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.