Autumn Cottage Diarist

Brief Weekender - Bits and Bobs and Bookish Things

Back in another life, I spent several years dealing in Antiquarian and second hand books and prints. It was often the case that - along with the books - an added bonus would be all sorts of items which had been kept safe, hidden or just filed within the pages.

I've often felt that those unexpected items were more interesting than the actual book that was 'the main item' - so I'll bring you occasional glimpses here of some of the books that pass through my hands, but also the 'bits that fall out' that have intrigued me. Today - some pages from a charming 1930's Recipe Repository which I acquired very recently - together with just an idea of all the loose, collected recipes that fell from between the pages.

The book itself cost just one UK pound from Hungerford Arcade, and as you can see, the illustrated pages are themselves adorned with very sweet images (I have included one at high resolution for you to download and print if you would like…).

I'll share some of the recipes (both handwritten in English and French, and clipped from the pages of magazines) in another post - for now, just enjoy the charm of these woodblock prints.

Happy Saturday, Friends!

 

 

(Right click on the picture above and 'save image as' to download High Resolution image)

 

 

 

 

 

Hunkering Down on a Sunday

Roz's Ratatouille - wonderful with fish dishes

We have a forecast of the temperature rising and going 'into double figures' by midweek - but at the moment, we have grey skies and a bitterly cold wind blowing across the south of England. 'Outside' is not a pleasant place to be.

The place to be is indoors, with fires lit and casseroles on the cooker; some to fill the freezer, some to fill our tums, accompanied by a glass of wine and followed by sitting in a nook with a jolly good book!

This is what I have been doing this weekend - and this is where I am doing it…

Portioning up the Ratatouille for the freezer - recycled 'takeaway' meal tubs hold just the right amount for two!

Add a batch of Leek and Potato soups - very satisfying! (Pip not interested, though...)

...and for the tum? Friday supper - Sausages in Cider with Black Olives...served with mashed potato

On the bookshelf...plenty to keep me occupied...

...tucked up in this cosy book corner on the landing

Always a good topic for our journals - our food, drink and books say so much about our lives, don't they? So what are you eating, drinking or reading this weekend?

 

Roz's Cheap & Easy Ratatouille

(Makes approx 12 portions)

 

2 x 500 gm packs inexpensive mixed sweet peppers

3 red onions

1 head celery

3 tins  'Value' or 'Economy' chopped tomatoes

1/2 tube tomato puree

1 glass white wine

2 tbsp sliced black olives

5 large cloves garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp Mixed Italian herbs

2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

 

Slice in half and remove the seeds from the peppers, then cut into roughly 2 cm (1 inch) pieces

Peel onions, cut into similar chunks

Wash celery, slice into 2 cm pieces

Chop garlic, add to onion

Fry all for 5-10 minutes in the olive oil until onions start to become transparent

Add glass of wine, simmer for 2-3 minutes

Add tinned tomatoes, bring to simmer.

When hot, Add italian herbs, season to taste with salt & pepper.

Stir in tomato puree & sliced olives. Cover and simmer for 1 hr.

Allow to cool before placing in tubs.

 

A Truly Price-less Treasure

Amongst my more peculiar traits, (of which my friends know there are many!), is a propensity to 'rescue' old prayer books and bibles. They are hardly wanted and rarely seen in secondhand bookshops these days - but I always feel so strongly that at one time, they all would have been precious to someone - a cornerstone of a faith which may have sustained those individuals though all manner of life's ups and downs. Such artifacts are not, to me, to be sniffed at, but to be respected and retained.

So when I spotted this little Book of Common Prayer in the Sue Ryder charity shop in Newbury this morning, I felt sorry for it and picked it up to purchase it. I showed it to the assistant, who somewhat hesitantly said - 'er - it's a prayer book...'. I said I understood that - and how much was it, please? To which she gave a rather lovely reply.

She told me that the Founder, Sue Ryder, had stipulated that no Bible or prayer book was ever to be charged for - so if I would like to take it, please to do so - for free. I was very moved by this philosophy, but also felt that I could not take it and pay nothing - so I popped a pound in their collecting box - and we were both very happy.

Then - as I put it in my bag, this dropped out…

…a tiny, tattered photo, it adds a whole other dimension to my find.

Apart from knowing that this book of Common Prayer and hymns Ancient and Modern was given from 'Jack' to 'Gertie' in October 1913, I know nothing of who possessed this little book. But my imagination likes to think that the donor and the owner are perhaps both in the picture; maybe Gertie is even the woman close to the centre of the photo, her head is graced by the particularly magnificent beribboned hat? And oh, would that the colours of the ribbons were visible…which my imagination sees in green, purple and white - but in the realms of my imagination that conjecture has to stay. I have no concrete evidence of anything or anyone. (My imagination does not care about that...)

All I can say is that today, I honour whoever those people may be - all someone's daughters and sons, many of them ancestors, and all living in a world that was about to change out of all recognition.

Your little book will be cared for, Gertie and Jack - and my imagination will continue to have a creative feast on what you have left behind.I give you both my thanks.

Refuge from the Rain

'Come inside...' - the inviting interior of the potting shed at Mottisfont

In the middle of summer, this is the sort of day that holidaymakers hate and gardeners love. It is pouring down with rain, has been since 8 am and is well settled in to go on for the rest of the day.

It can be miserable to be away from home and all that is familiar in this sort of weather, trying to find something to do with the children - or without - that is under cover. But if you are a gardener, you can always retire - to the greenhouse, the potting shed or the summerhouse!

Here are some images - from home and away - of the cosy pleasures that can be gained when taking shelter from the rain. The first are from the walled garden at Mottisfont Abbey, where the National Trust have called in theatrical designers to reconstruct a potting shed; it is part of their 'Storyscape Project' and  many of the articles in there allude to the accomplished horticulturalist and rose-grower Graham Stuart Thomas, who set up the collection of Old Roses in the walled garden at Mottisfont in the 1970's.

Notebooks and illustrations of Old Roses

Terracotta pots and tins for seeds...essential minutiae in old gardens

The second are much closer to home - the latest incarnation of the summerhouse here at the cottage - also, in its own way, a Storyscape; a place where my friends sit with me, tell me their own stories and conjure up new ones from the inspiration they (and I) get there, surrounded by peace, quiet, harp music, wildlife and books.

Some new pictures added to the wildlife collection

'Spring Spirit' - Hares by Jane Keay - a two pound greeting card in a one pound frame...

A place for fairies and fancy - but don't be late for a very important date!

Twinkly lights and candleholders - (new ones bought for pennies, bearing images of my favoured dragonflies)

It's just a tiny space, but I do have such fun creating a place for pondering and creativity. If you also have a much loved little refuge - do tell me something about it!

The most important furnishings in any room...

 

 

 

 

Needlepoint and Knowledge

Crocuses

A while since I visited the Hungerford Antiques Arcade; wandering around the town in bitterly cold wind has not raised great enthusiasm in me over the last few wintery weeks. But this week I combined a visit with lunch with a dear friend who lives in the town, which turned an ordinary Tuesday into a Sacred Ordinary day. Here are a couple of the things that I discovered and reconfirmed;

1. Things are not just inanimate items, but have a whole history of their own - they carry other humans'  history within them. I have collected textiles for forty years, at one time sewing myself everything that I wore, and at another time pursuing the City and Guilds courses in embroidery, both pursuits from which I learned - the hard way - that a beautiful end product usually only comes with much toil before hand.

Magnolias

Sunflower Basket

It was with that understanding that I carried back these three Elizabeth Bradley needlepoint pictures - beautifully framed - for a bargain price. I know that the needlepoint kits now sell for £130.00; that the frames would probably have cost £40.00 each; yet I purchased each framed and finished picture for £8.00. But the biggest understanding was of the many, many hours put in by the unknown stitcher who made them; to that person, I nod in respect and admiration. Your pictures now have an appreciative home with me.

2. How I love books! They are without doubt, a lifelong addiction for me. I think the addiction stems from the fact that I grew up in a home with virtually no books; I can count those I remember there on two hands. As I have grown older, I have accumulated thousand upon thousand, providing me with access to all that I desire - information, escape, understanding and inspiration.

My own good fortune is to have had access to books at pittance prices from Martin Smith, the book dealer that I have known for twenty years, also based in the Hungerford Arcade.

Martin has been my downfall, space wise - it is his fault that we often clamber over piles of books here at the cottage... but it is also (partially) thanks to Martin that I was enabled to venture, in another life, into dealing in antique books and prints. It is also thanks to him that I acquired some antique, handwritten journals which led me on a continuing voyage of investigation and exploration to the beloved city of Venice - an adventure which is not yet ended.

Look at the feast of knowledge and information between board covers which I brought home with me this week - all for the total sum of £10.00;  tell me what else you can get for that amount that will explode your mind as much as these magical tomes? One life is not enough….

Books to Feed Body and Soul

Another foray to the Hungerford Antiques Arcade on Thursday - en route to lunch with a dear friend; lots of little 'bits and pieces' picked up - but also two very interesting books, for just a couple of pounds each, on the cultural history of food and food-writing.

It's a field which fascinates me, both because I am interested in all aspects of life in the past, but more particularly since we bought the house next door to Autumn Cottage 20 years ago, when we 'inherited' a boarded up fireplace, which turned out to hold an inglenook plus the entrance to the beehive oven which was already visible on the outside of the house. It looked intriguing but I had no real idea of how a bread oven had worked; once I had my own, I hunted down books on the subject (Dorothy Hartley's Food in England was a treasury of information on the topic) and was also lucky to see one in use at my neighbour's house. She had restored her oven to working order and held a 'baking day' especially to demonstrate how it was practically operated. (a third, more prosaic reason for buying both books is quite simply that I love finding, eating and sharing good quality, interesting food - surely one of the great pleasures of life?)

 

The two books I brought home with me were Marwood Yeatman's 'Last Food Of England' - a survey of both the historic sources, preparation and serving of food through history in England, but also a survey of those whom he considers the best purveyors at the present time of the best quality foods in the country. It is a book written by someone who clearly feels strongly about the quality of good food and preservation of its availability by the continued existence of small local producers and shopkeepers; There is much more about the book here and also a description of his home, which illustrates his philosophy of lifestyle here

 

The second book - Mark Kurlansky's  'Choice Cuts' - is a more general anthology of food writing from the Romans onwards - a lovely book to dip into along with a cup of tea and a piece of cake, more for entertainment than inspiration, though I suppose the one often leads - directly or otherwise - to the other!

I cannot end without mentioning - again - one of my favourite blogs - The History Girls - and yesterday's post on their site by Michelle Lovric,  regarding the upcoming 500th anniversary celebrations of Aldo Manuzio, publisher and printer of Venice. Books, Printing presses and Venice - what more could you ask me to leave you with! Off you go, to savour the whole delicious article here

Saved from the Jaws of Destruction!

Every so often I feel the need to 'run away' from the humdrum domestic environment for an hour or two; in my case it is almost always to the little town of Hungerford in West Berkshire, which is about a twenty minute drive from Autumn Cottage. When I arrive, my well trodden pathways usually include a ramble around the Antiques Arcade, which I have been visiting for at least twenty five years.

Through that hallowed portal, my feet always carry me first to 'The Junk Shop' - not far inside the main door and a repository of a complete and mysterious miscellanea. Its contents span a spectrum from 'undiscovered treasures' (until they are discovered my me!) through weird and wonderful 'stuff' right down to the frankly trashy (but keeping in mind *always* that what is my trash will undoubtedly be another person's treasure - so there is a place for all of it).

A recent 'find' in the Junk Shop - watercolour of Wallingford Bridge, late C19th

After a first look in the Junk shop, I then make straight for 'Countryside Books' - the permanent showcase of Martin Smith, the second-hand and antiquarian book dealer from whom I have bought many, many treasures over the last fifteen years - some of which have sent me off on intriguing searches and  wonderful adventures.

Northern Golden Plover (Shorelands Summer Diary, C.T. Tunnicliffe,1952)

I had several happy 'finds' in Martin's unit yesterday - most particularly two books illustrated by Charles Tunnicliffe - whom I consider one of the finest wildlife illustrators of the 20th century.

His watercolours so skilfully capture the intangible but  essential nature of the animals (mostly birds)  which he closely observed over many years from his home on Anglesey - but it is also to his striking wood engravings that I am drawn - I think even more closely than his colour work.

Ruffs (Shorelands Summer Diary, C.T. Tunnicliffe,1952)

I also purchased a translation and printing of a fascinating illustrated journal, originally created by one of Napoleon's offiicers - on the ultimately disastrous Russian campaign. The artwork is talented, capturing the costumes of both invaders and invaded, the landscape and the gradual dawning that victory was about to turn into terrible tragedy of freezing and starvation as the Imperial army retreated through the cruel Russian winter.

Napoleon Outside Viasma, 30 August 1812 (Memoirs of Major Faber du Faur, 1812/2001)

I happily left the Arcade with these 'treasures of the day', making my way back to my car (which I park at a friend's house, some hundreds of yards away) but was distracted on my way by some brightly coloured china in the window of a charity shop on the other side of the road. Did I need more 'stuff'? - no, of course not, but…it was just across the road. No harm in looking!

Having peered into the window and discovered that the items which caught my eye were nothing that I wanted, I turned to go to the car - but the little voice on my shoulder was whispering to me.  'Oh, go ON  - no harm in just taking a look inside, is there?'. I was unable to resist the little voice!

I poked around the shop for a minute or two, but there were no other visible items of any interest, and my bag of books was now getting heavy. I asked to put it down near the counter while I took a VERY last look around, and as I did so, there, beside my bag, was a box of books which looked neglected and in poor condition, but the Inner Radar deemed worthy of taking a look at. All piled in a jumble, and pretty 'tatty' but some old illustrated children's books were included on top - which I have collected for years. So I asked the price - and was told that they were not really for sale, but had been placed there ready to go 'for pulping - they are old and damaged and nobody wants them'. Ahem - at least one person did!

I asked permission to look through the box - which was happily granted, and was excited to find, further down in the box, two old and stained but interestingly covered cookery books (dated 1890) and also a tiny little leatherette bound book with 'Burial Service' embossed on the front. Treasure was mine! and even better - treasure rescued at the last minute from almost certain destruction.

Along with two modern, but original and very nicely framed little watercolours of Venice, I offered ten pounds for the lot. I left the shop with a very happy smile on my face.

My smile got bigger when I came home. Looking through the little 'burial book' I discovered both the full name and date of burial of the person (Captain John Wright Westby - 03 May 1912) for whom it had been used. The name was printed inside the front covers of what seems to be a pro-forma book produced by the undertakers, Hanningtons of Brighton). Inside one of the other books was inscribed a woman's name (Constance Westby) with the same surname as that of the deceased in the Funeral Service. Ten minutes of an internet search has already furnished details of his marriage, (to Charlotte Sarah Constance Westby) his military career and - sadly - the death of their son on the Somme. What more of their story can I now discover? This treasure hunt is waiting for me to begin.

This is the delight of these finds to me - the books themselves are worth almost nothing as saleable books - but to me, the details inscribed incidentally inside their pages both tell a story in itself and offer the possibility of further searches and revelations  which may take me to visit places and meet people who are as yet unknown to me..

The second 'cookery' book is intriguing in its own right. It is actually a manual for bakers and confectioners - filled with advertisements for bakers supplies and recipes for all areas of the profession.

Interesting in itself, it is much more so to me, as it is exactly the sort of book my grandfather - also a baker and confectioner - would have consulted. More story telling - more 'filling in the gaps' - more many happy hours spent discovering the bigger picture.

Not a bad outcome for an afternoon of running away!

 

Oh, Those Corsets!

A happy morning at the Antiques Arcade in Hungerford yesterday, where, amongst other items, a couple of very nice old books crossed my path. Here are just a few illustrations from one of them -  a bound volume of the "Young Ladies' Journal' from July to December, 1886. (Right clicking on any of the images will bring up a larger one, which you are welcome to download for your own use - have fun with them :-)).

 

 

 

Young Women Should Never be Given Hare's Heads to Eat....

..for fear they might think about it later, once they are married, especially while they are pregnant; in that case, for sure, their children would have split lips”

This book will be winging its way to me via Amazon even before you read this. Womens history, is, as the writer of this article  comments often 'difficult to penetrate' but this book - from 1510, originally written in French, is now available in English for the first time. Much of it is concerned with popular cultural observations and advice on pregnancy and childbirth and is considered by this author to give a good insight into beliefs and customs surrounding such events - ever present, ever life-threatening - at that time.

I would highly recommend the Medievalists.net website in general, for anyone interested in the period. Their blog will keep you up to date on new books, articles and scholarly papers published on a vast range of topics and - as with the article on the book above, there is usually a link to a downloadable, more extensive exposition of the topic. There is also an excellent archive of articles on the site.  If you love anything about medieval times, sign up for updates today!

Anatomical Atlases and Multi-Layered Men

Arising from a shared image of an 'anatomical man' upon which my friend R is preparing an academic paper, I remembered that I had an old anatomical atlas ferreted away here amongst the shelves of books which might interest her...but I thought that it might also interest readers here - so here are a few images for you all to enjoy.

Difficult to scan because the pages are large and a bit fragile, and also rather stained (I have only given them a brief clean-up) I nevertheless am always amazed at the quality of 19th century colour lithography. I think these images are dated at around 1880 - but can't be sure until I have done more research on them, because there is no date included in the volume.

A fascinating example of a time when a medical illustration was also very much a work of art. No doubt more modern illustrators are still creating their own artworks...but to discover more, I will have to visit a medical museum such as the Wellcome Collection - or ask my clever friend. Thank you so much for sharing this image and prompting this post, R!

Additional information...after a little research, it appears that someone is selling an e-book of the atlas here (worth reading for a detailed description of the plates)...from which it appears that it is much older than I thought at first, being originally published in Paris in 1845.