Philip O Stearns

Philip O Stearns known as a member of the Sealed Knot, a photographer of model soldiers, author of a book on model solders, editor of various magazines and in a previous career a glamour photographer.

A short biography:

venusobservations

"Between 1980 and 1982, the publishers of Starlog Magazine released six quarterly issues of Fantasy Modeling under editor Philip O. Stearns"

wonderfest.com

Lucien Rousselot

This must have been a familiar (and welcome) stamp on the back of an envelope.

Looking up the address in Jacques Hillairet 'Dictionnaire Historique des Rues de Paris' we find the comment "De nombreux artistes y ont leur atelier entre 1900 et 1914".

Rousselot continuing a tradition....

W. A. Thorburn

 

This is a surprising little book published in 1969. Although the pictures are virtually all in b&w its an interesting selection and most of the prints came from Thorburns own collection. He was - judging from a letter I once received from him - slightly protective of what he had collected. But of course I might have been youthfully rude in my inquiry....

Lithograph

No information on this. At the bottom 'Lith de Lemercier'. Presumably hand-coloured, printed on thin card and came at some point from a scrapbook.

Knitted uniforms

This knitting pattern booklet (like virtually every knitting pattern) is undated - perhaps 1955 or thereabouts.

There is brief mention in Richard Rutt 'A History of Hand Knitting' about the (UK) craze for knitting for soldiers during the Great War - a frantic attempt to be doing something and how the soldiers at the front had so many knitted items being sent to them that they would use them for cleaning guns. He writes that during WW2 there was less urgency and less mania to it all (in the UK).

See also the Paula Becker essay at Historylink.org about American Knitting during WW2.
www.historylink.org

Recherche sur les Uniformes Etrangers de l'Empire

For some details (and a list of the publications) of the RUEE see  Yves Martin at the Napoleon-Series.org this one is dated 1973/1974 and numbered No 1; its 'Pologne Grand-Duche de Varsovie Genereaux 1806-1814' by E. Leliepevre et HFo (Henri Fournol). There is a card cover (illustrated) and then a few pages of roneo style text with a b&w plate to finish. According to Martin they came with a slide - but I don't have any of the slides :-(

They are clearly written and really quite useful - for instance the one on Tartares Lithuaniens begins with a page or so describing all the illustrations and sources available.

A certain similarity to the clarity (and poor printing) of Leliepevres Historex sheets..

Rene North

Rene North (died 1971) produced a series of b&w postcards sold in sets (of 6) as 'Paint Your Own' covering a range of Uniforms. The idea being that you could colour them in yourself. Which if you did would presumably reduce the current value considerably...

The couple of (posthumously published) Almark books above are really quite nice and he uses the cards to illustrate them.

There is a short biography on the back of his Hamlyn book:

After his death the Paint Your Own cards were sold by John Edgcumbe (about whom I know little except that in 1944 he was stationed near Richmond (Yorkshire) with the 17/21 Lancers. After his death there was an advert in Military Modelling Magazine offering the business for sale .....

I no longer have the list of cards so thats another thing on the 'to find' list..