Thursday, September 10, 2015

Old Books and a Rare Book

Hello my friends.  Thank you so much for your kind wishes on the arrival of my new granddaughter.  Little Sadie is doing great.

Are you a book lover?  I love books and reading (although my reading has taken a back seat to my needle crafts right now) but I especially like "old" books.  Growing up, my parents didn't read a lot books.  We had a wonderful set of encyclopedia and of course I had my books that I loved.  My parents worked full time so maybe there wasn't time for them to enjoy reading.  Although, they were devout readers of newspapers.  When we moved from Washington to Idaho when I was a child, my grandmother used to send the local newspapers to my parents via the mail.  I had a Barbie doll back then, and she would hand knit little sweaters and clothing for my doll and wrap it up in the newspaper bundle.  I still have those Barbie sweaters she made for me.

I'd love to have a library filled with old books to the ceiling and have one of those "ladders" that crawl across the book shelves.  I can just picture the room with parquet wood floors, old Persian carpets, a well worn leather chesterfield couch, the smell of old waxed wood and dusty burgundy curtains hung across the window.  But, instead, I have a small book case with an eclectic collection of books.  And, a few of them are very old indeed and one is a bit rare.  Here...I'll show you a picture of them...

When my daughter and I were in England back in 2013, we were staying with friends in Rubery, West Midlands.  I bought this little book of Common Prayer in a charity shop ...

It fits in the palm of my hand and has a leather cover.  From the coat of arms that is shown, I believe it is from the time of King Edward VII.  Written in the inside cover is "K. Haywood, Xmas 1919" and written in pencil on the back cover is "Duncombe St., Wallaston Stourbridge".  It was quite interesting to read it as there are numerous sections such as morning prayer, evening prayer, order of confirmation, order for the burial of the deal, and thanksgiving of women after child-birth just to name a few.

Years ago, my daughter brought home from England  this little collection of small books featuring the classics ...
This is a small book of Aladdin that I picked up at one of my Danish Sisterhood events a few years ago ...

As you can see, it's in Danish (which I can't read) and dates from 1876 ...

I picked up this book at the same event.  It doesn't look very interesting and it's in very bad shape but once you look inside it's amazing what you'll find ...

It's dated 1733!  It is Volume 1 of an 8 volume set. 

It's written in English but not the kind of English that I read ...

The star of my collection is this book entitled Adventures of an Orchid Hunter.  I've googled it and found that it's worth in the range of high hundreds to one thousand (I'm sure depending on how they grade the condition).  I purchased this book years ago at a Friends of the Library book sale in my small town for a vast sum of 25 cents!

It was published in 1891 and is in very good condition inside ...

It features a lovely chromolithograph of  an orchid (and many more lithographs) and tells of the author's travels through the jungles of Columbia in search of orchids ...

 I hope you have enjoyed this little glimpse into one of my collections.  It's probably not worth much but to think of how old these items are and who they once belonged to one day is quite intriguing to think about.


We are in the midst of another heat wave.  I can hardly wait until winter makes it's appearance and maybe we will receive our much needed rain.  I'll sign off with this photo of Lilly.  She sends you her meows and good wishes.

Again, thank you for your kind comments and for taking the time to visit Lilly My Cat.  I hope that you and every one of you has a wonderful day.

my best to you,

Pat

Links:
It's Friday so I'm join in with Amy at Love Made my Home for  Five on Friday ...
Willy Nilly Friday 5

28 comments:

  1. I have a few older books as well that I treasure very much! Will have to do a post on them sometime. Loved your post and enjoyed seeing your wonderful old books very much!

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  2. There's a lot of history connected with those old books, all the other people they have belonged to. The orchid book has beautiful illustrations. Something to treasure and pass on. :-)

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  3. Wow, you have some amazing books there, Pat! I hope you have your orchid book listed on your insurance! Thank you for sharing, it's lovely to see how history travels, and lovely to see Lilly as usual xx

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  4. Congratulations on your new Grandaughter, such a beautiful name. Your book collection is amazing, how wonderful thumbing through the pages of such a major part of our history wondering how went before you. I too, wold love a floor to ceiling book collection with steps, such a lovely dream.

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  5. A really lovely collection of old books and it's particularly nice to see them so treasured.

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  6. Belated congratulations on the birth of Sadie, I have been out of the loop for a while and just catching up. Reading for me has also taken a back seat whilst I craft but have a book I need to read for book club, so best get cracking on with that. Lovely collection of old books too x

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  7. What a wonderful collection of old books. I love books, too and have a few old ones.

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  8. And to think that the world has come to E-Readers!

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  9. Such treasures! I use to dream of a library in my house too... with ladders. =) I wanted one like the library in Beauty and the Beast. You have such lovely treasures! Thank you for sharing! Visiting from Five on Friday. =)

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  10. Such a lovely collection of books. I'd love a library ladder too. We do have floor to ceiling bookshelves in one room.

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  11. What a wonderful collection of old books. - I don't think I'd want the ladder in a library as I don't like climbing down ladders that much. - I enjoy reading though but don't really collect many books. My mom has an old copy of Pilgrims Progress which I think is neat. Tell Lilly she is a gorgeous cat.

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  12. What a beautiful collection of books, and of history too. I think that old books are magical things to transport us to other places and times, so I loved seeing them! Thank you for joining Five On Friday! I hope that you have a great weekend! xx

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  13. I am glad to know your little Sadie is doing well, Pat.
    Books surround me in five six foot tall bookcases...but I don't have a library ladder although I admire them when I see them in floor to ceiling libraries.
    When we lived in NY, my husband owned and ran a new/used bookstore and it was hard to part with many of the books when he sold the business and we moved back to CA.
    I have an old book of Common Prayer and appreciate many of the prayers that are typed within its' book covers.
    Thanks for sharing some of your book treasures with us. I enjoyed learning about them from you.
    Please give Lily love pats from me. xx

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  14. Hi Pat! You have a wonderful collection of old books! I think I could spend a lot of time in your library!
    Hope it cools down soon!
    Christine

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  15. What a wonderful collection of books. The Orchid book looks beautiful, and in such good condition too!

    Congratulations on the birth of your granddaughter. Xxx #fiveonfriday

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  16. What a lovely collection of old books, I have a few gardening books that used to belong to my father & grandfather which I treasure. Congratulations on your grandchild x

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  17. Your collection of old books is really wonderful. Hugs to you, Meredith

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  18. Your antique book collection is lovely. When I saw you picked up a Common Book of Prayer, I went to get mine to see the date it was published which was 1962. I still refer to it although I'd like a copy with bigger print now. :-)

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  19. i love books and especially old ones like these! what a great collection...and congratulations to you and your family! and lilly is a cute kitty...i am going to email you the code for the japan box now...let me know if you don't get it! hope you had a wonderful weekend!!

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  20. Such a lovely collection of books. There is something special about old books and wondering who has sat reading them and taken pride in them. I have a few old books that belonged to family members usually Sunday School prizes so named and dated. Lovely to see Lilly too:)

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  21. Thanks for stopping by my blog, I see we share Interests in books and England. We were living in Southern California before we moved here.
    Your Maine Coon cat is gorgeous.

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  22. What beautiful books! I, too, like the Book of Common Prayer. In fact I have a few different books of prayers. I find them interesting and soothing. How beautiful your Lily is. Does she know she's beautiful? We used to have two brother cats, Tinker and Mischka. A friend once nicknamed them "Mr. Personality and Mr. Beautiful". And it was true - Mischka was well aware of his good looks! If, when he was washing, you would say, "Oh now I think you missed a bit there," he would go back and do it over! I hope so much it cools down for you. I've been reading about the poor people in Northern California who've been evacuated and their homes destroyed. So awful.

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  23. Sorry I think I misspelled Lilly's name! My apologies.

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  24. I loved seeing your old books! You have a very special collection. I love old books too, and I have a few from my parents' house. One book that is special is a children's book by Caldecott, the man the award is named after for artists' work in books! It's in terrible shape, but the illustrations are wonderful, and the stories I have to say are macabre (as they were in the olden days). Perhaps I'll share some of my books on my blog sometime ... thanks for sharing and the inspiration!
    Wendy

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  25. Hi Pat,

    My apologies for not visiting recently but there has been a lot happening here (and there still is). Thank you for visiting and commenting on my blog.

    You have a brilliant collection of old books and what a history they all have, I was fascinated to read about them - I love old books! As Winwick Mum says, I hope they are on your insurance, although you would never be able to replace them.

    I hope you get some more rain soon!

    Barbara xx

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  26. I bet those books are worth a pretty penny by now! Great post!

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  27. Mom, you need to submit photos and a description of the Orchids book to the antique rep at Country Living magazine. They may feature it and give you an appraisal!

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  28. Oh, I enjoy books new and old and the fun of snooping used bookshops to find treasures. You've got some lovely ones.

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