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"Music in the soul can be heard by the universe."-Lao Tzu, A curious find, And I've often wondered how did it all start? Who found out that nothing can capture a heart Like a melody can?, “Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.”, Books, I wanna be a toy at your birthday party Wind me up wind me up wind me up - let me go, Mythtery book, Not Pandoras, Turn my key
A while ago I purchased a huge old book, which looked a great deal like a ye olde bible (of which I have two); in fact, it was a Victorian photograph album named ‘The Seaside Album, published by J.C.M. Co Ltd, Berlin, Germany, 1894. The mechanism was made in France.
It’s in very bad shape, but I was called to give it a home and a home it has. However, this album has an unusual secret. I’ll show you it’s outer and innards.
It’s 9″ x 12″ and 3″ deep. Heavy too. Lovely embossing job.
From the side – the clasp is very strong, often they break on older books, the spine is another story sadly. It holds together in parts, but not completely.
The first page. All the illustrations will have been hand-painted and the colours are surprisingly bright considering the age.
Boats and blooms tend to be the theme.
But where are the photographs?! Well, there aren’t many of them, and the pages are so fragile I’ve been unable to remove any to look and see if any clues are on the back of them as of yet. They may be a random few that the seller chucked in at the last moment, then again they may all be related. They are all someone’s son and someone’s daughter though, they may be related to . . . you.
None of them look like they’re on holiday mind you.
I like this one the best; she’s holding onto a sword, all ‘Joan of Arc’ in pose. It looks like someone has tried to take the photo out many times and ended up dragging their fingernails down it whilst failing, either that or someone did so before the photo went in, in a fit of grief or fury perhaps. I like the halo effect.
Now here’s something unusual, for this book has a keyhole in the back of it!
It was sold to me as having no key. I still wanted it, of course, smiles. However, only yesterday, I was looking at the book and it fell from my hands onto the table with a bit of a crash, at which point a key fell out. It had been trapped by a small piece of wood inside.
So I put the key into the keyhole.
And I turned it, hearing a click, click, click, click as it went. And then this happened . . .
Rosie was panting in the background, but I think the tune comes across well enough.
Esme's Cloud 
What a magnificent find!! Every aspect of it is a story waiting to be told….😉
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Isn’t it Kris?! I agree and have no doubt the buggers will haunt me until I tell each and every one. Hahahahaha.
Esme winking back at Kris upon the Cloud
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How curious and lovely! Thank you for the unfolding Esme. Can you determine what the melody is?
Stay safe and well 🙏
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I know, finding the key was marvellous, and you’re very welcome! I don’t recognise the tune at all actually, I must edit the post to ask people tomorrow.
Esme sending positivity from upon the Cloud x
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They don’t make ’em like that anymore!
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They really don’t, which is a shame. That’s why we should preserve the oldies.
Esme Cloud and Pendantry agreeing that the oldies are oft the goodies
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Absolutely beautiful.
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I’m glad you think so. A bit of sunlight and intrigue to lift people I hope.
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It certainly is. Beautiful. A bubble machine… A clockwork bubble machine – even better! 😁
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It’s certainly a wind up job.
Hahahahahahaha.
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Wow!
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I thought of you when I was looking at it again John, after you said you like the giant bible with its ornate clasp. I love a good oddity.
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So, I get a 10% Finders fee, right?
But seriously, I’ve never heard of such a thing in a book. Have you had it appraised since the little discovery?
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Technically I bought it before I posted the photo of the giant bible you admired, but I picked it up again and found the key whilst thinking you’d enjoy a post about it, so you get two percent of half a sixpence! beams
I bought it for thirty squids, there are a few, but not many of them, and if in tip top condition it would be worth around £250 I’m told. Mine is worth around seventy squids now it has a key. But it could do with restoring really as the cover has fallen off and someone in their wisom decided to use glue (God only knows hwta kind) on the spine inside to hold it in place. I’d like to eventually donate it to some kind of museum, somewhere it will be cared for. I’m like that with all my books mind you, my will is several hundred pages long mentioning many of them, good luck execcutor! falls about.
The cover alone though . . .
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There is magic afoot. Dark magic. Magic as magic should be; threatening yet appeasing. Empty, once full of knowing smiles and diffident frowns, frames and ghostly music. Never look backwards; never close your eyes. I want your book Ms Esme of Ice-cream castles in the air. Regards, The Jealous Old Fool of Crumbling White Cliffs aka TJOFCWC in the days when he was, or perhaps was just wishing, he had been within the Cambridge Ring of Spies.
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Your acronym is so catchy sir. Hahahahahaha. I’d want it if you had it too, but you do have a mini South of France going on of which I am, as the kids say, ‘well gel’. It would make a good spy book! And it is magic. Do you recognise the tune? I have no idea what it is. Presumably something German, I should ask Bill as he’s my German expert. You’re my crumbling white cliffs of wordy prosemiester of course.
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I shall ask of George if he knows the music’s title. He works in so many genres it’s surprising sometimes just how much he knows whether they be old or recent. I have to admit, just looking at your post last evening had me thinking that there is a tragic tale wth a happy ending there. Most ‘odd’ things we stumble upon in life are of the collectable sort, yet sometimes, just sometimes one find oneself holding a fresh slice of pure magic. Well done. All the best, The Old Fool
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Thank you Mike, I’m glad that’s what you took from it all and just what I think about the tale too, and heaven knows we need a few happy endings lightening out days at present. x George, ah yes of course, he’s the music-man!
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Hallo an den eifersüchtigen alten Narr der bröckelnden weißen Klippen (DEANTBWK)!
Hello to the Jealous Old Fool of Crumbling White Cliffs (TJOFCWC)!
I share your thoughts about the shadow side of magic, the kind of disturbing stuff behind a OuiJa (YesYes) board perhaps. In this case, I believe that the unintentional discovery of the key to enchantment demonstrates that the book was eager to open this marvelous volume to Esme’s worldwide audience. I say “Thank you, kind Key!”
On the other hand, pinching the book just might bring a pinch of karma. 🙂
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Too true, Bill. Sometimes I wish the existence of all things were but a fiction. Sadly, ‘magic’ is nought but a beauty mark upon the face of fiction. Having said that, were it not for all that is factual, fiction would have died at birth. Esme’s book, akin to the doorway that was the looking glass of old, is one of those supernatural temptations. Instinct tells me it’s a time machine in disguise. Of course…and please don’t let on to Esme…I shall probably have to dig out the old swag bag and set about a covert robbery! Just stay hush, hush on that one.
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esme hiding in the shrubbery (cheeky spy that she is) looking very pleased but also getting a better alarm for the Cloud ladder
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A tome is a mere vowel removed from a time (machine — parenthetically speaking). Teme is a river in Wales, The River Thames (Temz?) is also in the UK, OK? … but now I fear that I’ve fallen into a rabbit hole behind the looking glass of old (and I’m getting old) … Is timing the key that opens the tome? …
Somewhere in Time, I hear there’s a way to travel to 1912…
Now to change the subject completely: Esme has installed a covertly new alarm, but I shall stay hush, hush on that one — or something 🙂
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Oooh Bill, you know all too well I’d have to slip this in now!
Hahahahahaha. Mike, this is the theme from a lovely old film called Somewhere in Time, a favourite of mine and Bill’s too, the piece is Rachmaninoff’s 18th variation on a theme of Paganini. It’s beautiful, have a listen, George might like it too.
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When it is a music box.
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Hahahahahahahaha. Succinct and to the point and you are the first to answer the actual question Mak!
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My weakness.
Mak waving happily back to the Cloud.
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What a find! Esme, you were destined to give this wonderful old book a home and a new lease on life. -claps in delight-
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It is and I was! I must post more of my collection of oddities and soddities, it’s a shame not to share them with the world. I wanted to do a more personal post outside of prose and poetry for a change.
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Please! I love old things. They’re like little doors into the past. 🙂
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Every book in our considerably well-tomed library hummed that melody — I use the word ‘appear’ with considerable license, perhaps. Under the terms of that license, I submit that each volume searched for lyrics from frontispiece to endpaper. Much magic intervened to gently jostle this volume
“…from (your) hands onto the table with a bit of a crash, at which point a key fell out.”
As Occam would certainly have razored.
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Hahahahaha, he would, the cheeky piece. Do you recognise the tune Bill? As I said to Mike (TJOFWCWC) you’re my German expert and it is likely to be a German piece being created there.
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I have been dropping all our massive tomes on the coffee table, so far not a single one has yielded a single key, a single note, or a single chord. Such is the nature of magie me thinks — a rare rubric of stunning device and stuff. My ears report that Rosie was panting the lyrics, I am quite certain that German emits the very chords, notes, and keys that we hear there — eine bestimmte hundähnliche Spracherei dahinter erkenne ich. 🙂
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I’ll be getting complaints at this rate. falls about
‘I recognize a certain dog-like language behind it’ – Translation. Hahahahahaha. She can play the harmonica too.
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I must admit to a pride of ownership behind my remark there, I wrote that comment in German and am chuffed as all-get-out that Google Translate did a bang-up job in translating my words into English. So glad that you enjoyed the remark and will now do a search ala Google for “esme rosie tequila champs youtube” 🙂
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Enjoy the dance!
Esme ashoeing Techkiller for James Beam as she likes him much better and is more fun at parties generally
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I believe it was designed to keep racy pictures of ladies of the night who work by the docks – hence seaside.
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Hello sailor. Racy eh? Hahahahahaha. Maybe so, though naturism is very popular in Germanany so it might have been full of non-smiling nudes for all we know.
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What a wonderful find! Thanks for sharing.
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You’re very welcome Ben! I missed this somehow, tsk, sorry.
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What an enchanting ting; I’ve never seen any tinkly ting like it.
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Isn’t it?! It’d be nice to get it restored one day, and pop all the Cloudy ancestors in there. Might cost as much as ‘The Book’ that though, so I’ll be an ancient esme by then.
Lovely to see you on here again Hairy Rod!
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I must have this volume. 5000 qwatloos! 🙂
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Ha! I only deal in sitting or standing toilets, so you’re out of luck Stolz.
Welcome to the Cloud.
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eyeing the enticing wall of toilets hmm, well I’ll need to re-inspect my inventory and get back to you
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In ventory, or laventory?! bows
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well, you know shuffling feet one can never have enough ersatz flower pots around. Hey — what the heck is this sticky stuff you gave me?
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It’s a sticky bun. Not to be confused with a bunny stick – slang for the baton rabbits use when applying to be majorettes. Sticky buns and lemon drizzle cake tend to be the fare here upon the Cloud. I tried out iced fingers once to see how they’d go down, but everything got out of hand; luckily the police only gave me a warning. Lessons were learned.
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glancing about for napkins oh.
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