Views looking back - the Eclectic Ephemera Top 10

Here I am again, then, saying "What ho!" after another long dry spell at Eclectic Ephemera.  I seem to spend half my (few) posts lately apologising for my absence, and can only do so again.  I dislike constantly using work as an excuse, since I know so many bloggers who successfully juggle a good working/writing balance - it just seems I'm not one of them!  Having said that, it seems that a few of my favourite bloggers have gone quiet as the new year got underway, or have just emerged from the woodwork after months of silence, so perhaps I am not alone after all.

Anyway, enough navel-gazing, for a quite remarkable milestone was reached by this blog at the start of 2015 and it is this that I intend to celebrate in this post (for lack of anything really newsworthy!).  Quite appropriately, the start of my sixth year as a vintage blogger saw Eclectic Ephemera pass 400,000 pageviews.  Now of course that doesn't mean that 400,000 individual people have viewed this blog - some of those will have been me looking at the thing to see how it's doing (and forgetting to select "Don't track my own pageviews"!) and many, many more were probably spammers, bots, bits and other assorted members of the æthereal interweb - but the majority would have been fellow bloggers, followers and interested parties.  You, in other words.  And that deserves celebrating.  What I thought I'd do to mark the occasion, therefore, is to "run down" (to use the modern parlance) the Top 10 posts from Eclectic Ephemera's 6-year history - a sort of "best of", as it were, chosen by you the readers.

So, in ascending order they are:

10. Home linked to P G Wodehouse's Blandings Castle up for sale

 

From November 2010, the news that Apley House in Shropshire had been completely restored and was up for sale for the princely sum of £1¾ million.  I found it to be of particular interest because it is generally agreed among scholars to be the inspiration behind P.G. Wodehouse's Blandings Castle, which was the setting for one of his other book series.  With Plum being one of my favourite authors and creator of that arch-chap Bertie Wooster, even though it was not directly related to the Jeeves stories I fancied including it here.  Eclectic Ephemera was barely a year old at this point and still evolving into the blog we know today, so at this point the stories I featured were sometimes more wide-ranging than they are today.  Still this one had a vintage bent about it and has obviously proved popular, for whatever reason (perhaps the Wodehouse connexion, or just its magnificence as an English stately home).

9. Liebster Blog Award #2

 

Jumping forward two years to November 2012, this blog received its second Liebster Blog Award.  Having largely given way to other blog awards (probably due to the demise of Google Friends) the Liebster nevertheless contained most of the things we recognise in today's examples.  Given to me by Lil of the now defunct Little Lil of London blog, it contained the usual x number of questions about myself to answer and I obviously made a decent fist of it since it is the most popular award-based post on the blog!

8. Historic wooden car floated at auction

 

November 2010 again and one of my many vintage motoring posts - this time featuring a one-off wood-bodied 1932 Talbot.  This car had an interesting history, which is why the story appealed to me (and everybody else too, it seems!), having started out in 1932 as just an ordinary 14/65 saloon before some time in the 1960s acquiring a fantastic roadster body fashioned entirely from boat-grade mahogany!  Despite this it was only valued at £20,000 to £30,000, eventually being sold for almost smack dab in the middle at £25,300.  As I said at the time, I hope the new owner enjoys varnishing!

7. Cary Grant - Style Icon

 

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February 2012 and number 2 in my personal Style Icon series is obviously number 1 in your books - Mr Cary Grant.  Proof of the man's popularity even today, my thoughts on his impeccable dress sense - and more importantly the pictures that illustrate this - have gone towards making this everyone's favourite Style Icon post from a list that included David Niven and Fred Astaire!

6. Model of new Routemaster bus unveiled

 

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The classic [red] AEC Routemaster bus has come to symbolise the city of London, not just for those of us in Britain but more especially for people living around the world for whom this simple, long-lived vehicle is part of their own external view of our capital.  Therefore it should perhaps come as little surprise, given the international nature of the internet (and thus, this blog), that the unveiling of its spiritual successor should prove to be so popular.  The idea of modern technology meeting classic, tried-and-tested design was much in evidence throughout the story of the NB4L (or New Routemaster, as it has become known) and this has always been the most appealing aspect of things to me, as I hope it has been to all who have followed the journey of the NB4L from drawing board to now, five years later, actually carrying passengers around the streets of London.  Having since seen one or two up close I can confirm it more than lives up to the hype and it's been fascinating to see its progress all the way from inception to now.

5. Vintage Rolls-Royces honour Spirit of Ecstasy

 

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As if to reinforce its position as "Best Car in the World" this 2011 post about the centenary of Rolls-Royce's mascot, the famous Spirit of Ecstasy, makes it into the top 5.  As well the story about the anniversary celebrations featuring myriad Royce models from down the years, I took the opportunity to throw in a bit about some of my favourite examples and it has obviously struck a chord with many people for whom the Rolls-Royce is still the very epitome of luxury motoring.

4. Film Friday - Scarface (1932)

 

The third of the Film Friday: Gangsters series that I began back in 2010 with Little Caesar (and which sadly I've rather let slide since) this post focussed on the plot - and, more importantly the fashions - of Howard Hughes' and Howard Hawk's classic 1932 gangster drama Scarface, starring Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak and George Raft.  This post has proven to be popular with both vintage film and fashion fans alike, which are who I hoped would be the target audience and which has made me think that maybe it's about time I brought this series back!

3. All aboard the song train

 

This is the most recently-written post to make the top 10, containing a selection of railway-related tunes to celebrate (if that's the word I want!) my first foray back into the world of full-time work and commuting by train.  While that job didn't last and I now commute to the latest office by bus, this post really seemed to build up a good head of steam(!) and powered its way into the "most popular" list.  I suspect this is just through people searching for the phrase "song train", but then I live in hopes that there are several thousand visitors with a liking for the music of Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman and Bob Crosby among others!

2. Rare photographs of comedian Stan Laurel are auctioned

 

Proof of the enduring popularity of two of the funniest comic actors to have ever lived, this story regarding the auction of rare photographs of (mainly) Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy proved inordinately popular (again probably just through people Googling "photos of Stan Laurel", I reckon).  Including some very rare images dating back to 1897 and showing a young Arthur Stanley Jefferson playing with his siblings these photographs came from a family collection owned by a great-niece of Stan's living in Sunderland, near to North Shields where he grew up.  The 54 lots eventually sold for a total of £8,000.

1. Classic car firm Morgan building new three-wheeler after gap of 60 years

 

This would certainly be in my top 10 favourite vintage news items that this blog has covered since 2009, so I'm delighted to see it make the number one slot with my readers too.  And why should it not?  Here is an almost perfect example of traditional, vintage design being married to modern technology and - even better - one that has been an unqualified success for the Morgan Motor Company.  For it is now the company's best-selling model, having sold more than 600 in the first few months after it went on sale and over 1,000 in the four years it has been on sale.  While that may not sound like much, for a niche manufacturer like Morgan - who still use the same construction methods and work out of the same factory in Malvern, Worcestershire that they have done since the company's inception in 1909 - it is a very big deal.  In 2014 a whole raft of updates were applied to the car in response to customer feedback and I see no reason why the 3-wheeler, having taken its rightful place back in the very heart of the Morgan range, should not endure for decades just as the other models have done.

There we have it, then - the 10 most popular Eclectic Ephemera posts from the past 6 years and 400,000 pageviews.  I hope you've all enjoyed this little reminiscence as much as I have writing it and I look forward to seeing what the future brings for this blog amid the hope of many more readers and followers to come.

Three cheers for the Morgan 3-wheeler

Morgan 3 Wheeler Review

Looking through my Stats page during this quiet period I am reminded that some of my most-viewed posts are those detailing the announcement and development of the new Morgan 3-wheeler, a 21st Century reincarnation (see what I did there?) of the classic design that served the historic British sports car company Morgan well for almost the first 50 years of its existence.

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Now I am able to return again to news of this car thanks to the full road test recently carried out by my favourite motoring periodical, the Autocar.  The good (nay, great) news is - if you will forgive me for giving away the result - they love it, giving it a full five stars!  As with all true motoring enthusiasts they have understood and appreciated the simplicity and sheer "fun factor" of such a car and their glowing verdict must surely cement its place as a modern classic (in the truest sense of the term).  In a separate 3-car test by the same magazine that included the Caterham, widely regarded as the best lightweight sports car on the market, the Morgan won easily.  There is an accompanying video review here but as much as I am pleased to see a lady testing and enjoying such a motor car nothing can better the pure noise of the car and a driver in full flying leathers piloting it (such an outfit should come as standard with the car, in my opinion!) as can be seen in the leading clip.

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Getting back to the car itself here is a vehicle that has stayed completely true to its original design, a design that started off the Morgan Motor Company in 1909 and which it continued to build and refine until 1953 when production of the 3-wheeler stopped.  So similar is this new 3-wheeler to the classic Aero and Supersports models of the 1920s and '30s that, bar the interior and a few other minor trim details, you could be hard-pressed to tell them apart.  It is a testament to that design that it has been reintroduced with so few changes and even more so accepted and championed by the motoring press and enthusiastic drivers alike.

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The rave reviews this car has received since its launch confirms to my mind the view that classic, tried-and-tested designs are still relevant - even desirable - in today's fast-paced electronic world (in short, vintage rocks! - but then we know that) and simplicity plus a healthy dose of charm can continue to win through.

No car manufacturer knows this better than Morgan, as their range of classic and modern retro sports cars can attest to.  Like the very vehicles they produce, their business model is a fantastic fusion of old-school practices and modern technology and their continued success is something I, as a Britisher, am immensely proud of.  The new 3-wheeler is the latest embodiment of that ethos and could not have returned at a better time.  It may have taken fifty years but the motoring world is once again a happier place thanks to the Morgan 3-wheeler.  Now, where can I find £30,000?

Historic wooden car floated at auction

Historic wooden car floated at auction

Wood has long been used as part of automobile manufacturing, although these days it tends to be reserved for the dashboards of higher-end luxury cars. The exceptions to this rule are the likes of Morgan, who still use ash wood as part of the frame in their cars, Rolls-Royce - whose Phantom Drophead Coupe has teak decking as part of the roof-covering mechanism - and the bizarre Splinter concept from a couple of years ago. It's all a long way from the old Morris Minor Traveller of the 1960s, isn't it?



Long before that, though, wood was being used in abundance in car design. Wood was plentiful, surprisingly strong yet able to be made into various shapes and in any number of sizes. The nautical look was also popular in the first three decades of the twentieth century as car makers tried to create a link between the then-luxuries of motoring and sailing. Sea-faring terms like "boat-tail" and "skiff" were applied to vehicular offerings, such as this ultra-rare (only 5 made) 1914 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Labourdette.


The car that features in this article, a 1932 Talbot, was originally just another normal saloon of standard Thirties design and didn't actually acquire its magnificently-built wooden body until the 1960s. Happily the chap who owned it obviously appreciated the Art Deco design of the period and found himself an immensely talented boat-builder to perform the actual transformation. What resulted is a unique piece of automotive design - even the likes of that Rolls skiff still used metal forward of the windscreen, whereas this Talbot's body is wood from the grille to the tail-light.

I find it hard to believe that such a beautifully skilled piece of construction is only estimated to make between £20,000 and £30,000 at auction (says the man who would struggle to afford a tenth of that right now!) and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it easily exceed the higher figure. Whoever ends up buying it, I hope he enjoys varnishing!

Morgan confirms Super Sports three-wheeler

Morgan Super Sports three-wheeler

Exactly one month ago I blogged the wonderful news that the British car company Morgan planned to reintroduce its classic 3-wheeler design for the 21st Century. Now further details have emerged of the new 2011 Super Sports and I'm delighted to see that they have kept it true to the original. Of course a few compromises have had to be made for modern driving, such as the provision of roll-over hoops but by and large it looks just like the Morgans of the '20s and early '30s and is all the better for it. Even the engine, although an American Harley-Davidson design, can claim to have links to the original motorcycle engines from the likes of JAP, Matchless and Anzani that were used in the original Super Sports (below) and which were also V-twins.

The combination of a modern, compact fuel efficient engine with decent power levels combined with a car that weighs a mere 500 kilograms should make for thrilling yet economical driving. Morgan are to be applauded for sticking with this simple approach to motoring, one that boldly flies in the face of modern car design where everything is bulkier and busier and which instead harks back to earlier, leaner times that other car makers are only just beginning to cotton on to.

I like the "get-in-and-drive simplicity and reliability" mentioned in the article and Morgan's sensible idea to keep things basic. I'm also pleased to see that the price is likely to be a more reasonable £25,000 and not the frankly ridiculous £46,000 that was bandied about to begin with. It may be a tiny niche but this may well be the best way to experience motoring as it was 80-odd years ago without all the attendant worries and shortcomings of a classic car. Time to start saving up those pennies!

Classic car firm Morgan building new three-wheeler after gap of 60 years

Classic car firm Morgan building new three-wheeler after gap of 60 years

Morgan is by far and away my favourite motor manufacturer so it was with great interest that I read of their intention to start building again a modern version of the car that started it all 100 years ago.

The reasons I like Morgans so much are innumerable, but of course the classic styling plays a large part(!). Some of their models, such as the Roadster, have remained visually unchanged since the 1930s (in fact, the 4-4 is still on sale new today, having first been introduced in 1936!). However Morgan is also a forward-looking company, ready to take on the big sports car manufacturers with vintage-inspired offerings like the Aeromax, Supersports and the new EvaGT - not to mention looking to the future with the LIFECar project. This translation of Art Deco styling onto a modern performance car appeals to me very much, and shows what can be done with that art movement's design ethos even today.

The re-introduction of the 3-wheeler should appeal to both new and old Morgan fans alike as it could be both a lightweight runabout or a fun track day and hillclimb sportster. This is another admirable trait of Morgan (still a family-owned business) - the ability to look to its past to add to and improve its existing range of vehicles. The future of the sports car is undoubtedly low weight and smaller engines and the 3-wheeler epitomises that belief. It will be another welcome model harking back to a Golden Age of motoring and as the design incorporates the single wheel at the rear there are no stability associated with that other famous 3-wheeler, the Reliant.


Morgan, from being very much a quaint Olde English niche manufacturer ridiculed for using wood in the construction of its cars (and it still does - why not? Treated and reinforced properly it can be surprisingly strong.), which used to have delivery times of 4 years or more, is now a much more modern concern. It still hasn't lost sight of what has made it survive for the last one hundred years and I feel sure that it will carry on the same principles for another hundred at least.