I always look at books when I am going to fairs or brocantes. I can't help it. We have a big problem with books at home. Removal men hate us and keep reminding us about the existence of Kindles... we always feel terribly guilty when we have to tidy or reorganize our overflowing bookshelves. We really, really should stop buying books but... you know how this story ends.
Of course on most markets there will be a book stall or someone selling their grandparents collection in dusty old banana boxes. Of course guilt made us avoid these but.... Now I have started buying books for the shop so I have to look! I can't spend all my time just searching for statues and reliquaries! And if there is a book for myself, well... even better!
I always look at antique missals and paroissien books (literally "parishoner" but really the order of Mass). They often come with several prayer or funeral cards... but sometimes, I find other things. Odd things. Here are some of my finds from the last couple of months (I have kept the best one for the end!).
This handsome and well dressed man was found in a Mass book from 1901, at the Good Friday page. A partly erased and cut stamp on the picture indicates he was in a trade union.
There was also a chromolithograph that came from a card... Roses on Christmas day! The book might have belonged to his girlfriend. Or his mother maybe? Whoever she was, she lived in Paris as several communion cards found in the book indicate.
I found more chromo flowers in the next book, a Manual of The Third Order of St. Francis of Assisi. Beautiful book printed in 1919.
I often find branches from boxwood given for Palm Sunday. They are kept in missals to dry and sometimes stain the pages... it's all part of the charm!
I always leave them and the next owner will be free to keep or dispose of them.
I tend to keep things as I find them in respect for the previous owner. I am just a step on an object's journey between two owners so I feel I shouldn't interfere too much with the pieces I find. I only get rid of all the dirt and spiderwebs that come with some of them!
The next two books were different from my usual missals.
The two flowers with an odd pattern come from a young girl's devotional book. The book was offered to a young lady on the day of her first communion in June 1889.
The lucky four-leaf clover is in a Pilgrimage missal from 1938 amongst pictures of pilgrimages places in France (mostly). There are another three clovers in this little book. Religion and superstition mixed in the same book!
That brings me to the next one: Month of the Souls in Purgatory which contains a card with a "very efficient prayer" that needs to be repeated as many times as possible to work!

The next book contains a bit of everything. From prayer cards to calendar pages (3 of them). There are also chromos of birds and random messages. It is a Mass book from Nantes that was printed in 1874. It has been heavily used and originally closed with a lock (sadly lost).
The next prayer book from 1890 is still in beautiful condition and has the monogram M C on the cover. It contained a lovely drawing and some sort of 10 franc stamp...
And, finally, my favourite.
It is the 'The way of salvation' by St Alphonsus de Liguori. When I saw the photographs inside, I just couldn't resist. I would have bought the book even if it had been completely uninteresting or in bad condition. I just couldn't leave those photos in a book, in a sad cardboard box, in a shed where no one was looking!
I might hold on to this one for a bit...
To be continued...
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