Always good as a conversation starter…the things people leave in books that are not traditional bookmarks. Thousands of dollars, a Christmas card signed by Frank Baum, a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card, a marriage certificate from 1879, a baby’s tooth, a diamond ring and a handwritten poem by Irish writer Katharine Tynan Hickson are just some of the stranger objects discovered by booksellers. And then there’s the strip of bacon.
Abebooks has a listing of these items…some mundane, some bizarre, some deeply personal. What have you found?
you saw the condoms in the library book story, right?
19th century condoms found in medieval medical book
“Two condoms found inside a 16th century medical manual have gone on display at Salamanca University’s General History Library.
Made from pork tripe and with a blue string at the open end to minimise spillage, they were actually found inside a newspaper dating from 1857, and probably left behind by a medical student.”