The Full Royale Catalogue for 1960

The British Photographers (BP) 'Originals' Collection is one of the foundations of this Archive and included a number of catalogue sheets labelled as either CATALOGUE (text) or BROCHURE (thumbnails). Together these pages make up the January 1960 Royale catalogue. They are a valuable resource about what Royale did in it's early years.

The catalogue actually consists of 7 separate Lists issued by Royale between Oct 1957 and January 1960. In other words the entire existence of Royale up to 1960.

Each of these 7 lists consists of two elements:
A 'Key List' containing sample thumbnail images of each of the photo sets in the List
A 'Catalogue List' with text descriptions of each set and pricing information

Each picture 'Key List' has an exactly matching text 'Catalogue List' 
(which may consist of more than one page of text)

The original filenames assigned to the various 'Royale Brochure' and 'Royale Catalogue' images in the British Photographers collection are not much help in assembling the catalogue as they are not numbered in chronological sequence and the numbers of the thumbnail and text sheets don't cross-match  either. The article describes how the complete Catalogue was reassembled from it's constituent elements and, at the end of the article, how it has been used to date each quarterly list and by implication the release date of the sets within it. 

Royale Key List 'A'
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List 'A' is the earliest as you might expect.
The Key List shows 27 sample thumbnails with reference codes in the bottom corners.
These codes are used in the corresponding text list below

Royale Catalogue List 'A', page 1
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This corresponding Catalogue List (headed List A) has descriptions and prices of 15 of the photo sets on the thumbnail page. The list overflows onto a second sheet (below)

Royale Catalogue List 'A', page 2
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We know this second page is part of List A because the set codes match the images in Key List A directly above. The shortened length of this page is due to it having been cut off page 1. The old style, paper size used in 1960 (foolscap) was larger than A4 and does not fit onto a modern scanner. You can just see traces of page 1 at the top edge matching the chopped text at the bottom of page 1.

Notice that the two sets that sit either side of the page change - 2-ERTR and 1-ERTR are in reverse numerical order. It's evidence of the editing that has taken place. List A is actually a compendium of selected sets from Royale's first five lists but because of cumulative editing and rearrangement it's sequence is not indicative of the original release sequence of the sets.

The thumbnails in Key List A for the last two sets on this page (ROC and DAD) seem to have overflowed back up to the top row. This also tells us that the list has been edited at some point with unwanted sets removed to make way for the newer additions.

There's also a third text page for List A (below) with the last 2 sets on it - 2-TIFC and BOF.
The thumbnails for them have been inserted into the top row of 'Key List A' as well.

Royale Catalogue List 'A', page 3 & List VI page 1
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The heading on this page tells us it was always a separate sheet of paper.

After List 'A' ends, the catalogue continues without break, to List VI.

The puzzling change in notation is because List 'A' was an extract of Lists I to V and replaced them.

Royale Key List 6
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This is the Key List of thumbnails for List 6 (or 'VI'). 

It's fairly obvious from the gaps that this sheet has also been edited.

Pre-computers, these thumbnail sheets would have been produced by physically attaching the individual pictures to a backing sheet and photographing the result. Adding and deleting was most easily done by removing or covering an unwanted thumbnail and pasting a new one into the vacant space. In this example it looks as if some have not been replaced.

Two of the sets depicted on this page - 2-RON (Ron Wiltshire) and 3-TIB (Tibor Urgay) - are not included in the List VI descriptions on the preceding text sheet. They are not on the next sheet I have either (Shown below). The explanation for this is that they have been withdrawn from sale, confirmation appears at the top of Page 3 of list 7 (below)

Royale Catalogue List EX3 and VII page 1
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This next list is headed 'EX3' with no continuation statement referencing a previous list,
but we know it comes next after List VI (6) because List VII (7) starts at the foot of the page.

'EX' appears to simply mean 'extra', i.e. a supplement to List VI

Each of the sets in these lists had it's own thumbnail set showing a miniature of all the pictures in that set. Customers could buy these and select the pictures that they wanted to buy as full size copies. Thus set FJSS which appears in List A at the start of this article had it's own detailed thumbnail sheet. It's actually labelled as EX2 FJSS on it, showing that it was part of an earlier 'Extras' list incorporated into List 'A', which presumably covered an EX1 list as well. 

It's not clear why Royale decided to create a separate sequence of 'Extra' Lists.

Royale Key List EX3
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These are the thumbnails for 'List EX3'. It's an exact match with the text list above, but there are multiple thumbnails for some sets: '2-FC' (Fred Collins) in the top row has three, '3-IOL' (Ian Oliver) in the middle row has two and 'VC' (Vic Cane) in the bottom row has three.

Royale Key list 7 
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This is the Key List, thumbnail sheet for List 7. 

It begins with the two sets shown at the foot of the EX3 text List above: 

ANC (Andre Coel) and BIS (Bill Stevens).

This sheet does not look as if it's been altered at all and the continuation page of text 'List 7'

 flows in exactly the same sequence, beginning with 'BULLIES'

Royale Catalogue List VII (7), page 2
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The 'cash please' footnote on this page indicates that it was the foot of a physical page

but it's not the end of List VII

Royale Catalogue List VII (7), page 3
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The remainder of List VII (with helpful 'continued' title at the top) continues following exactly the same sequence as Key List 7

The entry for 1-ROW (Ron Wiltshire) references 1-RON, one of the descriptions missing from List VI.

The message at the top of the page explicitly confirms the practice of 'editing out' sets that are no longer available for one reason or another (e.g. stocks exhausted or not selling enough). It doesn't actually apply to this List VII, but explains the two missing descriptions in List VI. I haven't come across any other mismatch in this particular catalogue. 

List VIII originally started on this same sheet, you can just see (bottom left) traces of the heading where it has been cut off.

Royale Key List 8
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Key List 8 shows signs of serious editing with huge gaps in the top row.

The bottom row has been filled by putting in multiple thumbnails for two sets

Royale Catalogue List VIII (8), page 1
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These are is the corresponding List VIII text descriptions 

(with the top edge of the heading cropped off).

It has been (invisibly) edited to follow the same sequence as the Key List 8 just above.

There weren't any word processors then, so text documents had to be typed onto paper. Small numbers of copies (4 or 5) could be created simultaneously by putting 'carbon' paper (inked on one side) between multiple sheets but it was also possible to create masters which could be used to reproduce many more copies to send out to customers  using a process called cyclostyling. Changing them later required laborious re-typing or physically cutting and pasting them to create a new master. 

Royale Catalogue List VIII (8), page 2
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Page 2 completes List VIII

The set descriptions for storyettes are becoming more detailed and more sensational.

Royale Key List 9
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It's hard to tell if this Key List has been edited or not. You would expect the more recent lists towards the end of the catalogue to still be intact.

Notable entries: The Captive, Navy Gash

Royale List IX (9), page 1
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This is the first sheet of List IX and it's dated. Royale didn't seem to date every List, but it's possible to deduce their dates from those we know and the fixed quarterly interval between Lists (see below)

The heading contains full details of how to order photos. It's likely that this information would have been given on earlier lists originally, but over time become a casualty of the editing process. It's content is also quite likely to have changed with the passage of time. The warnings about frontal nudity reflect the pressure the authorities were applying. Royale's contemporary, John Barrington, was probably supplying frontal nudes at this time.

The set descriptions in List 9 follow the same sequence as the Key List 9 thumbnail sheet

Royale List IX (9), page 2
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This sheet has another footnote clarifying the ordering process with interesting examples of the pitfalls of mail ordering in an era when many customers would not have had telephones. Clavering was a wealthy man and probably had a phone but Royale never gave out a number. Some of the problems with these orders may have been the result of customers trying to avoid being identified should their paperwork fall into the wrong hands - the Police or potential blackmailers.

The number of orders that could not be fulfilled, 37, gives a clue that the number Royale were successfully dispatching must have been quite significant, in the hundreds.

Royale Key List 10
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List 10 is the last in this Catalogue

Notable enties - Navy Romeo, Peter George nudes.

Royale Catalogue List X (10) page 1
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Royale gives it's ordering information at the top of this list once again. Crucially it's dated and this time also includes the useful information that Lists come quarterly. This is the key to dating all the preceding lists VI-IX (6-9) back to the start of 1959. Scroll to the foot of the post to see the result.

Notice too how Royale are branching out into selling shorts (not used, or so it appears)

This List follows the sequence of the corresponding Key List 10 just above except that NARO and JBT are reversed, possibly to accommodate the two NARO thumbnails on the top line together.

Royale Catalogue List X (10) page 2

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The list continues in the same sequence as the Key List
another 'orphan' list from trimming foolscap size to modern A4

Royale Catalogue List X (10) page 3

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TABLE
DATED TABLE OF SUB-LISTS WITHIN 

THE JAN, 1960 CATALOGUE

The dating of sets 1-5 here is guesswork really but it does bring us back to the same Royale 'start date' identified in the Timeline for Royale Studio from magazine sources. The earliest advert for Royale which I have found is late 1957 (see same article). Presumably the October 57, List 1 was prepared anyway as a press release. It's existence implies Royale had been recruiting models and taking photographs of them even earlier, for at least 3 months going by their subsequent publication interval. Of course we know Clavering had been doing it as a hobby much earlier (ref 5, Colville).

You might also like to read  'How Royale Sold Their Pictures'

List	Source of Date	Date	Precision
10	Given at top of List	Jan 1960	Actual
9	Given at top of List	Oct 1959	Actual
8	Back step a quarter  (Royale's standard frequency - see List X page 1)	July 1959	Deduced
7	Back step a quarter	Apr 1959	Deduced
EX3	Date somewhere between List 6 and List 7 EX3 was an 'extra' list	Feb 1959?	Assumed
6	Back step a quarter from list 7	Jan 1959	Deduced
A	The date given at top of List A is only a date of revision, coinciding with the issue date of the whole Catalogue i.e. List 10.  'A' is a consolidation of Lists 1-5 so we can only date the sets listed as 1957-8 EX1 and EX2 were also in here somewhere	Dec 1959	Actual
5	Back step a quarter from List 6	Oct 1958	Notional
4	Back step a quarter	Jul 1958	Notional
3	Back step a quarter	Apr 1958	Notional
2	Back step a quarter	Jan 1958	Notional
1	Back step a quarter	Oct 1957	Notional