Leaf and flower

This is about 4 inches long, maybe 2 inches at widest point. I swear it looks as though the leaf is a real leaf that has been spray painted gold. Very detailed and delicate. The flower picture is on both sides of the leaf, but the "R" is only on one side. I'll proclaim it stands for READ, and a teacher gave it out to students at the end of the year. Just too cute!

Counting and Doodling

This is a fairly small piece of paper, maybe three inches by 2.5.  I am guessing that this person was put in charge of recording the quantity of something while someone else called out the numbers. Whatever it was, it was incredibly boring. Barrels of nails, pints of paint, certainly not a food item, food is rarely boring.

In the meantime, our scribe got bored and started to doodle. I always say, and I firmly maintain, that faces are difficult to draw. Hands, also. You can practically read his/her mind as they are going along, starting a fresh drawing every time the nose isn't quite right. I don't know what is hanging off the neck of what looks like a flat chested girl. The face, totally a girl. Perhaps in peasant clothing, hiding the figure. Anyway, no clue what that could be.

Eventually, our scribe decided faces are just too darn hard and drew a bird. Lovely.

Union Jack

 The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the national flag of the United Kingdom. The flag also has an official or semi-official status in some other Commonwealth realms; for example, it is known by law in Canada as the Royal Union Flag.

This little card was apparently a trading card that was issued by BOVRIL LTD in the 1930's. It unfold into three sections featuring the Flag of St George, Cross of St Andrew, and the Cross of St Patrick.

You can read a little bit about it on the back of the card. The red cross portion flip up, while the red and white X can be totally remove, turned over, and is all red.

Bovril is the trademarked name of a thick, salty meat extract developed in the 1870's by a Canadian named John Lawson Johnston. You can dissolve it in hot water and make tea. As the card says, "Bovril" is British to the backbone. Bovril was used to help feed troops during several campaigns and you can see the ads for Bovril with the "Bovril" Bull standing outside an army recruiting tent with the tag line "Bovril recruits its strength from the power of beef". So this was a fun way to advertise and be super patriotic all at once. Pretty cool history.