Wednesday mailbag

Well, we don't usually get enough mail here in Chancery Hill to need an actual mailbag, but often enough we do feel sorry for the mail carrier who ends up lugging around some of the things that get delivered here. Last week, for example, he brought me a copy of Henry Petrie's 1848 Monumenta Historica Britannica, weighing in at about fifteen pounds and standing about 16" tall. It's not the largest and heaviest book I've had, but nearly so.

1st communion souvenir, 1898.

Today, however, the load was lighter, with just two items. The smaller, about the size of a 3x5 index card, is a little manuscript item on vellum. It is a souvenir from a young person's first communion in 1898, and as I think the picture shows, it is written and illuminated in such a way as to be reminiscent of a medieval illuminated manuscript. The inks here are somewhat faded and worn, and I think there may be some discolored silver used, as well as gold.

The second item that was delivered today is forty years younger, but still more than eighty years old: not a true antique yet, but getting there. This is an 8x10 glossy promotional photo, showing The Ritz Brothers, in their 1938 feature film, Kentucky Moonshine. 

1938 Promo photo, to be reproduced in newspapers:
Kentucky Moonshine.

The Ritz Brothers never made it quite as big as the Marx brothers, but according to the brief Wikipedia plot summary for this film, they dress up as hillbillies in order to get discovered by a theatrical producer, presumably giving them a chance during the film to show off their singing, dancing, and comedy chops. 

Usually, the oddball stuff that comes in the mail is for me, but this promotional photo will probably end up being reproduced in Rosemary's forthcoming book on the figure of the "Mountaineer." 

And then, presumably, it will end up in one of our collections.