A Plug for My Favorite Store Ever

Hi, everybody. I didn't post yesterday and it's bothering me, because I did a ton of research at the library yesterday. I have a lot of awesome information, I'm just having trouble putting it into anything coherent. But I'm working on it.


Today I want to put in a plug for my favorite store, Skyland Antique Mall. If you live in Tuscaloosa and you have not visited it, shame on you. I racked up today. To entice you (and to brag a little), I'll tell you what I got. I spent almost exactly forty dollars, which is more than I meant to, but I always get my money's worth out of what I buy.

• A sterling silver 1940s hairbrush. (I would gladly have also bought the old lady to whom it belonged, but I don't think she was for sale.)
• A set of 1951 baseball statistics cards for my little brother.
• Two 1946 issues of Good Housekeeping. The ads are fantastic.
• A 1923 music book for children. It's in great condition and has gorgeous illustrations.
• Set of five vintage scripts from the '40s and '50s. Mister Roberts, Period of Adjustment, Detective Story, Ondine, and Inherit the Wind.
• A 1924 Rand McNally pocket atlas of Alabama. It's in mint condition, which is really unusual. Paper ephemera (programs, postcards, anything not meant to be kept for a long period of time) is rarely in such good condition.
• An 1893 hardback children's guide to the Chicago World's Fair. It's not in great shape, but it looks really fascinating.
• A 1924 issue of The American Magazine. It's from the height of the Jazz Age, so the illustrations are amazing. The ads are gorgeous, and the cover is the best of my collection. It's a flapper holding a cute puppy. I'll have to post a picture sometime, I can't find one online.
• I got four 1940-41 issues of Children's Activities magazine which seems to be an early form of Highlights Magazine.
• A box of vintage buttons for Hannah, there were even a few Bakelite ones in there.
• A mother/daughter set of vintage buttons, still on the cards, also for Hannah.
• But I think the highlight of my day was finding a package of three French books. One was a 1970 French reader, nothing special. The other two were an 1847 Spanish textbook, but from France, and an 1827 book of French plays. The '47 book is in great condition. The spine is beautifully gilded. The covers and fly leaves are hand-marbled. The 1827 volume is a little more worse for wear, but still in -VG condition. The outer spine is gone, only a fragment remains to show the beautiful gilt and there's quite a bit of edge wear. But the boards, flyleaves, and edges are marbled. I paid three dollars. THREE DOLLARS. 

Also, in my article about book collecting, I talked about uncut books. I saw one for the first time today. I don't know if they're all like this, but the edges that you have to cut are on the top. I guess that makes sense when you think about the fact that at one time printers would fold a large piece of paper into fourths to make pages. I also said uncut books were expensive; the one I saw was a mid-19th century history book in VG condition. Only about 50% of the pages were uncut. It was twenty or thirty dollars; that's not too bad, but more than a poor college student like me was willing to pay for a book I'd feel guilty about reading.

If you've never visited Skyland, you should. And if you want to invite me, feel free to! Goodnight, everybody!