Things found inside books

Besides handwriting…

My husband’s family book collection occasionally delivers odd bits of life objects used as bookmarks. In one, I found half skeins of silk embroidery threads, various colors, which had bled colors onto the pages.

Today I found this ink blotter advertisement from a local florist’s shop:



The book is inscribed Grace Pease. The blotter is Alice Pease. I’d have to find the genealogy ledger to recall if they are sisters or some other relation.

The book it was in is Man-Size, copyright 1922.

I love finding things inside used books.

You might enjoy this similar thread that goes back to 2009 but still gets added to once in a while called "I Found a Petal" in the group, Rare, Old or Offbeat:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/63105

>2 rocketjk: Ah! I knew it was somewhere. I just lost track of it.

>1 2wonderY: Is the florist shop still in business?

It is! It’s been on Dudley Avenue for all my lifetime.

Inside my copy of Home Life Made Beautiful, a letter in the original envelope, post date September 5, 1930. From Thelma Payne of Robinson, Ill (that’s how Illinois used to be abbreviated) to Mrs. Caroline Devol of Marietta, Ohio.

They seem to have been friends in adolescence and Thelma is planning a trip back to Marietta. She asks Caroline to make a hairdressing appointment for her to get a finger wave.

>6 2wonderY: That is very cool!

Received a book in the mail today. It has a postage sized stamp inside the back cover. Upon close examination, it has such detail!
I didn’t manage to get it quite in focus, but here:



J. K. Gill was an office supply retail establishment in Oregon for 130 years. They dabbled in book sales as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Gill_Company

>8 2wonderY: That's cool.

>8 2wonderY: Oh, the charming remnants of history in books!

>8 2wonderY: I like it!

I’m reading Portable Magic, concerning books as physical objects with totemic meanings.

Smith directed me to look for Wayne B. Gooderham’s online collection of book dedications; those handwritten notes from giver to giftee.
Here’s a nice sample:

https://www.foyles.co.uk/Public/Biblio/Detail.aspx?blogId=1151

Smith follows up:
Subsequent owners inherit a prehistory of their book and have to recognize that, marked with an emotional dedication, pet name, or private message, it can never fully, or only, belong to them.

I’ve had The Family of photography books for most of my lifetime. I used to use the photos as sketch models, learning how to capture expressions.
I’m taking a college course on the History of Photography, and I went looking in the books for a particular photograph.
I found one of my pencil sketches and another by my daughter.
What I didn’t find was my copy of The Family of Man. I’m guessing it resides at daughter’s house now.
So I jumped on AbeBooks and ordered a copy. It arrived today, and it contained a pencil sketch of a photo by a previous owner of the book.