Antique Books

Be careful what you wish for, yesterday I was bemoaning the fact that we have had endless warm, sunny days, which seems out of keeping for November, well today it has been damp, dull and dreary so it jolly well serves me right! Added to that I have been in a melancholy mood.

To try and cheer myself up I went rooting around in the cupboard under the stairs for the boxes of Christmas decorations, surely fairy lights and baubles would cheer me up! Of course it's far too early to decorate,  normally I like to decorate in the first week of December.  No, what I wanted was to mess around in my studio spare room with baubles, fairy lights and candles and try to make some pretty pictures but nothing seemed to be working for me today, the pictures were a disaster so in the end I gave up and went back to photographing antique books.

We are fortunate to have inherited a large collection of antique books, the top three books in the first picture are French books on natural history, they have some stunning engravings in them and are eighteenth century, I was trying to capture the patina on them whilst imagining who their original owners were, these books were around during the French revolution, how come we have ended up with them? What was the fate of the original owners? what kind of room or library might they have rested in?

In the second picture the books are popular British classics from the late nineteenth century, I know the history of these one's. The first four little books are Dickens and they also include wonderful engraved illustrations, I love the gold detail on the spines, I really should read them but they are so delicate I worry about damaging them and that would be awful, so I will put them back in their home on the bookshelf and admire them.

I am still resisting the urge to invest in a Kindle or Nook, I love books, all books, nothing gives me greater pleasure than a new book. My modern book collection may one day fall into the hands of someone who wonders about the original owner from a couple of centuries ago, I don't believe a Kindle or a Nook would last that long!

Wishing Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate.
XXX