Saturday, April 3, 2010

Oh My!

The best way to begin a Saturday is this:  picking up a box of old books from a woman off of craigslist.  I was sure they would all be falling to pieces.  After all, she was giving them away.  And I scored them, so I figured with my luck we would be lucky to have some cool old pages to use in art.
Um, no.  I now own a 1923 copy of Les Miserables, en francais.  It appears to have been a school book (many of these books appear so), and it is in perfectly readable condition.  
There is only one or 2 books where the pages are fragile out of 2 large boxes of books.  And it must have been fate because between Les Miserables and an 1887 copy of a physics and chemistry book and two books on operas, these seem to have been destined for us.  

                       
We're planning on ordering some binding glue and regluing the binding on a couple of books (such as Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby, a 1912 copy that is in such good condition otherwise that you can flip through the pages.).  
It was the perfect start to a day and now we are off to breakfast/brunch at Clementine's.   And then later to pick up an old dresser that I have fallen in love with.  Eventually we will run out of room and look like a crazy bookstore with pots of tea all about!


One of G's favorites, a wonderful copy of The Origin of Species.


And a rather surprising find, a 150+ year old copy of Psalms in both Hebrew and what we believe is German:
It's from London, and has a stamp from a Battalion in the back along with a name and the date of 1866, though there is an earlier date as well.  

2 comments:

  1. Oh wow!! Those are all just gorgeous - what a find! I am definitely jealous of a few... well, okay ALL of them!

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  2. I collect antique books and these are just lovely!! Good score!

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