Vintage Cabinet Cards, Photo Albums and artworks

 Most of us love to collect the things we relate to as an aid in

(photo saved from a house fire!)

 inspiring us in our creative works and just because we love them

 and these are some of my treasures sitting on our living room shelves

 and antique dressers

(purchased and gifted)

which I have used to create some works like these

and 

and

(a few of my fabric and paper journals here)

and some have also been gifted such as this

gorgeous Victorian collage

and

a beautiful garden angel and lace heart behind.

It's not everyday that a friend offers you the chance to purchase

two beautiful vintage photo albums.  These two particular

albums belonged to my friend, Glenda's, grandmother

and

as she has no children to hand them down to

she offered them to me

as 

she knew how much I enjoyed using these cabinet cards

in my projects.

 I think they are from the late 1900's and this one

is quite large.  I will share the photos of this one at some later stage.

Such a beautiful brass closure

on this one

 and this is the second smaller one.

 The tooling on this smaller leather one is also amazing

with its brass closure.

and just look at the gilt bevelled edged pages so thick and strong.

 These are just a few of the pages and photos it contains.

It is not just the Victorian history behind these beautiful cards - it is also 

the amazing garments, their textures of silk, satin and velvets these folk wore

as well as the exceptional quality

of the card and paper

which was used to create these albums.

 These albums were made to last - not just one lifetime but several

if they are looked after!

I consider myself very very lucky now being the owner of these two

magnificent leather bound photograph albums which I will treasure

in their original torn,

slightly tattered and stained form.

I'm getting closer to the time when I can sit and blog

and create again in my favourite room -

dare I say almost!

So thank you all dear blogging friends for continuing to visit during

my long absence of recovery.

I appreciate you all so very much and hope to be visiting you again before long.

Love and hugs,
Suzy xox