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THE
“ECONOMY” DUST JACKETS PAGE
EIGHT OF EIGHT VIRTUALLY ALL OF
THE BIGGLES BOOKS PUBLISHED IN 1946, 1947 AND 1948 HAD “ECONOMY” DUST
JACKETS. THIS WAS DUE TO
POST SECOND WORLD WAR PAPER SHORTAGES. WHAT OXFORD PUBLISHING
DID WAS THEY PRINTED THEIR BIGGLES DUST WRAPPERS ON THE BACK OF OLD POSTERS
THAT HAD BEEN CUT TO SIZE. This is best
illustrated by showing examples. What
I have done here is I have shown pictures of duplicate books that I have,
with economy dust jackets. The photos are the
REAR of the dust jacket, which would normally be blank white paper. Here you can see what was on the reverse. |
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BIGGLES
IN AFRICA – 1946 The
first example shown is two identical copies of the 1946 version of Biggles in
Africa. What
you are looking at is the inside of TWO dust wrappers, placed top and
bottom. It so happens that the picture
on the back of the dust wrapper was identical as well. I assume this was just pure chance. As to the chances of that, well I suppose
it depends how many pieces the posters were cut into and how many identical
posters were used. You will note the
top right hand corner has been cut off.
This is where the dust jacket was price clipped. As it is in the same place on both books,
the rotation of the poster must have been the same.
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BIGGLES
– CHARTER PILOT – 1946 The
second example shown is two identical copies of the 1946 version of Biggles –
Charter Pilot. What
you are looking at is the inside of TWO dust wrappers, placed top and
bottom. The pictures differ with each
other, but it so happens that the picture on the second row is identical with
the backs of the dust wrappers for Biggles in Africa displayed above. That was also published in 1946.
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BIGGLES
FLIES WEST – 1947 The
third example shown is two identical copies of the 1947 version of Biggles
Flies West. What
you are looking at is the inside of TWO dust wrappers, placed top and
bottom. It so happens that again, the
picture on the back of the dust wrappers are identical as well. Again, I assume this was just pure
chance. That fact that I happen to
have two sets of books, with the same picture on the reverse of the dust
wrappers must mean that is reasonably common for that to happen.
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BIGGLES
IN THE BALTIC – 1947 The
fourth and final example shown are two identical copies of the 1947 version
of Biggles in the Baltic. What
you are looking at is the inside of TWO dust wrappers, placed top and
bottom. The pictures on the reverse of
the dust wrappers are completely different and I presume they came from
different posters.
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CLICK HERE
TO SEE THE INTRODUCTION TO THE FLYING JACKET WEB PAGES |
CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE FIRST PAGE |
