Rare Phar Lap Tin-Plate Oval with Jim Pike, 1930
click the photo to enlarge
Phar Lap: A small celluloid tin-plate oval depicting the classic image of jockey, Jim Pike riding Phar Lap at Flemington Racecourse, sometime in 1930. The sepia image has been carefully enhanced to reflect the correct colours of Pike's jacket. Overall 93 x 127 mm. The only example known to us.
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- Celluloid - In 1864 an American scientist by the name of Parkes mixed camphor with nitrocellulose, etc. The result was what came to be known as "celluloid", the first form of plastic, and a product for which Parkes could find no use.
Some time later when the supplies of ivory for making billiard balls were becoming difficult to obtain, an inventor produced a perfect billiard ball from a mould using "celluloid".
Toys, dolls and other products such as combs, cutlery handles and costume jewellery made from celluloid began appearing on the market from 1913 and continued to do so until the early 1950s by which time it was superseded by more modern products due to safety concerns because it was highly flammable and brittle product.
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