The Davenport Collection
- a growing resource on magic and entertainment history

Hamleys

Hamley’s spring carrot

Hamley’s spring carrot

This may well be the most boring picture on this website, yet one of the most intriguing. This production spring carrot is still in its original packaging. You could buy it for 3/6d, which was not a small sum of money pre-1950s. The Davenport Collection has taken the view that, after all these years, the carrot will not be removed from its packaging. It is clear from the rust on the packaging that the spring is very rusty. The carrot is almost certainly in a bad way. The moral is: don’t store your production spring items for decades before using them.

Hamleys Book of Magic and Mystery catalogue, probably dated just before World War 1.

Hamleys Book of Magic and Mystery catalogue, probably dated just before World War 1.

The catalogue also contains a few pages of novelties, puzzles and jokes. A sticker has been pasted onto the front cover pointing out that prices cannot be guaranteed owing to the War. The catalogue has been dated on this basis. The back cover is also illustrated because it gives their various addresses in London at the time, as well as noting their presence in Paris and Nuremberg.