Monday, May 23, 2011

paper treasures: recent finds from the vintage paper fair

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i had a great time meeting up with fellow LWA member and penpal Anna L. and her husband at the vintage paper fair. It was Anna's first time at the fair and we took out time browsing through postcards and ephemera. sometimes it is hard to read the intricate cursive, decipher the muddled postmarks, carefully hold the tattered edge of a letter. we peered at match box labels, falling apart stamp albums and atlases. right now most of my precious finds are in a box, but i'd like to frame more of the envelopes - except with slanted walls of an attic room means it's kind of tricky.

i have more finds then this, but my camera ran out of battery when i was taking photos.

finds from the vintage paper fair

at one point i looked down on the floor and spotted treasure in the form of a box filled with tons of airmail envelopes. 25 cents each or 3 for 50 cents! the sleepy old gentleman laughed when he saw us immediately plop down on the floor. i began shuffling the pile frantically. anna almost couldn't keep up with me, but i know she had lots of good finds, too.

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in the end, we had a great time at the show and met up with Jennie H. of Good Mail Day Book & Red Letter Day Zine for coffee and waffle sandwiches at Dash Cafe. We played show and tell with our finds and it was a good beginning after a long semester at school.

i've also written a short blog post at the Letter Writers Alliance blog about my experiences at the SF Vintage Paper Fair. Check it out here

3 comments:

Galina said...

beautiful envelopes!
and the treasure of the handwritten letters! awww

Carole Reid said...

Fabulous finds! I am very jealous!

Anonymous said...

You were brutal. I still need to unpack and photograph my haul but somehow it seems so small compared to what you show in your photos. Now I know to just grab stuff out of your hands and put them in my piles!