Sunday, April 26, 2020

Things I Like #8


Once again, in a post inspired by, or stolen from, Mistress Maddie, here are some things I like that are around the house.


This is my favorite corner of the living room because it’s Carlos and me, and some friends, and some trips and some things my father gave me. The desk is Carlos’, brought from the family home in Mexico. It’s a small roll-top desk with little drawers and compartments and a desktop that pulls out for writing.


Above the desk is a photograph I bought at a winery in California many, many years ago. It’s a simple black-and-white photo of a window, with a shade drawn down and bent, stopping just short of the windowsill lined with broken glass. It seems so desolate and peaceful and as soon as I saw I, it was in my hands. 


This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it … oh, sorry. This accent light was a gift to me from some friends; I like that it looks like a flower and has a frog sitting on the handle. It’s whimsical, you know.


And finally, a gift from my Father. The Little Leather Library Collection that has been in my family’s homes for as long as I can remember. My parents bought the set when they lived in England after getting married, so they are older than me, Each book measures 3x4 inches and there are all sorts of stories; Shakespeare plays; essays on Lincoln; Poe poems; and these two …Uses of Great Men and As A Man Thinketh.


The Little Leather Library Corporation was conceived of by publisher brothers Charles and Albert Boni in about 1914. In 1916 they showed their prototype to ad men Harry Scherman and Maxwell Sackheim, who worked at J. Walter Thompson Company. Scherman suggested approaching the Whitman’s Candy Company of Philadelphia and proposed the “Library Package”, a box that would include a copy of a literary classic enclosed with Whitman's chocolates. Whitman’s Co. ordered a total of 15,000 copies of fifteen of Shakespeare's plays.


After the Whitman’s order came additional titles, sold by Woolworth's for ten cents each. In 1917, it is estimated Woolworth's ordered over 1 million copies of The Little Leather Library. That was when the collections began to be sold as a set, with twenty to thirty books in each set. In the first year, sixty titles were published, and one million were sold in a little over a year.

I have read some of them, and some I feel are a bit too delicate to open, but loving books as I do, I get a kick out of a ‘little’ collection.

And there you have a small corner of Casa Bob y Carlos.

11 comments:

  1. I love roll-top desks and have always wanted one. The accent lamp goes perfectly with it too!

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  2. LOVE the little froggy lamp!

    whitman's USED to be made in philly, but no longer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitman%27s

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  3. That accent light is superb!

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  4. The desk looks like great against that wall too. My mother has a Sheraton glass, that was my fathers grandparents. It too has a slide out desk top like that. I will own it one day, and won't let it part the family. I also love both those lamps.

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  5. Love the desk!
    I think the book collection is fantastic. So cool most of those things have been in your families forever.
    I also like the little light. A cute little touch.

    XOXO

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  6. I love your corners and I feel like I get to know you both better with each thing you share.

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  7. Love the little desk, make me want to sit down and write a letter. I have owned a few of the little leather books, never knew the story of them.

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  8. LOVE the photograph above the desk. Oh, yeah...it would've been in my hands, too.

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  9. I love old things. They seem to have a life of their own, some kind of sentience.

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  10. I love everything about this.

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