PDA

View Full Version : Vintage Correspondence



writingrav
July 10th, 2014, 06:53 PM
Last year one of my Incowrimo pals sent me a vintage letter written by a young woman away at school to her Mother in 1892. I was fascinated and have thought about collecting vintage correspondence since (not that I need something else to spend money on.) Last week I bought my first piece, a 1917 letter from a nurse to a woman informing her of the death of her husband on the front in WWI. Today I bought a letter from a sister to her brother in 1869. It is just a newsy letter not unlike those we write in Incowrimo. I am interested in the handwriting, the paper, the language and spelling (the last letter I mentioned though literate in every way does not use capitals at the beginning of a sentence) as well as postmarks and stamps. The 1892 letter, for example is postmarked on the front from the station where it was mailed and on the back from the station where it was received. Anyway, I thought I'd see if there were any others out there interested in this off-shoot of our pen hobby. Others who are already collectors who'd like to share their wisdom. Forgive me if this is just an odd idiosyncrasy on my part.

tiffanyhenschel
July 10th, 2014, 11:08 PM
Old correspondence is fascinating! If you go to the IAMPETH website www.iampeth.com, they have some samples of vintage letters, too.

ypsilanti
July 18th, 2014, 07:06 AM
I'm reading Simon Garfield's book To the Letter. He begins with his own story of purchasing the letters of magician Val Walker at auction. And in chapter eight, Letters for Sale, he tells a few tales about notable letter collectors and auctions.

Please keep us posted on your acquisitions! Sounds like fun.

scrivelry
July 18th, 2014, 07:20 AM
Letters are priceless in reconstructing how people actually lived and thought at given times. Even people who did not keep diaries or write anything else sometimes wrote letters. I think they are fascinating and maybe I should start collecting some myself...

writingrav
July 18th, 2014, 07:27 AM
I'm bidding on another one now that I'd like. I'll let you know.. I'll have to re- read those chapters in To The Letter.

VertOlive
July 21st, 2014, 08:34 PM
Just think: in a hundred years people will be bidding on "The Writingrav Collection"!

tiffanyhenschel
July 21st, 2014, 08:43 PM
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/07/22/u3uqa3ud.jpg

I got a kick out of this one that I found today in a local antique shop. The postmark is 1909. The writer says to "Hurry up and get well, and trot your little self to Amarillo: will look for you every day." Then she seems to add as an afterthought, "Tell Selina Bell Anderson to come with you, will feed you on potato soup and get you as fat as a pig."

writingrav
July 22nd, 2014, 07:21 AM
Just think: in a hundred years people will be bidding on "The Writingrav Collection"!
Haha. I seriously doubt it.

Morgaine
July 23rd, 2014, 07:17 AM
Imagine - bidding on a vintage collection of emails.....

writingrav
July 23rd, 2014, 02:39 PM
Imagine saving emails to begin with, though I have two friends who won't/can't write but who send wonderfully long emails that I print and save in my regular letter files.