Photo Archives - Sepia Saturday.

The prompt this week is just the thing to lead me astray; do I concentrate on books or photos or both?

I have found several books which you might classify as old in one way or another, but they did not contain any loose photos - sepia or otherwise. However I do have a box file (not a cardboard box like Alan's) in which are stored sepia photos, postcards and my newest book.

'Sepia Saturday' Box File

The photo on the left has been annotated on the back, "Is it you, or is it me? Mick" My wife is convinced that this is her elder sister Mick when she was young.

The one on the right is the old ferry at Hartlepool.

I left with a bit of a quandary. How do you judge the age of a book - by when it was written or when it was printed? Here's four to illustrate the point.

Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales &
John Bunyan -The Pilgrim's Progress

Chaucer was born about 1340 and died in 1400. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Bunyan, born in 1628, died 1688 lies in the Bunhill Fields Cemetery, London along with Daniel Defoe and William Blake.

The Penguin Classic, The Canterbury Tales was first published in 1951 - note the price of 5/-

The New American Library's edition of The Pilgrim's Progress appeared in 1964 at $1.75.

I noticed that the book in our prompt had the text in two columns. I can match that with our copy, a wedding present from 1958, of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare ( baptised in April 1564, died 23 April 1616).

Shakespeare' s The Winter's Tale

The last of my books is The Pickwick Papers, the first novel of Charles Dickens published in 1836.

The Fat Boy Awakes - The Pickwick Papers

What's special about this book for me? Just look at the inscription.

Form Prize at Stamford School 1949

Having been carried away by books I turned back to archives and this file of:

Prospekt Kort (Postcards)

This is the file put together by my daughter while I was working in Norway between 1979 and 1988. The cards are those I sent to her during that time - some have appeared on Sepia Saturday before.

In my archive search I came across some 'old' albums.

I wonder what happened to them

But when I turned the page, this is what I found.

Honeymoon(?) on the left in 1958; our two sons in 1960s

The second album contained more photo's, all in colour.

Cutting Our Wedding Cake

Finally I opened the top drawer of the desk in our lounge and found the largest collection of all.

Photos, photos, photos!

Now I need advice. Do I throw them all away when they are all stored here,

and on the Internet?

For other Sepians' views check out the links on Sepia-Saturday-210.

Classic Thematic Photography

Carmi's classic theme gave me problems for a while until I remembered that I am taking part in the Dickens Journals Online Project. I received a copy of  his 'Pickwick Papers' as a prize when I was at school. This sent me to my bookcase to look for it.

Classic Top Shelf

You may not be able to read the titles of the books on the top shelf at the left. There are no banned titles and none obscured so let's take a closer look.

Classic Book Selection

From left to right we have tucked in the corner a once banned book, 'Lady Chaterley's Lover' (D H Lawrence); 'The Return of the Native' (Thomas Hardy); Villette (Charlotte Bronte); Mansfield Park and Emma (Jane Austen); The Canterbury Tales (Chaucer); The Pilgrim's Progress (John Bunyan) and, the thin green book, The Thirty-nine Steps (John Buchan)

Daphne Du Maurier's 'Rebecca' is next before my prize copy of 'Pickwick Papers' and Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein.'

More Classic Books

I think you can make out the titles of the five at the right but from the left after Frankenstein is Mrs Gaskell's 'Cranford', 'The Moonstone' (Wilkie Collins), Barchester Towers ( Anthony Trollope), 'Wuthering Heights' (Emily Bronte), 'Jane Eyre' (Charlotte Bronte) and before 'The Works of Robert Burns' is 'The Diary of Ann' Frank').

I hope you like the classic collection which we have assembled over the years. But before I sign off my attention was drawn to ornaments on the walls and on top of my 'classic' bookcase.

'Real' copy of figure from the Classical Period 530 BC

This plate and the one that follows came from a holiday we took in Crete about 30 years ago.

Plate from Crete

Any voulnteers to translate the inscription?

Any my final classic piece is this:

Vase - Museum Corinth 560 BC Exact Copy

This vase (or jug) is about 6 inches tall.

For other classic collections you need to visit Carmi's Thematic Photographic 171