Stafford & Co Ltd, Netherfield & London Printers


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Hi Scott, very interesting. As you will have seen my posters are all Stafford's and date from circa 1935 to 1942. I also have some images of early Stafford's posters going back before 1900.

It seems early posters survived and post war ones too, but not those from the 1930's. It was probably because of the critical paper shortage in WW2 when used paper was recycled and sometimes posters reprinted on the back. My exhibition in Nottingham will run through April but I guess it would be a long way for you to go. Is there some way we can swap an image or two? Mine seem to large to put on this site. 

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Almost certain now that we will be having an exhibition of my father's posters that he created at Stafford's in the 1930's at the Bonington Gallery at Nottingham Trent University in the next 6 months

Hi Connoisseur and All My father was a lithographic artist at Stafford's in the 1930's. He started as an apprentice there in 1923 aged 14, and was immediately sent to the Nottingham Municipal School

Great news! At last there is to be an exhibition in Nottingham of my Dad's posters next spring. It will be at the Bonington Gallery, Nottingham Trent University, at the Shakespeare St. campus. You mig

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1 hour ago, goff said:

. Is there some way we can swap an image or two? Mine seem too large to put on this site. 

 

Goff, are you trying to put images in your post on Nottstalgia ?   I suspect trying to use the 'Drag files here' thing at the bottom of the Reply box. Ignore that; it's a waste of time. To post images here you need to use one of the free Image Hosting sites  https://www.google.com/search?q=free+image+hosting&oq=free&aqs=chrome.4.69i60j69i61j69i57j69i60j69i59j69i65.2925j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

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There are half a dozen Staffords posters on the French National Library site , mainly Circus type . Makes you wonder how that came about ?

 

Link here ...... click in the image box and another box pops up with image in it :

 

http:// https://gallica.bnf.fr/services/engine/search/sru?operation=searchRetrieve&version=1.2&query=(gallica all "stafford") and (subgallica all "nottingham")&filter=dc.type all "image"#resultat-id-3

 

 

 

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Hi All, will try getting images on but for now go to    https://www.boningtongallery.co.uk/exhibitions/the-big-head-man 

for details of the exhibition which starts Friday 5th April at the Atrium, Bonington gallery, Nottingham Trent University. You will see there is a RSVP for the preview on Thursday 4th, when I will be there.

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Fascinated to hear this discussion about Stafford & Co . I am an associate curator of The Magic Circle museum, and Stafford printed many fine examples of magicians posters which we have from 1900 to 1930. I'd love to see some of Goff's father's poster images, and hear a little more about the process of stone lithography. 

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Hi Londonpaul. The exhibition in Nottingham got a lot of interest within the university but disappointingly not much from the city although it is very much a Nottingham story. I have been told by the BFI that the collection of posters is of national interest, probably unique, and i am now trying to write a book. I would willingly send you images but this site only lets me put on a very small file size and my skills are not good enough to do anything. I could send images to the magic circle museum if I had their email address?

 

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goff.... I'm afraid your reply to Londonpaul might go unnoticed. So far he's only made one post (as above) and hasn't logged in again since.

 

However, you could contact the Magical Circle Museum ......  https://themagiccircle.co.uk/public-events/12-public-pages/public-information/526-museum

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Hi Cliff Ton, Thanks for that. I have already contacted the Magic Circle. After a little to and fro-ing, I got in touch with Londonpaul. It is proving quite exciting for both of us. He has many Stafford's posters relating to magic shows. His are mostly from an earlier era, but we have swapped images and info, both learned new things and will  continue to keep in touch. I am trying to put images on this page through one of the hosting sites but struggling to downsize them even though that is mentioned on the site. Will keep trying.

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8 hours ago, goff said:

 I am trying to put images on this page through one of the hosting sites but struggling to downsize them even though that is mentioned on the site. Will keep trying.

 

Can you give an idea of how far you are getting, or where you get stuck in your attempts ?  What equipment you're using, and which programmes ?

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Hi Cliff Ton, I clicked on the link you gave above and chose one of the first sites that came up. Can't remember the name and today clicking on your link doesn't work. I use an Apples iMac and I did load an image on to the hosting site, and there was a notice saying I could downsize the file, but then I couldn't see a way to do that. My original images sizes are huge but I have been able to downsize them on my computer but they are still more than 0.5 MB. I will try to see if I can downsize them further on the computer.

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Hi, Managed to attach this one, Richard Greene and Alice Faye in Little Old New York. Will send others separately. Second is of Nottingham Exhibition                                                                                   .1564494199_Fixedimageexample.jpg.0f61abecae89f9070a599749023a88f8.jpg

nott ex copy.jpg

 

Fixed image example.jpg

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Very interesting DJM. I am well on with writing the story of my father and his posters, which I hope eventually  will be an illustrated book. The story of Stafford's is of course an important part of it, as father worked there from 1923 till 1941. Your family dates however are confusing as it is difficult to fit them with what I had found. Particularly the number of John's and Daniel's. I have it that in the 1820's Daniel and his son John had a printing business in Bingham. Presumably this is the Daniel born in 1791 and  the John must have been his brother born 1796 rather than his son, who wasn't born until 1823. Then I have Daniel, presumably the one born in 1823, working at a printers in Houndsgate in the 1840's, joining with Thomas Stevenson. and marrying a Georgina Gascoyne in 1846 while Thomas had married her sister Mary Anne in 1844. Something must be wrong here because you have a Mary Anne Stafford born in 1844! It throws what I have into total confusion!  Have you any explanations? I would love to use that portrait of John Stafford and also the Christmas card image.

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On 3/12/2019 at 8:35 AM, ScottPT73 said:

London based printing company Lonsdale & Bartholomew acquired Stafford & Co printers circa 1961/2 as far as I know they were one of three main independent printers mainly for the distribution of landscape cinema quad posters the others were Feref Associates and W.E Berry of Bradford.They also did Railway posters and lithograph lobby cards amongst other things I think the London site closed possibly late 60s when all production moved to Nottingham (Highly collectible posters feature both city’s on L&Bs early prints).

 

ScottPY73 has never been back since this post, but he made a reference to the printers WE Berry and their posters have just sold for a lot of money.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-51708692?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment_and_arts&link_location=live-reporting-story

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Thanks for that Cliff Ton, can use it in the book I am trying to write. After a year or two of hesitation I am gifting the original posters to The Cinema and Theatre History  'CATH' archives at De Montfort University, Leicester where they can be conserved and looked after. It was a choice between them and the British Film Institute. A pity that Nottingham Trent have no such facility. At the BFI I would have had to give to the nation and they would have disappeared into the archives permanently. At De Montfort I will be gifting them on a 10 year loan and the university plan an exhibition of them as part of their 10th anniversary celebrations this summer. I don't as yet know details but will post when I do. A last chance to see them!.

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Hi there,

I don't know if this is of any interest, but at Loughborough Heritage Railway Station, there are some old railway timetables on a wall, and I noticed that they said Staffords, Netherfield on one, and Stafford & Co Ltd on the other. One was May 1950, and the other was September 1952 - and as of around February this year, they were both still there - framed on a wall.

Hope this helps.

S

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I was the last Lithographic Printing Apprentice at Stafford. I joined the company on 21 August 1961, did my full 6 years of which 5 were at Nottingham Tech College then left in January 1968.  In November 1961 the company was purchased by Lonsdale and Bartholomew. The bulk of our work was posters mainly for the cinemas and railways.  There is a really good book about the history of Staffords/Lonsdales written by Peter Barrie Waite entitled "A History of Stafford & Co Ltd".  In it the author states that the Receivers were called in on 5 November 1990.  The site was sold to Gedling Borough Council.  As stated above the only trace of anything to do with printing is "Caxton Close".

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