I just love estate sales, the thrill of the hunt, the absolute bargains and the glimpse of lives and stories that you may never know but are now connected to. I found a pair of illuminated Bibles (circa 1890s) in the basement of one home and thought, these will be great for a craft project. They are roughly 1,100 pages each, nearly five inches tall and filled with the most amazing illustrations, charts and study guides. One section of the book contained illustrations of all the plant and animal life mentioned in the Bible. The color pages were protected by thin sheets of tissue paper and I can't even begin to imagine the insane amount of time it must have taken to typeset this book without the technology we have today. It's all so fascinating.
Before you go yelling blasphemy about the further destruction of this beautiful book, time has taken its toll on them and the pages are so deteriorated they are practically falling apart at the touch. I'm going to scan in as many of the illustrations as I can and the rest will reused as craft material.
Even more engrossing about this find were the mementos found tucked between the pages of this gargantuan family Bible – funeral notices, news clippings, tin type photographs, pressed flowers and several locks of hair. The most heartbreaking thing I found was a poem about a childless home with a snippet of golden blonde hair and a small flower. I encourage you to click on these images for a better view, but especially the poem at the very bottom of this post. Absolutely heartbreaking.
