Rooting through a dusty box of old family photographs the other day, I found that I have a number of old photoprint wallets from Blades the Chemists in Llandudno. They were the photographic service we always used to get our family 'snaps' printed. Blades was an old fashioned chemist shop with shelves up to the rafters with rows of mysterious jars of fantastic shapes containing liquids of an amazing variety of colours.
As a boy, I always thought of it as a really strange, frighteningly fascinating place, where my parents used to take me after I had been ill to buy a barleysuger lollipop. They had mysterious medicinal qualities which completed the recovery process and ensured that you never had the same illness ever again - or so I thought in my little world.
So, I thought I would post this example of one of their photographic wallets here. As you can see they were really well made with real stitched seams and heavy duty card. So well made in fact that they have survived to this day in relatively good condition after 60 years of use.
Finally, I would urge all photographers on here to pay particular attention to the 'Useful Suggestions' on the back page - I found them very useful indeed as a photography refresher course, and my snapshots have improved considerably as a result. Item #10 on the list was particularly interesting to me, as my trusty
Coronet Anastigmat camera has recently developed a fault with the bellows. It has been a very reliable camera through the years and well worth the 48/- However, having phoned Blades at the telephone number on the cover of the wallet yesterday, I could not get an answer - perhaps they are closed at weekends now...