INTRODUCTION

Fireworks occupy a unique and almost indefinable position within the realm of consumer goods, designed with one implicit purpose, to provide aesthetic and sensory pleasure during the act of destroying them. They are not merely disposable items, in the manner of food wrappers, drink cans and toy boxes, created initially to attract and package before being discarded with little further thought, they are produced instead to provide amusement through their destruction and lasting pleasure in remembering the moment.

Despite being at their heart simple objects, little more than glued paper tubes filled with powdered metals, fuels and oxidisers, fireworks have a remarkably impressive worldwide appeal. They produce their oohs and ahhs in all languages and across all social groups and ages. They have survived centuries of changing fashions and social attitudes whilst being used to celebrate every type of event, festival, victory and human endeavour. Fireworks also possess the remarkable power of being able to alter, however briefly, people's daily routine. The prospect of seeing fireworks can nudge people into turning off their television, donning warm clothes and venturing out into the darkness to participate in the only nationwide, mass participation social event of the year. Each year in Britain, over 10 million people will purchase and use some 100 million fireworks, the vast majority of which will have their fuses lit within a few short hours during the evening of November the Fifth, Bonfire Night.

Regarding 2Oth Century British fireworks, there is another facet of their visual appeal every bit as important as their final performance and more likely to be fondly remembered, it is found in their uniquely imaginative artwork. For many people the start of the total experience of Bonfire Night lay in the initial act of purchase, when picking through the colourful items on offer behind the glass of the retail counters and display cases. One might have purchased a single selection box or spent the time assembling an evening's entertainment from the rockets, bangers, fountains, wheels and star-popping roman candles so temptingly offered, each selling itself with a lively name and bold design. Because of this artwork, many of these shop displays are more clearly remembered today than the firework displays they later provided.

This is the aspect of fireworks captured here within these pages, the vividly memorable graphic face. Often humourous, wild and bizarre, always bright and loud, the label and poster provided entertainment and interest far ahead of the much anticipated big day, which always seemed to arrive too slowly before passing too quickly. Although the firework interest would fade over the following days, it would always remain in the subliminal reaction to a sudden bang, the sparks from a metal grinder or upon seeing the images collected within this book.