1974 (Part Two)
by Peter Archer
by Peter Archer
Original photo courtesy of Cath Neve
by Peter Archer
by Peter Archer
by Peter Archer
by Peter Archer
by Peter Archer
by Peter Archer
by Peter Archer
Uncut Sheet Arrangements
Maria Hope was very helpful in providing us with various off-cut Decor-Craft rescued by a relative from the bin at Letraset's Ashford factory. We were also able to acquire quite a few from other sources. You can spot some of them above!
They have allowed us to get a glimpse at how Letraset arranged their Decor-Craft panels on the uncut crown sheets; for example, in Terry Longhurst's bear, below, you can see the Design Reference Number "27.01.14" along the top edge. This is the serial number of Peter Archer's apples. Therefore the apples were placed above the bear; & the stag was printed to the right of the bear, using up five out of eight panels on the uncut sheet. It's quite interesting how these little clues allow us to piece together the whole sheets…
The bear itself, we discovered later (see previous page), is 27.01.17.
by Terry Longhurst
We've also worked out how the seven RSPB Bird Transfers 27.01.27 to 27.01.33 probably fitted onto a single uncut crown sheet, although as you can see, we hadn't seen Robert Gilmor's 27.01.28 yet when I concatenated these images.
The two sheets of butterflies in Maria's photo above are revealing, because one of them is marked "L6" beside the upper trim marks, whereas the other is unmarked in the same place. Apart from this, the earliest "L" serial number we have a record of is "L46" Star Wars, which are dated 1977. The butterflies are dated 1974.
Maria's sheet featuring Terry Longhurst's horses' heads also features the mark "L6" in white (well below the artwork), suggesting that the butterflies appeared on the same sheet (at least when reprinted). The horses' heads (27.01.39) are illustrated on the previous page, but the "L6" isn't visible.
• Page Four →
- The Other Decor-Craft Pages:
- ← Page One: General Features; Packet Design; Promotional Use
- ← Page Two: 1974 (part one)
- ↑ Page Three: 1974 (part two); Uncut Sheets — this page; see above ↑
- Page Four: 1975 to 1978; Catalogue of Decor-Craft →