Vintage Illustrations

 Happy Thursday!

 

This post started out as Wednesday's - I'm a little late so I'll get right to it...

 

Have I ever told you that one of my many loves is vintage children's books and, more specifically, the illustrations in vintage children's books ? If I haven't, consider yourself informed. There are many reasons to love them, they're: cute, imaginative, whimsical, and just fun.

  

 

Along with books, I've also collected vintage children's magazines - most of them published around the turn of the 20th century. They were often a mix of stories, puzzles, illustrations and moral anecdotes with a section in the back for advertisements.  

 

 

 

The images I've posted today are from a July, 1916 issue of a child's magazine. Six issues of the magazine were bound together in a hardback book that I found on eBay. For each set of images, the first is the 'raw' unedited version and the second is after it's been edited to remove spots and discoloration and anything else that happens to stuff that's been around for almost 100 years. Once they're edited, I'll be selling the illustrations in my etsy shop - I hope to have it opened this weekend.

Almost all of these books and magazines are falling apart in some manner; the paper is brittle and breaking, the binding staples are rusty, many of the pages are written on or missing. I'm so happy to be able to revive the illustrations and make them available for new people to appreciate and enjoy.

 

If I had little ones, I'd probably print and frame a lot of them. I also think they'd be so fun to color, turn into cards or invitations or, better yet - print several small enough to make a darling garland for one of your small friends (you know I love a garland!).

 

Stay tuned.

 

~ M ~