Illustrated London News, 1925-68

‍ I know we’ve already had a feature on the Illustrated London News (Illustrated London News, 1846 and 1972 — The Richard Roberts Archive) but wanted to fill you in on the forty or more copies that have come to light, from 1925 to 1968. These will be very useful for filling some of our gaps – our holdings are a bit thin for this later period.

 The selection we have are largely royal special editions, coinciding with a specific event (death of the king, etc), and so the editorial matter is rather skewed, but as the title (Illustrated London News) suggests, each has some kind of picture story covering the latest world events.

 So let’s concentrate on the advertising. This is a large-format magazine on quality paper, mostly in black and white but increasingly in colour towards the end of our selection. Concentrating on the full-pagers, I was surprised just how startling the ads were for cigarettes, and so I included one or two here and resisted doing more. Cars feature a lot too, but I’ll spare you those. Otherwise the ads reflect an ever-shifting expectation of rising standards in lifestyle.

 I’ll start in 1925 with ‘a girl in a gossamer gown’. Made out of lace, in fact – and how is a girl to look after it? With Lux soap flakes, of course. I’m guessing, though, that the lady depicted here wouldn’t actually do anything as grubby as her own washing, but the ad handily goes on to give specific instructions for the maid to follow. On a similar theme we have another ad, this from 1934 and for Celanese (artificial silk) frocks, worn here by two ladies of impossible glamour and beauty.

 The Craven A cigarette ad from 1938 is very effective, and pointedly features a lady smoking and thus broadening the tobacco market. Kensitas for their 1936 ad have roped in a big actor of the day, Sir Henry Lytton (1865–1936). He smokes their Plain-Tips because they would not ‘affect, irritate or hurt’ his throat, and also, amazingly, protects him against coughs. (Funnily enough, Lytton was dead within the year.)

 We have the early (1951) television personality Lady Isobel Barnett (1918–80) advertising ‘the aristocrat of radio and television’, an RGD TV-cum-radio in a walnut cabinet, for a sobering 110 guineas. The Nestle Home-Made chocolates from 1958  would have been rather more affordable. The 1959 ad for Staybrite sinks has a provocative picture of a man doing the washing up, but we are told he’s a ‘lucky man’ as the sink is stainless steel. Spode was an upmarket brand of pottery, and their ad featured a set of china, a household item that would have been highly desirable in the 50s and 60s, and something likely to passed on to the next generation.

 After our (beleaguered, we can only suppose) man at the kitchen sink, it’s more business as usual to have a woman advertise Hoover’s washing machine in this 1963 ad. But because she has chosen Hoover, she doesn’t have a washday, you see, and can therefore put on her Mary Quant frock. And since she’s paid 115 guineas for the washer, she could probably afford frocks like that.

 The ad from the same year by Sanderson for its wallpapers and fabrics reminds us that wall coverings were crucial fashion items for the 60s’ homemaker, and the lady featured is ‘setting the pace with it!’ After all, she knows that ‘her galaxy of Sanderson colours will go on gleaming year after happy year’.

 By the 50s and 60s with the jet airliner starting to hit travelling by liner, the shipping industry was making an unashamed pitch for the glamour and relaxation that taking a journey would bring. Cunard lay on thick the indulgence of having meals brought to you at your table – not cooped up like you would be in an aeroplane. This 1959 ad declines to mention anything as sordid as cost, but you could expect it to be reassuringly expensive.