Friday, November 28, 2008

Our Hearts Were Young And Gay - A Black Friday Steal!

You’ve gotta love that there was a time when this book title meant something completely different to how we read it now!

And that’s what this book is about, two friends, Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough, who dedicated the book ‘to our mothers.’ Published by Dymocks Sydney 1945 this is the 3rd edition of the 1944 book. So popular was this book that it was made into a movie! ‘This edition contains illustrations from the Paramount film of the same name with Diana Lynn as Kimbrough and Gail Russell as Skinner.’ The book tells of their adventures while travelling and has a note at the beginning ‘Lest the reader should be in any doubt, we wish to state that the incidents in this book are all true and the characters completely non-fictitious.’ Ah, those were the days.
The book has a rusty red bookcloth cover with printed black text on the cover and the spine (yes, the spine printing is upside down!). It is in reasonable condition but shows some wear.
The original endpapers had nothing special about them so I could remove them which give me a much greater range of options for adding things in the rebinding process. So now this book has these inclusions:

* 44 original pages scattered throughout, some with photos or illustrations
* 4 pages vintage sheet music with fold-ins
* 12 pages mixed exercise book pages with lines, guides and/or grids
* 4 pages vintage book pages, some with my Gocco print designs
* 8 pages of my Gocco test prints, various designs, overprints
* 28 pages Arches 185gsm rough coldpressed watercolour paper
* 20 pages Canson Montval 200gsm coldpressed watercolour paper
* 12 pages Art Spectrum 190gsm smooth Draw & Wash paper
* 4 pages Mont Marte watercolour paper
* 4 small pages Arches 200gsm smooth hotpressed watercolour pages, folded
* red ribbon closer
* natural coloured textured ricepaper endpages
* yellow and white striped headbands
And if that’s not enough, I’ve reinforced the spine to keep the book going another couple of decades! My rebound books make great sketchbooks or journals. I use high quality paper and archival bookbinders glue, pastes and materials. I allow each book to ‘tell’ me how it wants to be reborn so they are all very different.
And all my rebound books, including Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, are part of the Etsy Black Friday - Cyber Monday sale! 10% off! But the price will go back to normal on Tues Dec 2. Check my shop for more details and browse the rest of the great sellers at Etsy for bargains in this promotion.

1 comment:

Clare said...

Hi Jan, OOOOH I am so pissed off I missed out on this one......I adore it so!! ;o(