Commercial Vehicles, 1964, Series 584 (matt) (grubby)

The Ladybird Book of Commercial Vehicles, 1964, Series 584. There were two or 3 different editions of this book published as technology changed and Ladybird tried to keep pace. Commercial Vehicles is a ‘spotting’ book – filled with pictures of quite a wide range different vehicles of the period and the information to identify them.  It is illustrated with adapted beautiful painted illustrations rather than photographs, which definitely adds to its charm.  These vehicles range from Bedford Vans to tankers and transporters.  It is thought that the illustrations were produced by commercial artists employed by Rover (the employer of the writer whose pen name was ‘David Carey’)  but, unsually for Ladybird, the artist is not named.

This is quite a hard-to-find book.  This copy  is rather grubby – expecially externally (see photos) but also some pages have minor blemishes and thumb prints. It dates from the 1960s and has the original price of 2/6 printed inside.