i look forward to going to the vintage paper fair in san francisco, it comes three times a year now, for 2 days each in january, may and august.
i love digging through the $1 or less table. the typical stuff i find is usually old letters, a mishmash of old booklets, maps, and it's a place where people carefully sift though boxes and boxes of postcards in various themes. i don't collect anything that seems too precious, though i covet tiny french dictionaries and beautiful storybooks like frank baum's oz books and scrapbooks from the 1800s. there's so much eye candy but i go for the cheap stuff - the used vintage envelopes, old photos and letters, cabinet cards and cigar labels.
most of my 'finds' yesterday were old airmail envelopes. i love the handwriting and the dash of postmarks, the assortment of stamps and some of them came with letters. most of them didn't but the decorated envelopes were enough of a treasure.
some of them are so lovely, i'm not sure if i can tear them apart for my art, maybe i will frame a few of my favorites.
