| There
are many other items to be collected from the world of Ladybird.
Book stands, pre-1940s books, flash cards, work cards, original
artwork, film reels, jigsaws, audio tapes and videos. |
| Set 1 & 2
of the English Work Cards |
In the 1960s Work Cards were produced by
Ladybird to accompany some of there educational books.
The cards came in a slide-open box, and consisted of 48 reading
cards, a "teachers notes" pamphlet and sometimes
a catalogue sheet.
The Work Cards covered English, History,
Nature and Science.
|
| Ladybird
Reading Game Cards |
|
The
Reading Games pictured above contained
16 Games, an instruction leaflet and was produced in
1968.
Work Cards were only available for
sale to schools and other teaching establishments and
were not made freely available on the shelves of shop
books. |
| For
this reason these are very hard to find especially complete
and in good condition. |
The Work Cards, shown opposite, boxes
measured 9.74 x 7.25 inches.
Each set is divided into a combination of Red, Yellow,
Green, Blue Cards.
Each card within a set contained a picture lifted straight
from a previously published Ladybird book. |
| Ladybird
Science Work Cards |
|
| On
the right of the picture was a short paragraph describing
the story or event, and overleaf there were comprehension
questions, beginning the words, "Write the answers
in your book NOT ON THIS CARD". |
|
 |
Ladybird
Flash Cards
Ladybird produced several different
box-sets of Flash Cards, which were made
up of small white cards with words - these were linked to
the Key
Words Reading Scheme.
The standard size for a box-set of
cards was 5.25 x 3.5 inches ( a little larger than a pack
of cards ) and could contain various amounts of cards..
Some sets were larger in size - the set on the left which
contained 120 work cards, plus spare blanks, was produced
in 1977 - the box was the same size as the Ladybird Work
Cards (see above). |
| It
is very difficult to find these cards in good, complete condition
and today are considered quite collectable. |
Pre-1940s
books
From 1900 to the 1930s Ladybird
published several titles for children.
These
were larger than the standard Ladybird books which arrived
in 1940. |
All
these books have Wills & Hepworth on their copyright pages
and were published without dust-wrappers.
Most of these early books had cloth-spines and made use of
thick paper for the pages.
|
 |
| These
early books from Wills & Hepworth are
maybe not as collectable as the later Ladybird
books, but still gather interest from the top Ladybird collectors.
|
 |
The
book on the left entitled 'Nursery Tales' was published
by Wills & Hepworth in 1915.
It contained a number of popular fairy tales including
Dick Whittington and his Cat, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella
and Red Riding Hood - some of the illustrations in this
book were produced by the popular artist Rene Cloke. |
 |
| copyright info from 'Nursery
Tales', 1915 |
|
Film
Strips
Like the Ladybird Work Cards, Wills
& Hepworth produced some Film Strips
for educational slide-shows which were used in some schools.
These Film Strips were not as common as the Work Cards and
are therefore harder to find. A set, such as the two shown
on the right, can swap hands for anything between £70
and £120.
|
 |
| Each
small, air-tight tin held a length of film with several images
taken from previously published Ladybird. The tins had round
labels pasted onto their lids as shown in the picture above
- in this case the films strips are for Kings
and Queens of England, Book 1 and Book 2. |
|
Workbooks
Ladybird also produced for schools
a series of work books that accompanied their books.
These were softback books much like the jotters that are commonly
issued in schools. |
Ladybird
Signs
Ladybird produced
several different types of signs for their bookstands which
were used to display their books.
These signs are extremely difficult to find in any condition
as many were thrown to the rubbish as shops were refurbished
or sold.
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 |
|
Brochures
& leaflets
Wills & Hepworth
did not just produce work for themselves but were happy to
take on private printing jobs from companies such Rolls
Royce. |
| The
brochure above was printed in 1958 for the car company, Rover. |
Audio
Tapes & Videos
Ladybird have released several videos
and audio tapes in association with other film and toy companies.
The Transformer audio tapes on the right
accompany the Ladybird books and were produced in collaboration
with Pickwick International Ltd in 1985 /
1986 and were original priced at £2.49. |
 |
 |
Videos have
also had appeared on the market again with most of them being
in collaboration with Pickwick.
The Gingerbread Man video on the left is
from 1988 but some were released in the mid-1970s. |
Box
Sets
Ladybird were not
known for producing sets of books but they did produce a limited
number of Well Loved Tales box sets in the early 1970s.
These box sets are very rare indeed and it is especially hard
to find the slip box in good condition.
The box set of the Well Loved Tales held seven titles which
were listed on the back cover of the box.
We have seen a box set of Well Loved Tales sell for £120.00
at a popular online auction house.
|
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Other
stuff to look our for
There are plenty of other bits and
pieces of Ladybird memorabilia to look out for including exhibition
leaflets, posters, letters and photographs.
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|
| Random
fact |
|
In 1878 Henry Wills started to print and sell his 'Wills' Loughborough Almanac, Trade Guide and Street Directory' - these would be printed up to 1941. |
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