Vintage Paper Ephemera (page 1 of 2)

Vintage French Ephemera Book Arts Boxes

November 6, 2021 / by Kelly

 

PLEASE NOTE: Boxes are currently on hiatus. Please email if you would like to be on a wait list for new boxes in June, 2025, or if you have any questions about buying vintage paper ephemera: kelly@bookandpaperarts.com

The last of the 2024 French Ephemera Bundle Boxes are here. Each parcel is filled with vintage French treasure to inspire your art journals, junk journals, collage, altered books, or other mixed-media work. Each box is curated by hand and is filled with hard-to-find handwritten paper, post cards, cabinet photos, and French brocante, all authentic and little pieces of mysteries and unfinished stories that have been waiting to be found. (I also add plenty of English and Welsh pieces, too. Because they are here. And I can.) To see still photos, scroll down.

While every box is different, each contains:

  • Vintage tin (distressed);
  • French, hand-addressed envelope;
  • 4 Vintage French Holy cards
  • 1 Mourning card
  • 1 Piece of Mourning Stationery With Black Borders
  • Vintage envelope and letter with black mourning border;
  • Three handwritten cartes postales;
  • Edition of La Mode Illlustrée, a womans fashion magazine dating from the 1870s to the 1880s. Four pages;
  • Copy of The Girl’s Own Paper circa 1880s;
  • Handwritten legal documents 2 pieces, (actes notaires), 1800s;
  • Selection of handwritten receipts, invoices, etc. [read more]
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Free Scans: Vintage Print, Text, Handwritten

August 15, 2021 / by Kelly

Painting, drawing, and collage-making on vintage text and handwritten pages is one of my favourite techniques in creating altered books and art journal pages. While I sell a lot of antique paper for book and journal arts and am lucky enough to have a big stash for my own work, I fully realise that it is not in everyone’s budget right now and that we are all at different stages and levels of our creating experience, so I also want to offer these free, high-res scans that you can print or use in digital collage. If you’re not sure how to use these with visual pieces, check out my Youtube video below.

Just click on any image to get a larger view. To grab it, right click and copy, then copy into an editing program such as Paint. (I actually use Word which is not meant for visual but what the heck, I know how to make it do what I want.) You may want to resize an image and make it smaller or larger, depending on what you want to make.

Happy making! Here’s the video with [read more]

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SOLD: Purple Rosary: Vintage French With Enamel Trim

August 8, 2021 / by Kelly

This is a vintage French rosary from the early 20th century. The beads are a deep purple stone and the crucifix and linking bead are trimmed with silver and purple enamel. The crucifix has the word “Lourdes” on the back, and the linking bead has a profile of Bernadette on one side and Bernadette at the grotto on the other. While this piece makes a unique devotional object, it can also be worn as a lovely piece of vintage French jewelry.

It measures 18″ (46cm) from end to end and the crucifix is 1.5″ (4cm). Cost is £65 with free worldwide shipping. To buy use the Buy It Now button below or contact me at [read more]

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SOLD: Altered Book: The Good Samaritan

June 11, 2021 / by Kelly

SOLD: My latest altered book is in a book of children’s Bible stories from 1915. It is a larger size than I usually get to work in and I really had fun with the larger format. Throughout I have used original 19th-century paper ephemera to create collage layouts before embellishing the pages with a variety of mark making. Here is the video flip through and below that are still photos. CLICK ON ANY PHOTO IN THE GALLERY TO SEE A LARGER VERSION.

This altered book is for sale. The cost is £145 (approximately $205 but please use currency converter for exact exchange rate). Worldwide shipping is £15. To buy use the Buy It Now button. You can also email me or contact me on Instagram via DM @bookandpaperarts.

(Click on any photo in the gallery to see a larger [read more]

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Vintage Ledgers: 19th Century Handwritten Books

May 21, 2021 / by Kelly

(NOTE: the first two of these ledgers have sold. Please scroll down to see the one still available.)

 

I recently acquired some charming, old, handwritten ledgers. As a rule, vintage ledgers are insanely heavy and almost impossible to ship. These, however, are nice, small sizes and relatively light. Scroll down to see all three.

(Please note, prices are given in GBP. Go here to get an exact conversion to your currency.

SOLD: First is a book with leather binding and brass clasp. It measures 6″ x 4″ (15.5cm x 10cm) and has 45 pages with handwritten accounts listings. Entries date from 1857 – 1871.

Cost is £55 plus £10 worldwide shipping. Buy It Now with button below or contact me here or DM on Instagram @book.and.paper.arts.

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SOLD: Ledge number 2 is quite literally a little, black book. It measures 6″ x 4″ (15.5cm x 10cm) and has 34 pages with handwritten accounts. Entries date from 1889 – 1893.

Cost is £45 and £10 worldwide shipping. Buy It Now with button below or contact me here or DM on Instagram @book.and.paper.arts.

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Ledger number three measures 8″ x 6.5″ (20.5cm x 17cm) and has 50 pages of handwritten accounts of grocery and haberdashery [read more]

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Free Downloads of Redouté Flowers

April 24, 2021 / by Kelly

I have a huge thing for the work of artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté. He was official court artist of Marie Antoinette (imagine putting that on your CV) and is considered one of the greatest botanical artists of all time. Today I have some high-res scans for you to download and print, or use in your digital collage work.

1. Click on any image to get a larger version.

2. Right click and copy.

3. Paste into an editing programme such as Paint. (I use Word which is not as good but I am used to it😁). You may want to size them down. Experiment and see what [read more]

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Vintage French Post Cards for Poisson d’Avril and Easter

March 28, 2021 / by Kelly

What’s with the French and 1 April, the day when school children go around pasting paper fish on the backs of the unsuspecting and yell “Poisson d’avril !”. No one knows for sure but there are plenty of adorable, probably not-entirely true theories behind the tradition.

One comes from the fact that back in the day the new year began around the first of April. That changed in 1564 when King Charles IX took France into the modern world by adopting the Gregorian calendar and a new year beginning with January. This caused understandable confusion and frustration. (Think about it. As it is, Daylight Savings Time throws me off for weeks. Imagine shifting a whole season.) The response was to jokingly continue to celebrate the beginning of the new year on 1 April with gag gifts of fake fish.

Okay, but why fish? It may have been connected to Lent which often fell about this time of year. Meat was forbidden and fish was a big treat, ergo giving someone a fake fish was hilarious. (Don’t ask me, I don’t understand pranks at the best of times.) It is more likely to be linked to the fact that fishing [read more]

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vintage bird

Altered Postcards With Vintage Birds

March 6, 2021 / by Kelly

These altered postcards are one of a kind miniatures. Each postcard dates from the early 1900s (circa 1902) and has that beautiful, old-world handwritten script. The birds are from an old Swiss field guide to birds, 1912. Each one has been hand-cut and added to the post card, then altered with charcoal and graphite for maximum pop. Each card measures 13cm x 7.5cm (5″ x 3″), and will come on a card that is from a 1920s French post card scrapbook. It is not fixed and can be removed and framed, if wished. Cost is £27 GBP with free worldwide shipping. To buy use the Buy It Now button UNDERNEATH the image that you want to purchase. If there any problems, please contact me by email.

Click on any image for a larger view:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Vintage Birds: Free Downloads for Your Pages

March 6, 2021 / by Kelly

One of the questions I am asked the most often is where do I get my bird images. Well, I do actively search them out and then some just find me but yes, I have a lot of birds. So here are a few to share and add to your collage, art journals, altered books, or other mixed media work. To use these, click on an image for a larger resolution, then right click and copy. You can then add it to an editing program such as Paint. (I use Word. Even though it is not a visual platform per se, I am used to it.) You may want to resize these, make them larger or smaller. Happy Making!

[read more]

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Vintage Women from The Girl’s Own Paper (1892): Downloads

January 24, 2021 / by Kelly

The Girl’s Own Paper was a periodical published in Britain from 1880 until 1956. I really enjoy the older versions for their plates and engravings that I use a lot in my altered books and art journals. They also have some writing that is as ridiculous as it is humourless: sanctimonious advice to young women about the quality of the verses, suggestions for becoming lace menders or lady’s maids, and serialised stories that were meant to be uplifting but today seem terrifying in their narrow expectation for the female half of the species.

Here are a few plates for you. Click on any image for a larger version then right click, copy, and put into an editing program. Paint is a good one although I also use Word (because I am used to it). Below is a video flipthrough of some of the prettier (and cheesier) selections from the book. Let me know if you have any questions and please get back to me and let me know what you [read more]

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