Porchetta and Vespa PK

Rain again here in Stockholm. I took a short ride on the Vespa PK 50 XL to the local "flea market". Have made some bargains there before, but not today.
Before leaving home I put an italian porchetta in the oven. Pork (yes, you can tell) seasoned with garlic, fennel seeds and fresh rosemary. Will cook for five hours!
More interesting maybe, a friend found the table game "Tour du monde en Vespa" in France this autumn. Fortunately he's not a Vespa freak, so I have the chance to buy it! Very nice!
The game is featured in Robin Davy's fabulous book "Vespa Forever". So is the ash tray I bought a couple of days ago. Apparently the ash tray was made in England.

A french table game from the early fifties.

Too blue!

The right colour!

The start of the porchetta, roll it together and then bind it.

Another Vespa ash tray

Yes, I've found another ash tray with a Vespa motif. And a girl but no bloke. The Vespa pictured is a 150, VL1-3, made from 1954 to 1957. 150 cc, 6 hp (or & cv for cavalli) and 8-inch wheels. "Bigger" than the 125 VM2 but smaller than the GS 150.

Ingap Vespa box found

I received this box today, from a good friend. It's a box for a Vespa tin toy, made by the firm Ingap from Padova in Italy. It's just the box, the toy is missing. But I'm really happy anyway. It's a nice piece of Vespa memorabilia from the 50's.

Map from Vespa Club d'Italia

A nice map from 1957, issued by Vespa Club d'Italia. Maybe for french Vespistas, "Italie" and "carte routiére" points in that direction.
"Carta stradale" is the italian word for road map, me thinks.

Roman goddess and Gemla

I can't find any information about a "Lambretta Club Citta' del tri colore". I acquired this "lucky charm" some years, but no clues from the vendor. It's very well executed so it must be at least from the 60's. About 35 mm in circumference. Does the inscription "Victoria" incline that this was awarded to a winner in the "Moto Rally Internazionale Reggio Emilia"? I don't know...

The mod geezer below, with no arms, is from the Swedish toy maker Gemla, established in 1866. This three-wheeler of wood is from the 50's. The front fender is missing here. Well, is it a Vespa or a Lambretta? I have faint recollection of seeing a yellow one like this, marked "Vespa", I have to check with a friend.

1955 Vespa brochure

Front cover; "Go by Vespa instead".

This is a 20 pages "big" Swedish Vespa brochure in A6-format. The front displays that Vespa beats trams, buses and cars when you commute.
And you can even use your Vespa on Sundays! This is from the time when almost everyone worked on Saturdays in Sweden. Or take a trip to Europe, the brochure gives examples, a trip from Stockholm to Milan didn't cost more than 92 kronor for two people (including ferry fees). That's about 10 euro, well and 57 years ago...
The Vespa news for 1955 is also presented; the number 1 was the Vespa 150, with 150 cc and 6 hp. Turn the page and drool over the Grand (!) Sport, the first sports Vespa with 8 hp and 10-inch wheels, now known in Italy as the "cavi esterni" (external cables) as they had yet to be incorporated in the headset.
And the sidecar, to which there is a strange Vespa attached. Front fender from a 1951-1952 and the headlight at the handlebar. I guess that was the picture they had. But not even the same pic as here.
Last but not least, the concessionaire Como M&T Bjerke invites the potential buyers to join a Vespa Club, more than 600 in Europe at the time.

"News nr 1", the Vespa 150 (VL2-3) ranks before...

...the GS 150, "cavi esterni" or VS1.

The Vespa way of spending your free time.

The back cover, with a side car.

Old key-ring from Piaggio

The company Fram-King from Helsingborg in the south of Sweden, became the new concessionaire for Vespa in Sweden in 1962. This key-ring was presented to the people from Fram-King that participated in a trip to Italy in 1970 (Well, it says so on the back of the key-ring). I suppose they visited the factory in Pontedera.
That's all I know!

Wallet from the importer

I acquired this wallet today!

It has the Vespa logo stamped on one side when you open the wallet. On the other side sits the logo from the Swedish importer Como M&T Bjerke AB.

A very nice item, but no space for credit cards!

I tried to make it more readable with a pencil on a white paper.

Is a spanish artist guilty?

In every dreamhome there is art. In mine this is the newest acquisition. Can it be from the 50's? The frame says so, the motif also. No one in their right mind would paint like this today.
There is barely readable signature in the right corner, maybe "Zopp". The erzats-Piaggio shield is red and yellow and without the "P", points in the direction that the "artist" was spanish. Don't you think?
On the the back it is written with a pencil "4,75" which means 4 crowns and 75 öre, about half an euro or less in pounds. So, it is an old painting. Now I have to find the right spot for it.

World Cup 1958, on Vespa

A Swedish photo-book from 1958, after Sweden hosted the World Cup in soccer. Waving in the big picture is Lennart "Nacka" Skoglund, a legend in Swedish and Italian soccer. In Sweden he represented AIK and Hammarby and in 1950 he went to FC Internazionale, Milan. Later he played for Sampdoria and Palermo in Italy.

When the World Cup was held in Stockholm the Swedish Vespa-importer Como M&T Bjerke took the chance to promote their scooters. "Nacka" Skoglund is sitting on a "Vespa Touring" (swedish name), a special exportmodel from 1957-1958, VGL, with 150 cc/6 hp and 10-inch wheels as opposed to the VL1-3 which had 8-inch wheels and the Vespa GS 150 with 8 hp and 10-inch.

The three guys on Vespa's are World Cup-officials. Below two guys from Como M&T Bjerke celebrating a motoring magazines anniversary. Then a girl in a Vespa 400.

Mondiali di calcio 1958 è stato in Stoccolma, Svezia. Lennart Skoglund, famoso giacotore di calcio per Inter, Sampadoria e Palermo, ha fatto PR per Vespa. Il modello "Touring" è stato speciale per Svezia, 150 cc e 6 CV ma ruote 10 pollici.  

Zwei Mädchen laufen scooter

A good book is a blessing. And if the cover is magnificent, even better. These two German books was printed in 1963 respectively 1955. Jutta is definitely riding a Lambretta LC, judging by the round air intakes. Pascha, the girl in blue dress, is handling a Vespa GS or GL.

If you would judge a book by it's cover, these are Nobel Prize material.

Schafe is German for sheep, agnelli is Italian. Käfer means Beetle.

The youngsters appreciated some heavy rock'n'roll.

A scooter girl always get's her way...

Some kind of dipl. ing. on the pillion and dogs in the cart. Probably Schäfer...

Buona Pasqua!

Just a little Happy Easter-greeting, Buona Pasqua, Glad Påsk, Hyvää pääsiäistä, Feliz Semana Santa, Frohe Ostern, Feliz Páscoa, God Påske and so on...
Remember the children's book "Olga y Jorge en Vespa" some posts ago? Now I found the picture I took of the book at the Piaggio Museum in Pontedera. Here you can see that Jorge should have goggles.

Jorge looks cooler with his goggles on.

I also found the picture of the treasure under the house. Two brothers had a father that disapproved of their Vespa-interest. Restoring, fiddling and so on. They hid some parts under the staircase, in the ground of the house. 40 years later the new owners discovered the parts, aiming for the city dump. A neighbour thought of me and I collected them.
Came in handy for my Vespa 125 U.

8-inch and 10-inch wheels, cowl for GL, GS-kick, fan and cylinder cowl.

Vespa in children's book

This is a very nice children's book from Spain. My copy of the book "Olga y Jorge en Vespa" is the third edition and the copyright is marked 1959, but I think it was made a couple of years earlier.

It's designed after the drawing of Olga and Jorge and the Vespa, so every page is the silhouette of the front page.

So, Olga and Jorge goes on a "raduno" (ride-out) with their friends and since it's a spanish book they have a beef with a bull!

Here they are at a competition organized by "El Vespa Club del pueblo".

And it's said: "Quién ganará el Gran Premio Copa Vespa?" (Who's winning...)

Nice drawings of the Vespa faro basso-style altough it has another headlamp on the handlebar à la the germanbuilt Vespa "Königin".

The back cover of the book is very cunningly a picture of Olga and Jorge going away...

My copy of the book is not complete. 

Last year I saw another example of this book at the Piaggio museum in Pontedera. Jorge should have a pair of "real" googles on the front, 3-D if you like. And there is a small hole by his helmet for the straps to the googles. Pity!

Un libro dalla Spagna, stampato intorno al 1958. Il museo Piaggio a Pontedera hanno un libro simile. Ma Jorge ha un paio goggles reale. Mi libro manca i goggles.

The background for the pictures of the book is a tatty Vespa VM2.

A Vespa sticker from 1955

I went to a veteran fair in the middle of Sweden, Falun, last weekend. A Vespa-friend showed up and displayed a find he had just made. Aaargh, I had wanted this sticker from the Borlänge Vespa Klubb (club in swedish which I don't need to mention?). The club was run by the local Vespa-dealer C A Östberg. The club organized a rally in 1955. The sticker is from this period. The horse (dalahäst) is regional souvenir or craftmanship in wood that dates a couple of centuries back.

Gimcana anni 1965

A nice picture from spring 1965. Vespa Club Göteborg held a gymkhana. The rider on the Vespa GL is Lennart Henjer who participated in the Isle of Man Scooter Week.

Questa Vespista é Lennart Henjer in sua Vespa GL. Vespa Club Göteborg hanno organizzato una gimcana in primavera 1965. Lennart ha partecipato sul Isle of Man Scooter Week nello stesso anno.