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When did you last receive of bouquet of flowers from an admirer? Recently, I hope. But did you take a really close look at the kinds of flowers that came? Perhaps not. A century ago - back in Victorian and Edwardian times - the gift of flowers was loaded with hidden meaning. They had a language all of their own. At the tail end of the nineteen century and into the early twentieth century people really did ‘say it with flowers’, and the wrong choice of species could land you in serious trouble. No refined lady could afford to be without the latest edition of that indispensable manual of floral etiquette in polite society, The Language of Flowers. This copy belonged to my grandmother. Each different species of flower conveyed a powerful message and arrival of the florist at the door would see the lady of the house flicking through the pages of the manual, decoding the bouquet. A camellia sent as a compliment symbolised 'perfect loveliness', while a pot of basil was a declaration of 'hatred'. The layout of the book was simple and convenient. The first half contained a list of flowers with their meaning, the second half a list of sentiments and the flowers that expressed them. With successive editions the meanings were sometimes changed a little, which might have made these floral conversations a little tricky if you didn't remain au fait with the latest flowery language. Botanically speaking, a burgeoning relationship might go something like this. Smitten by desire, a young suitor might send the girl of his dreams a single Coreopsis bloom, a declaration of 'love at first sight'. He’d be hoping for the return of a daisy, meaning ‘I share your sentiments’. Most often, I suspect, the lady would have been more circumspect. She might want to reassure herself first that her suitor was well-heeled, and despatch a kingcup (‘desire of riches’). Recognising he’d hooked a gold-digger, he might respond with a scarlet poppy ( promising ‘fantastic extravagance’), unless he was hard up, in which case vernal grass (‘poor but happy’) would be the reply. If that was the case then a mesembryanthemum (‘your looks freeze me’) would leave him in no doubt that further advances would be to no avail until he'd made his fortune. It might all end there, but perhaps pride and outrage would trigger one final exchange of floral abuse. The swift despatch of pasque flowers (‘you have no charms’) from him, followed by Scotch thistle (‘retaliation’) and tansy (‘I declare war against you’) from her might open hostilities. If they really wanted to be abusive the spurned suitor might send the florist staggering up the garden path under the weight of a water melon (hinting at a tendency towards ‘bulkiness’ in the addressee). Or perhaps his initial advances might be more successful. The opening exchange of coreopsis and daisies might escalate into something decidedly steamier. Pressing home his early success with orange blossom (‘your purity equals your loveliness’) might trigger a reply of a peony (‘bashfulness’) and marjoram (‘blushes’). Time for a bit more flattery with a damask rose (alluding to her ‘brilliant complexion’), in the hope that peach blossom (‘I am your captive’) might coming winging back through the post. If it did, he might risk despatching tuberose (hinting at ‘dangerous pleasures’), keeping his fingers crossed that the reply would be an African marigold (admonishing him for his ‘vulgar mind’) – a sort of Victorian “Ooooo! You are awful” – and not a dried white rose (indicating that ‘death is preferable to loss of innocence’). If the African marigold arrived the swift despatch of a cuckoo pint (an unequivocal symbol of ‘ardour’) would leave her in no doubt as to what he had in mind, so she could safely despatch a white ditanny flower (hinting at ‘passion’), confirming her willingness to live dangerously . But by then all those visits to the florist would have set the servants’ tongues wagging. A Cobaea bloom (warning of ‘gossip’) would set alarm bells clanging and would call for the despatch of mandrake (as an expression of ‘horror’) in return. A hellebore bloom (symbolising a whiff of ‘scandal’) would break the bad news that this wild botanical courtship had become talk of the town, so finally the suitor must be forced to do the decent thing and - pausing briefly to contemplate the folly of loose floral talk and the effect on his bank balance before he let his letter slide into the postbox – despatch a lime leaf ('marriage'). No wonder Victorian courtships were such drawn out affairs, if lovers had to scour gardens, florists and the countryside to find just the right flowers to convey their feelings. Where could you get a red columbine in January, if you wanted to tell your betrothed that you were ‘trembling with anxiety’? How inconvenient (and ecologically irresponsible) to have to scour the countryside for a frog orchid to convey your ‘disgust’ at their conduct. The Language of Flowers must surely be the most impractical form of communication ever devised...... but this genteel form of dialogue was infinitely more romantic than the modern text message - and often fragrant too. Maybe there is still someone out there who respects the old niceties of polite society. So keep a daisy to hand, just in case you receive an unexpected twig of spindle tree (‘your charms are engraved on my heart’) or a pineapple (‘you are perfect’). But if you do decide to respond, better get hold of a copy of The Language of Flowers first. There’s no telling where this botanical banter might lead. The fly-leaf of my grandmother's copy bears this inscription: To Miss Nancy Fox, with every good wish from Mr. John Smith, 21st.August 1920 and it bears a cut-out picture of a pansy, which conveyed the message 'You Occupy my Thoughts'. At first sight that's a little odd, because she didn't marry a John Smith. So was this a rejected suitor? I suspect not. John Smith is not a very convincing name, is it? I suspect it was my grandad, Harry. At that time he had recently returned as a wounded soldier from the Great War. She was a young teenager, employed by a local nursery to hand-write invoices, on account of her love of flowers and beautiful script handwriting - the only school qualification she had. This might have been his first advance, in which he thought it proper to conceal his real identify, hoping that his gift would be the start of a floral courtship. We'll never know for sure, but she kept this little book until the day she died.

nearlya: cinoh: reclusive-genius: rhea137:reblololo:eyeballmansion:crashinglybeautiful:yama-bato:Book of Iconography Nepal, Himalayas 1575-1600

When I was homeschooling our kids for those incredible eleven years I helped bring very old out-of-print books back to life by typing page after page of these wonderful texts so they could be formatted in an easily downloadable format. Technology has updated a lot in the past five or six years and what was once a long process is now much quicker, so more and more public domain vintage books are available online for all of us to enjoy and glean from. Books written to children 'back in the day' are comparable to many modern books written to adults - the vocabulary back then was wonderful, which is why I read books that were hundreds of years old to my children for two hours every afternoon until they were 15 or 16. My younger son's particular favourite was the original Robinson Crusoe from 1719, but he was also a Jules Verne and Captain Marryat fan. I thought you might like to take advantage of a couple of free books I've recently found that are specifically for sewing and embroidery? Like this gem which I found to be delightful! It's written for children and is full of black and white hand drawn illustrations, so if you're new to sewing (and even if you're not) you'll find it overflowing with how-to's. The Mary Francis Sewing Book can be downloaded HERE Another wonderful book is The Little Girl's Sewing Book. This is a Project Gutenberg book and has black and white photographs throughout to teach you visually as well as by written instruction. This book is HERE to download or read online... There is also 99 Embroidery Stitches available to download HERE... Enjoy these books. I think we can all learn something new from them, and besides, what's nicer than a sensible children's book about our favourite craft? Especially when served with a pot of tea and a rock cake or two... bless you, Don't miss out on any Elefantz news or free patterns. Subscribe to my blog posts HERE and receive them direct to your email inbox. Or sign up HERE for my free newsletter which often has extra benefits, freebies & tutorials!

A Trip to Fairy Land. Written by Mr. Conkey's 10-year old daughter (as per Publishers' Weekly, September 23, 1905). Illustration by Will Carquelle. W. B. Conkey Company, Chicago, 1905. First...

Out of a collection of some 130 items, nine (9) items are presented online in this section. Relevant items found in other parts of the total Schoyen Collection are also highlighted.

I can't believe that White Wednesday is here again already. The days just seem to fly by anymore and I am getting farther and farther b...

Les Chansons de Bilitis, Pierre Louÿs (1884) Illustrations by Willy Pogany

Adelaïde Claxton - 1860-70 - Alice au Pays des merveilles J'ai su lire avant cinq ans. Je ne suis pas un prodige; à l'époque, c'était courant ! Pourtant, longtemps , je me suis couchée de bonne heure, je me suis montrée paresseuse et réclamais à qui...

FYI! This is a smaller illustration, and is prized accordingly. Beautiful! From an antique childrens book. The illustration would be amazing framed, but can also be used in your scrap-booking, paper crafts, jewelry making, whatever strikes your fancy! Ready for you to print out! Total print size- 3.85" x 5" You are purchasing an incredibly sharp, clear, digital image scanned at a high resolution, 300dpi in jpg form. Once payment is received, you will be able to INSTANTLY DOWNLOAD THE IMAGE. Our images can fit on 8.5 x 11 paper. **THE ANNOYING WATERMARK WILL NOT APPEAR ON YOUR DOWNLOAD** What fabulous things can you create? Announcements, Invitations, and place cards, (think wedding, engagements, baby!) Paper Arts: Jewelry: Used on transfers: Print and Frame For: Greeting cards Earrings Tee-shirts Baby's Nursery Stationery Bracelets Tote bags Child's Room Bookmarks Necklaces Pillows Wall Decor Gift tags Napkins Scrap-booking Dish towels Altered Art Ribbons Card Making And any magical thing your artistic bent can create! The Fine Print (No pun intended) Do's Do make fantastico art with our digital delights! Don'ts Do not use our images in digital collage sheets, resell them, reproduce them in a compilation cd for resale, or share them with buddies. We and our little elves work tirelessly to ferret out special pieces of paper ephemera, which we then scan and restore to perfection for the discerning creative customer. Taking our work and reselling or redistributing is not only bad form, it angers our little pals. And you don't want to make an elf mad! So please refrain from practices that you would not want done to your artwork. Thank you!

This illustration is from the public domain book, The Book of Knowledge, The Children’s Encyclopedia, Edited by Arthur Mee and Holland Thompson, Ph. D., Vol II, Copyright 1912, The Grolier Society of New York. The original copyright for these books was 1899. This is page 569, "Little Verses for Very Little People"

Need help identifying what decor style you like? Here are 9 of the major interior design styles explained! Learn the defining elements of each style.

[Hans Christian] Andersen's Ausgewählte Märchen Deutsch von Julius Reuscher Illustriert von Ludwig Richter, Paul Thumann, Theodor Hosemann und Oskar Pletsch. Verlag Ernst Julius Günter Nachf. (Leipzig / Deutschland; 13. Aufl., 1880) 224 S.

The Fanny Cory Mother Goose. Mother Goose Rhymes and Jingles with Illustrations by Fanny Y. Cory. Published by The Bobbs Merrill Company, 1913. Fanny Young Cory (1877– 1972) was an artist and...

"Your handwriting. The way you walk. Which china pattern you choose. It's all giving you away. Everything you do shows your hand. Everything is a self-portrait. Everything is a diary." ~Chuck Palahniuk, Diary I found the prettiest blog the other day! Everything about it is, in one word, BEAUTIFUL. Even it's name is lovely: Sense and Sensibility. It is a tumblr scrapbook created by Sara to showcase everything and anything beautiful and inspiring. I love the color scheme and the pretty lace background to say nothing of the plethora of gorgeous photos and quotes you will find there! The quote above is 'borrowed' from this blog and I just love it! I think that it is very true - that we translate ourselves into our actions and the things that we choose to surround ourselves with. Who we are is a combination of so many things! I hope you enjoy browsing through this fantastic blog! Have a lovely weekend!

Folksy made mention of this so I’m passing it on – the Richard Rutt Collection, held at the Winchester School of Art is now on-line. An amazing collection of nineteenth century knitting…

xi, 115 p., [8] leaves of plates : 15 cm

Following some simple tutorials, you may still have enough time to create a heart-shaped book today. However, these books are not a modern invention. And some of them required a lot of effort and skill invested to be made. There are two main approaches to heart-shaped books. The easier one, and, coincidentally, the oldest, is to make an almond-shaped (or pear-shaped) book that takes the shape of a heart when opened. The other approach is to create a book with cordiform pages and covers, and it takes a bit more perseverance to prepare the paper for it. You will find a simple video tutorial for the latter at the end of this post. By the way, the oldest known depiction of a heart in the context of affection followed an anatomically correct way of drawing that vital organ. At least as anatomically correct as medieval people have known it. Throughout the 13th century, the heart was drawn in a similar pear-shaped form. Well-known to our contemporaries form started to evolve in the 14th centuries and was fixed in the 15th century after it started being massively used on playing cards. There is no consensus on the origin of the shape and its relation to affection and love. Multiple suggestions range from connections with ancient ornamental forms to the shape of the seed of the silphium plant, used in ancient times as an herbal contraceptive, and stylized depictions of features of the human female body. French Heart-Shaped Book, 15th century French Heart-Shaped Book, 15th century The Heart Book is regarded as the oldest Danish ballad manuscript. It is a collection of 83 love ballads compiled in the beginning of the 1550’s in the circle of the Court of King Christian III The Heart Book is regarded as the oldest Danish ballad manuscript. It is a collection of 83 love ballads compiled in the beginning of the 1550’s in the circle of the Court of King Christian III The Chansonniere de Jean de Montchenu dates from about 1470 and is a book of songs in French and Italian The earliest known examples of European heart-shaped were made in the late 15th century or later. They usually contained love ballads or religious texts. Like The Heart Book (Hjertebogen), a pear-shaped book that is supposed to be the oldest Danish ballad manuscript. It is a collection of 83 love ballads compiled at the beginning of the 1550s in the circle of the Court of King Christian III. Or the Chansonniere de Jean de Montchenu that dates from about 1470 and is a book of songs in French and Italian with a more familiar to us form of heart. Young Man Holding a Book – Master of the View of Sainte Gudule, ca. 1480 Modern Heart-Shaped Books Here are some modern takes on the heart-shaped books. As you may see, both forms (cordiform and pear-shaped) are in use. View this post on Instagram A post shared by HARU (@haruencuaderna) As you may see, they could be made with all kinds of different materials and all styles of binding. Or you may choose to make a miniature book devoted to the shape of the heart: Tutorials Here is our YouTube playlist dedicated to the heart-shape in bookbinding. It includes a simple bookbinding tutorial, book folding instructions, and more: A Bit of Macabre And to return to the origins, here is a modern take on the heart’s shape in bookbinding. It is not about love at all, the book inside of this enclosure is a limited edition, a red morocco-bound copy of Jack the Ripper: A Bloody Alphabet. It is housed in a papier-mâché human heart-shaped box. Binding and enclosure by Sean E. Richards from Byzantium Studios, Ltd. Read More The Hearts of Bookbinding – American Bookbinders Museum The Book of Hours of Amiens Nicolas Blairie – Medium Aevum The Chansonnier Cordiforme – Medium Aevum Young Man Holding a Book – Medium Aevum The Heart Book – Det Kongelige Bibliotek Rare Book Week West: A Bloody Alphabet – Fine Books & Collections Please Support us on Patreon! The minimum level of contribution is only $1 per month. Pledges received from our patrons cover the editing services for our bookish podcast! Moreover, starting with the pledge level of $3, you will get a digitized vintage book about bookbinding, book history, or book arts each month from us! These pledges help iBookBinding to continue its work and bring more information about bookbinding and book arts to you! Share this page:

One of my treasured books~ "A Little Princess" My copy has an inscription dated 1919 from an aunt to her niece. Written in 1905 by Frances Hodgson Burnett and illustrated by Ethel Franklin Betts Ethel Franklin Betts [American Golden Age illustrator 1878-1956] Betts was the daughter of a physician, and the sister of the illustrator Anna Whelan Betts. Both sisters studied at respected universities and with the noted illustrator Howard Pyle. ______ My scan and digital restoration

Victoria and Albert Museum - British Galleries

64 p. 23 cm