LONDON
There are few, if any, places left in London quite like Deptford Market. It's changing fast, but you can still find plenty of untapped junk piles littering tables and the floor alike. The people are super friendly and interesting (as are the fellow rummagers). In short, it's a wonderful place.
Deptford Market has furnished my home, clothed me, fed me, and filled my flea box to the brim for over a decade. But I really struck gold the day I spotted a small black book with embossed lettering on the front bearing the words 'Siamese Cat Register Vol. III'.
Is this just... cat names?
As I flicked through the pages inside, I was confused at first. It seemed to be a long list of names in alphabetical order. Extraordinary names: "Buddy Fitz Alan", "Iringa of Colston", "Heath Spider"... Are these cat names? Who calls their cat Heath Spider? Each name had a birth year with the additional names of the mummy cat (the 'Dam') and the daddy cat (the 'Sire') plus the names of their owner(s) (e.g. Mrs. B. Pickard). It was exactly what it says on the tin - a complete register of all siamese cats born between 1925-1929. This amazing little book was 90 years old!
I was already hooked, but as I looked in the back pages I found the classified ads for siamese cat products, groomers, breeders and even photographers. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, charmed as I was by Tinker's Kit Kat Remedies and so on, there it was - the logo for the organisation behind the book: the Siamese Cat Club.
It immediately stood out with its beautiful hand-drawn art deco style typeface, typical of the late 20s / early 30s, with a cat design incorporated into the lettering. I loved it. THIS IS WHAT FLEA MARKETS ARE FOR! It's a unique item with a history - and a view into a world I knew nothing about. It deserved the Citizen Flea treatment.
So, check out the shop page to see what I did with it.
P.S. The Siamese Cat Club are still going by the way, having been established in 1909! They have a decent archive, so the next task is to track down the designer of this brilliant forgotten logo...