When you have as many old books as I do, or if you rummage among as many old bookshops as I do, you inevitably find many things pressed between pages. Usually you find items that people have used as makeshift bookmarks, but sometimes you discover things that people just wanted pressed flat. Occasionally you might happen on something that somebody probably wanted hidden.
One way or another I’ve ended up with a couple of albums full of interesting bits and pieces of ephemera that have fallen out of old books. Some I’ve chosen to leave with the books I found them in, because they seemed so at home there. Others I’ve pulled aside, often because the bits and pieces are more interesting than the books, which perhaps I haven’t chosen to keep.
A year or so ago I met a man after my own heart, running the second-hand bookshop in Bellingen, NSW. This gentleman had a box full of makeshift bookmarks he’d salvaged over a number of years, and he gladly let me poke around and pick some gems for my collection.
I love these little odds and ends for their quirky value as fragments of other people’s lives and of social history, if you like.
Become a Photo Time Tunnel member and receive deep discounts, subscriber-only content and a FREE BOOK with new 1-year subscriptions*! Visit our SHOP for details... Dismiss
IMPORTANT NOTICE
THE SHOP WILL BE UNABLE TO SHIP PHYSICAL PURCHASES BETWEEN APRIL 22 AND MAY 25.
THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO DOWNLOADS OR TO BRIAN ANDREWS’ COAL AND RAILWAY BOOKS WHICH WILL BE AVAILABLE AS USUAL.