Tuesday, April 8, 2014

From my Collection...

I’m still collecting dance cards and aides memoire—you can see a few from my collection here—and have a couple of new pieces that I thought might interest you.

First, isn’t this wee aide memoire adorable? It’s the smallest in my collection, a dainty 1 7/8 inches long and under an inch wide, and with four leaves. I also like the ambiguity of the inscription, “Forget me not”...was it a gift from an admirer, a souvenir of a friendship, or just a reminder that this was the place to jot down things one didn’t want to forget?



This one was clearly meant to be used as a dance card: note the ring, so that it could be worn while dancing if one did not have a pocket or reticule at hand. I have a special fondness for these fan-shaped ones. This one has five leaves for writing on, two loops at the left to hold a minute pencil, and a sturdy clasp:



This last aide memoire is highly unusual; I’ve never seen one with a cover made of stone! The jasper (or agate) cover is very handsome and is translucent when held up to the light. Unusually, it has leaves for every day of the week, Sunday included...and the matching pencil is just plain awesome:



And in another type of collection, I was delighted last Saturday to make a new face-to-face acquaintance...long-time NineteenTeen reader and commenter QnPoohBear stopped by a teen book event in Rhode Island where I was a guest to say hello and bring me some printouts of WWI era articles and recipes from her collection. It was a pleasure to see you outside of cyberspace, QNPoohBear!!

Any other collectors out there? What sparks your acquisitive streak?

4 comments:

Leandra Wallace said...

How neat! So around how old do you think some of these are? I like the fan one the best, so pretty!

Marissa Doyle said...

I wish I had definitive dates for these, but I don't. I'm guessing that the Forget me not and fan ones are second half of the 19th century, and the agate one more recent--Edwardian, perhaps. But those are just guesses.

QNPoohBear said...
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QNPoohBear said...

How lovely! I like the fan the best. I collect antique children's books, especially Louisa May Alcott and other local writers. I also collect ephemera, stuff that was meant to be thrown away but has enduring value. I'll collect anything I have the space for but now I'm a trained archivist, I want it all stored in the proper library or museum where it can be well taken care of.

It was so great meeting you! I'm happy you came to this little corner of New England. I learned a lot about what young adults are interested in reading and the things they're thinking about.