Book Design: 100 years ago

Inscription on endpaper of book; Photo credit: Karen Thiessen, 2013

During the Thanksgiving weekend I attended a family gathering at the Mennonite Heritage Centre in Leamington. As I was leaving a box of discarded books free for the offering caught my eye. I took all but one. They were old and beautiful. Isn't this inscription beautiful? One hundred years ago penmanship was gorgeous.

Endpaper of book; Photo credit: Karen Thiessen, 2013

Back then, endpapers were marbled or patterned, as in the case of this book, which appears to be a book of German poetry, published in 1911. The cover of this slim volume is a non-descript green linen.

Old German book cover; Photo credit: Karen Thiessen, 2013

Isn't this book cover a thing of beauty? It belonged to my husband's late grandmother.

I took a break from my Adobe Illustrator practice this week. Natural dyeing is occupying my studio time and I'm taking advantage of the mild weather while we have it. Soon it'll be too cold to tend dye pots in our unheated garage.