Of course as a teacher and writer, husband Pieter did live with lots of books. The first book about Modern Mushroom Growing by Pieter J.C. Vedder got published in 1961, in the Dutch language. That yielded six editions, while Pieter was the Founder and Principal of the first and
only Practical Training College for mushroom growing; the only one in the world. It eventually got officially translated into six other languages. Pieter even got hold of an unofficial Chinese version, while visiting China; you can read more in my blog post about:
{Silk Embroidered Birds from China Trip}.
Both of us have, besides writing numerous articles for magazines, also been avid readers all our lives; that's the best available. At least, it is something that is deeply embedded into our Lifestyle!
So now we're back to the shelf where we left yesterday:
Same shelf, but to the right, where Pieter is in the spotlight now. Maartje my niece is to the left. The frog is not related to us, he came home with us from South Africa! The two oval frames are 925/000 silver from Spain by Isabel Cabanilla. The others are eBay finds, to fit some old photos; both in Sterling.
This is a rosewood pocket watch stand, holding my antique gold lapel watch and an antique French needle case in gold.
Here you can see the engraved M on the lapel pin.
A second lapel pin and the needle case again.
In México City when we went with our boss out for dinner with his good friends, we first went to the friends' home. There we both saw the very first ROSE TREE in our lives! Sure enough, we had no camera to capture that rare beauty. So what you see here, is actually from such a huge rose, which has grown into a tree! Very beautiful grain.
Okay, let's step back and look at our books in this open section. The top part holds crystal ware and below is also storage. Pieter once did smoke a pipe and so did his Dad, thus we have quite a collection on a teak pipe rack.
Behind those frames and pipes are leather books.
To the right is an entire section for books; all the way to the top.
Stepping back to the left, you now can see that the center section is holding crystal, silver ware, Delft blue and the last two open sections again hold books.
Our solid French oak wall unit could not hold all books for the living room.
Here is an oak Barrister book case from
Levenger for more books.
We have added a total of seven in our home!
On top of this Barrister book case you see our collection of antique inkwells and letter holder. Also a natural cherry pen case from Levenger. In it are our fountain pens and ballpoints, mostly
Mont Blanc.
Of course, there are still those books you need to have right next to your reading chair...
We actually have books in all seven languages. Keeps the mind young!
