Monday, June 23, 2008

Fabulous Find #6 ~ Mabel's Scrapbook

As promised, below are some photos of my lucky find at Antiques on the Common ~ a huge and lovely scrapbook put together by someone named Mabel in the 1800's. I find it odd that the lettering style of her name seems so contemporary ~ maybe the name was added later and wasn't the person that made the book ~ so far I haven't found any clues. Although there are chunks of pages cut from the ledger book here and there, there are still loads of pages filled front and back. I'm sure I will notice something new every time I take a look!


{extra treasure ~ loose alphabet page}

{great sarsaparilla ad and series of corset ads ~ love the way the handlettering of the ledger page serves as a background pattern}

{lithographed floral illustrations from seed catalogs}

{one of my favorites ~ love the handwritten script!}

{fruits}

{vegetables too ~ even the lowly cabbage looks like a gem!}

{ a selection of religious cards ~ beautiful subtle colors}

{lovely monochromatic pair of pages}

I just find this scrapbook so fascinating ~ and beautiful ~ whoever made it certainly had a natural flair for design and color. She must have gotten several magazine subscriptions and garden and seed catalogs as well ~ and saw the beauty in what showed up in her mailbox. I still can't believe someone else didn't snap it up earlier ~ for me, this made trudging through the mud well worth it!

7 comments:

The Feathered Nest said...

Oh Julie...this find is INCREDIBLE!!! You must have screamed inside when you opened it to the first page! Wonderful...It's very nice to meet you (via Carol at Raised in Cotton) I'll definitely be back. I just love your taste!! xxoo, Dawn

Anonymous said...

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

This is utterly incredible! Found you through the wonderul Carol. :) Going back to drool now!

Joy

Sue (Vintage Rescue) said...

Just found you through Raised in Cotton, and am digging all your posts. Can you clear up a question I have though? I've found stuff like this (loose pages, not bound), but assumed it was done by people like us recently. Did people back then really do this? It seems like a very modern technique?

Either way, I'm definitely picking up more of this from now on....

XOX

Julie said...

So glad all of you seem to love this scrapbook as much as I do! To answer Vintage sue's question...I have seen many loose scrapbook pages sold by the each at flea markets and shows - I think that the dealers figure they can make more money breaking up a book(pages can be $10 - $30 each or more) - or the book itself may have been in bad shape and was falling apart anyway. The way to distinguish between those done today and those from the past is that most of the newer ones are color prints of the old ephemera - either photocopied or scanned in and digitally reproduced. I guess I can't be totally sure that my ledger book wasn't assembled yesterday, but I can tell that the ledger and all of the ephemera inside is original, so I tend to believe it was made long ago. Thanks for all of your comments!

meleen dupré said...

wow...what a treasure!!!
pages and pages to savor over and over!!! so glad carol posted a link to your blog!!

meleen dupré
http://passionatedetails.typepad.com

Chris Brown said...

What a great find.

Chris

karlascottage.typepad.com said...

I have never come across an old scrapbook that was done so well. Usually they are pretty haphazardly glued down. That one is ART!