Welcome, Ann!

Oh, that is good news. When we there there it was surrounded by builders' fencing and it wasn't clear how much of it was remaining.

Welcome to the CBB and enjoy Pertisau when you get there - I'd love to go back one day

Welcome to the CBB, Ann. Lucky you being so near to Pertisau, let us know all about your trip there when you go, won't you?

You may wish you hadn't said that, books are probably my first love and I can talk about them all day!

My biggest collection is old cookery books, the earliest was published in 1734 and I can't resist them. Some of them have other useful things in them. Who can resist a book that contains a paragraph on "Hints for Ventillating Stage Coaches" for instance? The late 1700s and early 1800s are my favourite period, so I'm drawn to anything that gives me an insight into life as it was then and there's a real mish mash of stuff on my shelves.

I have over 30 of the first 51 GOP annuals and find them fascinating as an insight into life at the turn of the century. I also find it difficult to resist books with hand coloured plates. My favourite is an 1806 "La Belle Assemblée" with fashions straight out of a Jane Austen novel.

I also enjoy working with my hands (the Hobbies Club would have been right up my street), so when I found there were bookbinding classes in my area I signed up. Now I look for antiquarian books that are complete, but in poor condition. Not only are they much more affordable, but I love being able to bring them back to life. If you're interested in books/bookbinding, I've got a few webpages about it. here

By the way, what were the 3 you couldn't resist?!

Which date and publisher Ariel? There were a fair number of these around - no free NHS to tap into. I have a large collection of advice books dating from about 1860 and this includes quite a few family doctor books. They are hilarious to read, especially some of the guidance about how to behave on honeymoon (have separate beds so that the man doesn't get too excited) and how to bring up a baby.

_________________
Cestina's dolls houses - I can't bear Christmas....

Odd volumes are hard to find, but to pick up the other 3 for £4.50 sounds like a real bargain. If you keep an eye out, you never know, it might turn up on one of the booksellers websites.



I don't have that one although I do have a couple of old medical books including a Home Doctor from the early 1800s. I was amazed when I read it that a lot of the advice was no different from today's.



Wow, sounds wonderful. The local booksellers here all know me pretty well, which doesn't always do a lot for my purse, but their prices are usually very good. It's a standing joke with some of them that I'm the only person they know whose face lights up when they say the book's in poor condition!



Was the the banana omelette one?



The antiquarian collection isn't really that big, it's scattered around the house, but it would probably only fill one bookcase. Well probably quite a big bookcase if you included all the GOPs! I do have bookcases in every room except the bathroom and am constantly looking for new ways of introducing more without making the rooms look too full, but I have a lot of more modern stuff as well as the antiquarian books. Although I'm a lot more ruthless than I used to be, I'm still not very good at throwing books out.

The bookbinding is on hold at the moment as the flat, which is a very recent acquisition is way too exciting for me to be able to concentrate on anything else. It'll come into its own again in due course though. It always does.

No rush Ariel, the books are all in storage in England at the moment and so I can't check anyway. No clue when they will emerge....

_________________
Cestina's dolls houses - I can't bear Christmas....

It's still a relatively small world here in the north east and being a hobby bookbinder as well as a book lover helps. Some of the dealers know exactly what I like and will save books for me.

As for what I collect, it's probably easier to expand on an earlier reply.

My biggest collection is old cookery books, the earliest was published in 1734 and I can't resist them. Some of them have other useful tips in them. Who can resist a book that contains a paragraph on "Hints for Ventillating Stage Coaches" for instance? The late 1700s and early 1800s are my favourite period, so I'm drawn to anything that gives me an insight into life as it was then and there's a real mish mash of stuff on my shelves. What's really fascinating is how things haven't changed at all. The grammar book moans about no one speaking correctly any longer. Another book describes what we'd now call "15 minutes of fame" and a third, written in the 1760s reckons that if we were invaded, we wouldn't stand a chance, the educational system has gone to the dogs, people are more worried about fashion/dress than the important things in life and that all the problems are down to what we'd now term the metrosexual male!

I also find it difficult to resist books with hand coloured plates. My favourite is an 1806 "La Belle Assemblée" with fashions straight out of a Jane Austen novel.

(Of course I also have a lot although not all of the CS books.)

Hi Ann, welcome to the CBB

_________________
Visit http://www.encorebooks.co.uk and http://stores.ebay.co.uk/encorebooks for a wide selection of secondhand and new children's books (including ones published by GGBP, Bettany Press, Greyladies, The EJO Society, Books to Treasure and Fidra Books)

Hi ann and welcome to the board

_________________
Every life is both ordinary and extraordinary – it is the respective proportions of those two categories that make that life appear interesting or humdrum.
William Boyd//Any Human Heart

Welcome, Ann.

What a useful hobby! (I've just been going through a box of books in astonishing states of decrepitude. Also mildew. There must be a way to get rid of mildew. Our rare books librarian suggested putting them out in the sun, but it doesn't seem very efficacious. Also a very bad idea when sudden thunderstorms come through.)

_________________
Castor oil: Triacylglycerol from Ricinus communis containing hydroxy-fatty acids.

Oh dear, do be careful if your books have mildew/mould on them. Above all, try not to inhale it, it can be dangerous stuff.

I bought a very old law book only to discover it had mould on a lot of the pages. I'm friendly with a paper conservator and she told me that you can never get rid of mould, at best you can just render it dormant. I used a smoke sponge, in the open air, to take off the visible mould and am hoping that conditions in my house will be dry and warm enough to send what remains into a dormant state. Even so, I need to keep the book well away from my others as the spores float around in the air and can pass from one book to another.

What does the mildew look like by the way?

Hi Ann - welcome to the board.

I wouldn't worry too much, yours are probably fine. It's usually when a book has been left in a damp place for an extended period that you get mould problems.

It's a 1662 "The Office and Authority of Sheriffs", but it's in a terrible state, plus there's the mould. The old law books can be interesting, although they're not the kind of thing you read from cover to cover. I discovered in one that "mayhem" originally had a very specific meaning in law for example. "Forestalling" is another word that had a very exact definition in old law books.

I have a friend who was a solicitor and now lectures in law and she's very envious of them too. I only have 3, the oldest is a 1607 "Termes of the Law" which is in the old gothic script and in French and English. Sometimes the French is easier to decipher than the gothic script! It's missing the final few pages, which is how I was able to afford it, but is otherwise in good condition. The third is a 1731 "Compleat Parish Officer" which was coverless but complete when I bought it on Ebay. (It's now got a leather binding.) I think that's the one that talks about forestalling, which is to do with market traders not being allowed to sell their goods before they actually get to the market.

One advantage of buying antiquarian books in need of rebinding is that afterwards, they can be used frequently without suffering any damage. Two or three hundred year old leather gets very dry and brittle, so if you actually want to read the book, every time you open it, you run the risk of cracking the hinges and devaluing it as a result. The ones in pristine condition are really only for the collectors who keep them behind locked bookcase doors and never touch them. I most definitely don't come into that category!

It's each to their own I suppose, although I'm with you. Not only do I read them myself, friends pick them up and look at them when they're here too.

Much as I and my friends love browsing through the old cookery books, it's disappointing that so few of the recipes are tempting enough to try out. Mostly they're really plain and unappetizing to our modern tastes. It also doesn't help that they seemed to be cooking for vast numbers when you look at the ingredients and it's not unusual to see things like "take a leg of beef and a leg of lamb........" What size pot would you need for that?!