Today I got to spend the afternoon with my daughter who is about to graduate from High School. She went with me to run an errand and we decided to make a lunch date out of it. After lunch and a little bonding we decided to stop at a thrift store that was close to the restaurant. My cute 18 year old daughter likes to go thrift shopping with me! 😊 She gets almost as excited as I do when we find a treasure at the thrift shop, yard sale or estate sale. And today we got lucky!! After finding some cheap movies and a few of The Office seasons we took a stroll over to the glass display cases to see what was there. There were some fun old and not so old items on display but I think we ended up with the oldest item there.
This book was in this bag so I wasn’t sure what it was but I was surely curious. So I asked the cute lady working there if she could open the display case for me. I pulled the book out and I could see right away why it was kept in the bag. It’s falling apart. So I carefully started to go through the pages to see what was on the inside.
I discovered a few pages had pictures glued to them and I found a flower that had been placed in the book to be pressed, I assumed. I also found the name of the book. The Plays of Philip Massinger with notes by W. Gifford. This is Philip Massinger
He was born in the late 1500’s and apparently his plays were rather popular back in his day. But this book is not as old as him. I found a few dates in the book leading me to believe this book was published in the mid 1800’s. 😮 There was also a signature in the book that was fading and turning brown. I couldn’t make out the name but…I found another clue! Yes I am a detective! 😉 On the inside of the cover of the book I found a small oval piece of paper that was also glued into the book with a name. A.V. Lesley M.D. New Castle, Del. So, back to the signature in the book…
It’s a match!!!! I know I’m a huge nerd!! 🤓 In more ways than one, but this is definitely one of them! But seriously who wouldn’t be excited about finding these little connections! And there’s more!! Thanks to google I found a tid bit of information about A.V. Lesley!! (Do you like all my -> !!!!! <- 😉) His full name is Allen Voorhees Lesley and he built a big old beautiful house in, that’s right, New Castle, Delaware. He built his house in 1855 and passed away in 1881.
Soooo if that is his signature in his book, and I tend to believe it is, this book is like 150 years old!!!! (More exclamation points) 🤗🤗🤗 (and some jazz hands)
As you can see I ended up buying the book. I don’t know what it is about finding something old and holding it in your hands but I feel like I’m touching a bit of history. This book has seen better days and I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do with it but I’m excited to own it. And all for $10!!!! You never know what you will find at the local thrift shop.
Do you thrift shop, yard sale or estate sale? What’s your favorite find? Please leave a comment below and tell me about it. And if you live close by let’s go shopping!! 😃 I’ll bring the exclamation points and jazz hands 🤗 !!
Thanks for taking a look at my blog. I really appreciate it!
Cindy
