collection high-lights

MoDiP has several pieces in the collection by Anna Castelli Ferrieri (1918 – 2006), the leading female industrial designer in Italy throughout the 1960s-1980s. She began as an architect, studying at the Politecnico di Milano and becoming its first female graduate in 1943. Her husband, Giulio...

MoDiP recently visited the Yunex Traffic manufacturing facility in Poole to talk about traffic lights. The company supply, install and maintain traffic signal and control equipment for the BCP council, and had kindly offered to donate some plastics objects to the museum. We were treated to a tour of...

The enduring properties of plastics materials can have negative connotations, especially in relation to the pollution of land and oceans by poorly managed waste streams, single-use products, and those that are carelessly thrown away. Those same material characteristics can be put to good use to make...

MoDiP has three different examples of plastics NAAFI tokens in the collection. With reference to the image below, on the left is a circular ½ d token, in the centre an octagonal ½ franc token and on the right, a circular green coloured token valid in NAAFI Egypt only. MoDiP’s three NAAFI tokens...

Having just watched a documentary about the 1970s sitcom ‘The Good Life’ last night, I was inspired to write this blog about MoDiP’s lovely Frank Usher maxi dress (refer image below). I am sure it would have been the kind of thing that Margo would have worn, perhaps accessorised with a sparkling...

This beautiful GPO 312L telephone (refer image below) is currently on display in the museum for just a few weeks more, as part of our exhibition Why Plastics? I love it because it reminds me of my own 312, although mine is black in colour and made of bakelite (phenol formaldehyde). AIBDC : 008939...

I recently catalogued a View-master, Model F, stereo viewer (refer image below). It was designed by Charles ‘Chuck’ Harrison in 1958 whilst he was working for the US design company, Robert Podall Associates. It was manufactured by Sawyer’s and was their last model to be made in bakelite (phenol...

Currently on display in the museum as part of the Why Plastics? exhibition, is a range of tableware created by industrial designer and ergonomist, Russell Manoy, in 1969. It was intended for disabled users, with particular reference to those suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, but was also...

I do not iron very often. Easy-care synthetics, especially in school uniforms, mean that in our house there is rarely a need (well, that is what I tell myself anyway!). So, when I recently catalogued a Tilley iron, I was intrigued by the fact that it was powered by paraffin, something I had never...

A few weeks ago, we delivered an outreach engagement session to a local school, showing Year 7 pupils a selection of plastics objects related to WWII (refer image below). A selection of the WWII related objects. Image credit: Katherine Pell One of the objects that really caught my attention was the...

We recently acquired these fabulous Chelseas ankle boots, designed by Mary Quant in 1967. In black coloured cotton jersey, enveloped in transparent polyvinyl chloride (PVC), they were manufactured by G.B. Britton & Sons, Bristol. The trademark Quant daisy logo can be seen moulded into the heel and...

I know that I have written about my own fascination with trawling though old industry publications in previous blogs but, once again, the effort of doing so has been very rewarding. Actually, if I am being honest, on this occasion it was a colleague who was doing the trawling, but knowing that I had...