photo albums, calendars, books of postcards, wrapping papers, greeting cards, and since 2001 it has issued an annual hard bound illustrated diary.

The FS has also produced informative magazines with added details about recently released books (binders for these magazines were available in the 1990s), but the production of these has become irregular in recent years.

Pictures of many of these items follow.

If anyone has pictures of ephemera that are not featured below, please add them to this thread.

Address Book



Bookmark, Leather


Bookmark, Metal
Nicknamed the “FS crowbar”.







Diary
18.3x13.3cm. One week per double page.

















Drink Coasters



Folio Magazine
48 pages 23.5x16.8cm.











Greeting Cards
Interior blank. Small FS logo on back.



Mug
Cartoon images are purportedly members of FS staff.





Notebook
21.5x12.7cm. Unpaginated











Notepad
Tear-off leaves with sloped unattached end to block



Pen
Very nice Parker made pen.



Playing Cards
Extraordinarily popular and now hard to find. Were given away, sold, and distributed with the Folio Society Book of Card Games.







Postcards Book
10 postcards. 15.7x11.7cm.













Umbrella
My beautiful umbrella has not yet suffered assault by raindrops, and is in pristine condition. It has a matching maroon sleeve cover, which is itself contained in a cellophane sleeve.









An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.

I do tend to harbour things for quite a while.

Keyring, with what appears to be a good quality sewn leather fob, still sealed:



An alternative set of playing cards, two packs sealed together:




A current eBay listing reveals that those were designed by Clare Mackie, 2010 copyright, and shows some of the cards: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Folio-Society-playing-cards-Illustrated-By-Claire-Mac... . Hadn't known anyone was looking for the Jonathan Burton ones, but I see a pack recently sold for £16.47 on eBay: I've four of those on the shelf.

I'm sure I have a paperweight lurking somewhere too. A couple of Folio mugs are in daily use here: I think I dodged the bookmark, it looks far too substantial to be trusted near a book.

Just to add, I found a book entitled "photographs". it's blank on the inside. I'm away from home now, but should be able to find it in the google.

>3 EclecticIndulgence:

Is that the photograph album?

Ah yes, somewhere we've two different Folio photograph albums, from successive years as I recall.

Stashed in my tchotchke drawer, if I could find it, A FS tea-towel (dishcloth?), a leather bookmark, earlier iterations of the notepad, a stack of Quentin Blake stuff, Shakespeare quotes on cards made from LE paper. A couple of unopened OddBods -- IIRC they won some design award, but they were too distracting to use in a poker game. Different versions of mugs and pens. usw. And the black bookbag with tiny plastic logo: used it once, and morphed into Roy Cropper.

I hear Folio's doing comic books? Could that be added here?

The metal bookmark is a beautiful thing but it should never be put anywhere near a book that isn't scheduled for demolition. The picture above makes me wince!

Photograph Albums

Quarter bound in buckram with paper sides (IIRC blue binding was c.2003). 40 blank leaves (to add your own photos) with tissue separators. Dimensions approx. 335 x 330 x 40mm

.

Glass Paperweight

c2011, came in a red box size 90 x 90mm.

Tote Bags

A selection of the tote bags below - the blue and white one shown first was was a fairly large and sturdy canvas tote bag, and the later colourful set were slightly lighter/smaller book bags. Shown here are ones with scenes from Midnight Folk (purple), Good Things (brown) and Never Let Me Go (blue), and the slightly blurry grey bag has an image from Eugene Onegin. There was also a cream 65th anniversary bag with the same illustration by Quentin Blake as shown on the mug above at some stage.



...Edited to add pic of the Onegin bag.

>9 skullduggery:
Thans for adding these. We now have an almost complete illustrated list of all the FS ephemera.

Another Key ring, with a metal fob (it used to be a different colour - what I assume was gilt has all worn off).

Year unknown.

Calendar

A few pages from the 2010 calendar, which featured woodcuts from a variety of different FS publications.

I have many of these. Thank you for posting.

If anyone in the States wants to offload some of these items, send me a PM. Despite being a member/customer since 1992 I missed most of these but somehow ended up with three photo albums (that I'll never use)...

These were posted on the FS Lovers Facebook page. I was not aware of their existence before.


They were evidently offered to members in the early 1990s in a very limited number.

Does anyone know anything more about them?

A rather crumpled tea towel: crumpled because it's the one we're currently using! Well used, and very robust.

>17 wcarter: Oh my! I shouldn't think there are many of those left. It makes me appreciate all the more that with actual books, unlike cakes and ale etc., you can enjoy them and still have them.

>18 Willoyd: I love that tea towel. That and the OddsBods playing cards (über-cool) are I think my all-time favourite Folio ephemera. I had the brolly at one stage, but it proved not up to the task one wet and windy day when it blew inside out and saw me cursing Folio :/

>18 Willoyd:
Interesting, but you could at least have ironed it before posting ;-)
Still looking for more info about >17 wcarter:

>21 wcarter:
Nah! Minimal ironing household here!

>21 wcarter: Ironing the tea towels sounds like the most British thing you could possibly do.

>21 wcarter: Still looking for more info about >17 wcarter:

I do remember them being promoted but no further details other than to say I think there were articles (or advertisements) about them in the contemporary Folio magazines, A collector may be able to oblige.

>23 L.Bloom:

I must be hopelessly British, then: it's never occurred to me not to iron tea towels. The idea of refraining may be the biggest surprise I've received about domestic habits since, a few years ago, I gathered from Amazon reviews that quite a lot of chaps go to bed wearing a watch, and not only when completely blotto: the complaint against a certain model was that it ticked so loudly as to keep them awake.

>24 folio_books:
>21 wcarter:
I don't have Folio magazine for 1990, but from 1991 to 1995 when the move was made to Eagle Street there's no mention of plonk among the invitations to Folio lectures, Literary Weekends, Cruises etc. The 2016 thread on the Wine club petered out when FS apparently failed to respond to a member's question.

>17 wcarter: This probably doesn't add much light but for what it's worth - https://cognac-ton.nl/en/homepage/brands-and-producers/home-page-general/brand-i.... I'll call your attention to the Comments section of the page.

>26 Jayked: from 1991 to 1995 when the move was made to Eagle Street there's no mention of plonk among the invitations to Folio lectures, Literary Weekends, Cruises etc.

My vague recollection is that it was rather earlier than that. I even thought it might be in the prospectuses as well and I've checked from 1956 to about 1984 but no luck. I still think it's more likely to be in the magazines but that's one Folio thing I don't collect.

I've checked the oldest Folio Magazines I have - back to Spring 1987 - but found no mention of Folio cognac. Was it offered commercially at all I wonder, or was it just a small supply for directors, guests and those literary lectures etc?

>17 wcarter: Does anyone know anything more about them?

I can throw a little light on this. Not long after I joined the Folio Society I received a booklet entitled 'Notes on Some Wine Growers and their Wines' produced by The Folio Society. I also received a wine list from which the wines could be ordered.

I attach a few scans of part of the booklet. The last page refers to the cognac you show.

(Sadly, at the time I joined FS I had only recently graduated and it was tough enough to afford the books. Fine cognac was beyond my grasp.)

>25 terebinth: My mother agrees with you. Contrariwise, it's never occurred to me to iron anything.

Perhaps I should engage a gentlemans' gentleman?

>30 edgeworn:

I'm glad to be proven wrong, even though I never had the opportunity to buy any of these wines.

Can I ask what year you received this booklet?

The label on the cognac says "bottled 1991," somewhat fuzzily to my old eyes, so it could hardly have been available earlier unless they renewed the order periodically.

>33 Jayked:

With the aid of glasses AND a magnifying glass I can't decide between 1981 or 1991. But I'm fairly sure the line above reads "Landed London 1980" which pushes me more in the direction of 1981 for the bottling. It'll probably turn out to be 1888 ..

>32 housefulofpaper: Can I ask what year you received this booklet?

It's too long ago to be precise, but I think I received the booklet and wine list in the early 1980s.

Best I can do at this distance, I'm afraid!

>34 folio_books:
You may well be right; I wouldn't trust my eyes to differentiate a horse from a cow. When you see "landed" and "bottled", though, that implies that the cognac was exported in casks and bottled in England. The usual phrase is "early landed." Well established companies such as Hine will mature imported cognac in casks in their own cellars for years until it meets their exacting standards for bottling. If you're only maturing it for a year following a voyage, you might as well import it in bottles. I suppose that Folio might have done it for a year only; to me there was always a whiff of the injudicious amateur about their wine ventures.

>34 folio_books:
I've seen weird things happen to numerals on images I've uploaded to Librarything and 1981 seems more likely given the other evidence provided here.

>35 edgeworn: Thank you for that. I joined late in 1991 and I don't recall any wine offers. The Folio magazines going back to 1987 came from an Oxfam bookshop.

I looked through the introductory essays in Folio 50 for more information about their forays into wine but failed to find anything more than a vague mention that it had happened.

The main reference to wine is in the Autumn 1975 magazine. There is an article by Hugh Johnson - Chateau Folio - and an order form on the back page. Folio offered a red Crozes Hermitage and a white St Veran, both with 'the Folio imprimatur'.

>38 mboyne:

Thanks, Mark. That's put me out of my misery :)

>30 edgeworn: May I ask if the order form was also for the brandy? Could I see an image of it (if you still have it).

Many thanks

>34 folio_books: I have one of the bottles and it is definitely bottled in London 1991.

John Lawrence Limited Edition wood-engraving print of Fifty Years (100 copies)

I found this flyer in a recently acquired Folio 50. I wonder if any FSDer managed to acquire a copy.

>42 mr.philistine: Great find! I've never seen the print, though I'd love to have one! I did, however, find a pristine copy of the exhibition poster a couple years ago on eBay and have it framed in my library.

>1 wcarter: thanks for this nostalgic thread, to which I can add truly ephemeral
Wrapping paper

>44 CarltonC:
Excellent, thank you!

I have a copy of the Folio 50 print. Interestingly on the print John Lawrence has given the copy number out of 50, indicating only 50 may have been produced.

I have a newer tote bag that Folio was distributing in late 2020.

(Front)


(Back)

The Folio Society Ex Libris Bookplates

Were these issued by FS? Here are 2 listings on eBay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/155491049280
https://www.ebay.com/itm/125815726608

>49 mr.philistine:

Yes, I received some from Folio, I think 1990s - they are similar to self-adhesive address labels on an A4 sheet that have to be peeled off. A freebie sample but you could buy additional sheets, IIRC.

eta - on second thoughts, these look to be individual bookplates i.e. not on a backing sheet.

Here is another Folio Society tote bag design spotted in the wild:

Tote bag marking the society's 75th anniversary, sold for £5 at the 2023 Sample Sale:

A second version of the FS address book to add to the ephemera collection.