Marches aux puces in Paris bring always surprises. Last time I found a collection of almanacs with the tittle Almanach Hachette. Two seconds after having one of them in my hands I knew it was the book of the year. What an amazing discovery! They are not only almanac but also a encyclopedia and a useful guide for life. I bought two (1899 and 1935).
I could say it's one of the best books I've ever seen.
They talk about everything, from beards style to chances to be married depending of the age. Also sky maps or military ships in those days. The illustrations and aged paper add the perfect style for these jewels.
Take into consideration each illustration, each face and each detail was made manually with each own metal model in order to apply ink and print it.
My first idea was use the pages for scrapbooking but now I feel like a crime if I hand the scissors and destroy such an artwork.
By the way, one point is clear: The quality of these kind of things decreases with time. You can see how year after year the style, quality and dedication are a little less. Nowadays, when all is under the productive and profit way of do things, these books are lost. No time for passion, just fast and low quality productions for mass.
After long time setting up the pages and testing, The Orange Manuscript is ready. A facsimile compiling 120 selected pages of the notebooks written during the last years.
