The British Porcelain Ball Claridge's November 24th 1931

London, 1931. First Edition. Wraps. Stapled. Very Good. Rare "shaped booklet" souvenir of a prestigious luxury good industry party. By shaped booklet, we mean a booklet that was die cut, in this case, into a round shape that together with its elaborate border decoration, captures the appearance of fine bone china, the mainstay product of the porcelain industry generally, and the iconic British brands advertising in the booklet and whose top brass were among the participants and organizers of this undoubtedly sumptuous event. The location of the event, Claridge's, says it all -- then, as now, the most prestigious of the many fine five star hotels in London and Mayfair. The Patrons list is rife with members of the aristocracy, and undoubtedly some of the industry's top brass were also titled. This was as much if not more a Society event as it was an industry one. Loosely speaking, octavo in size, with the stapled stretch on the right, and slightly jutting out from the otherwise round booklet, just 6 cm long. The plate shaped part is 24.5 in diameter. Unpaginated, 40 pages, including title page. With also one smaller loose card listing the dance program for the evening. The importance of the porcelain industry to the UK is attested to by the fact that Stanley Baldwin, a then former and also future Prime Minister and the Head of the Conservative Party actively part of the coalition government at the time, headed the Programme, which was to begin at 10 PM. Following as entertainment was a "Porcelain Ballet", and finally, the ball proper. The event was to run until 3 AM. About half of the pages are advertisements -- in at least one instance whether the page is an ad is open to debate. All but two of the ads are full page, these two exceptions being half paged ads. Eleven of the ads are for companies in the industry -- Minton, Coalport, Wedgwood, Royal Doulton, etc. And two of these are in full color, the only color in the brochure, exception the red and gilt cover art. The other ads are for high end luxury brands such as Cartier, and a good number of horsey ads -- equestrian clothing and the like. One leaf is loose. Foxing and soiling on the round wraps, more on the rear cover, and we don't think distressingly on the front.