Cutting up 80+ year old magazines

[practicalmechanics]

Please help me decide mumsnetters:

I have a collection of Practical Mechanics magazines that I got at a car boot sale, the oldest of which are from 1936, the youngest around 1941. I bought them because the covers are absolutely beautiful and I want to display them. The magazines themselves are completely charming too. They've been in the loft for years now, but we've finally moved into a long term house and I've started thinking about how to use them. OH thinks I should cut the covers off so I can frame them and have a wall of them. I'm torn, part of me thinks it's sacrilegious to cut up these beautiful old magazines, but the other part thinks well they won't otherwise be used at all. What do you all think?

I do know what they're worth on Ebay and I'm not interested in selling them.

I wouldn't do it. They've lasted all this time.

Can’t you frame them as the magazine? Or are they too chunky?

Why not scan the covers and have them printed? Then sell the mags to a collector.

A friend used to do this with Victorian books with hand painted illustrations. She would cut out the paintings and sell them on eBay or Etsy. It's called ripping apparently. Her husband was horrified by her destruction of ancient books. Not so much on the return an old book bought for £100 made.

Frame a copy of the covers and keep the magazines.

Put them under a glass coffee display table?

Do it.
You'll get lots of pleasure out of seeing them everyday and others will see them too and they'll be a talking point.
Left in the loft they may aswell not exist.

Frame the full magazine in a box frame. Cover displayed without the magazine being chopped up.

@blametheparents

Can’t you frame them as the magazine? Or are they too chunky?

This

Photocopy them?

@chocolateorangeinhaler

Why not scan the covers and have them printed? Then sell the mags to a collector.

A friend used to do this with Victorian books with hand painted illustrations. She would cut out the paintings and sell them on eBay or Etsy. It's called ripping apparently. Her husband was horrified by her destruction of ancient books. Not so much on the return an old book bought for £100 made.

Never mind her husband, I'm really shocked by that!

I know people do this with medieval manuscripts - not just crooks, but actual semi-respectable dealers. It's really dodgy and it is a massive ballache for researchers.

(I'd def vote for framing with the magazine intact, btw - you could make a feature out of the chunkiness.)

Framing the covers means they’ll be seen most days. Leaving them intact means they’re tucked away gathering dust. If you’re not selling them then just frame them. They’re only magazines, why so sentimental about them never changing?

Box frame the whole thing, entire mag preserved - they might fade in sunlight depending on where you display them?

Thanks for all the responses! I didn't expect so many so quickly. Box frames are a good shout, has anyone done this? I'm not sure if the magazines will be too chunky but I guess you can put quite thick stuff in box frames? Never used them myself.

You can definitely box frame them. I did that with some old Mojo music magazines, which weren’t very thick. The box frame needs to fit well. IKEA has some small box frames. Scanning the covers is also a great idea and would be a cheaper option.

Some hobbycraft shops sell various sizes of box frames.

Cut them up. You could make a nice collage with some of the pictures and bits of text inside. And like has been suggested, frame the covers.
It seems a shame to keep them in the attic if you are no going to sell them. Everything gets old eventually. I don't think today's copies of stuff like Take a Break is going to be treasured in 80 years time.

If it helps they’ve sold for £15 for 12 issues on eBay. Not really a lot

Find out who's archived them for your peace of mind (they will be archived and you won't be preventing others from reading them/researching them in the future).

Then cut up and display the covers you like and recycle/sell/give away the rest.