My boyfriend and I recently moved to Virginia from Miami, FL for work. The one thing that always annoyed me about Miami was the lack of history and culture. Well, lack of American culture anyway. So here in Virginia, thirty minutes from the nation’s capital, I’M IN HEAVEN! The architecture alone could take me a lifetime to appreciate. The families of the original settlers are still here! I met someone whose family sold their farmland off over the years (100+ acres!!) and have a town named after them. Best of all, not only do we NOT have to live in a stuffy high-rise condo that smells like old people and moth balls, but we’re going to buy a house with land! Actual land!! Like an acre or more! And a basement! Oh, how I’ve missed basements! 
So while looking for houses, I’ve been gathering furniture and décor whenever, wherever I find it. I’m going for a Victorian, primitive, shabby chic, I-don’t-know-what look with scientific gadgets, clocks and crackle-painted wood. Sounds weird, I guess; I’ll put some pictures up. So here is a find I’d like to share because I’m just super stoked about it and I love promoting art and artists of all types… It is always a shame when a good book is damaged, especially if it is an early edition or an antique. Etsy artists SteamBathFactory, BlackBaroque, and collageOrama, among others are using salvaged pages from ruined antique books as a unique background for prints ranging from Gray's anatomy engravings (the textbook, not the show), DaVinci sketches, and flying machines to Alice in Wonderland and sea monsters. There is even a print of an artichoke on an 1877 edition of Julius Caesar. Prices range from about $3-$10 per print, but paired with a shabby wooden frame, these works of art will become a focal point in any room for less than any other framed art that is worth looking at.
Aside: In ancient Greece, artichokes were attributed with the birthing of boys. For ancient Romans, artichokes are an aphrodisiac and a delicacy. For Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII, who held a globe artichoke rather than an orb or globe in a portrait painted with her second husband, Charles Brandon, the artichoke symbolized a downgrade in her status. Her first marriage, to French King Louis XII, designated her Queen of France, which she was referred to as until her death in 1533. Her title as Brandon’s wife was never acknowledged, as she had married beneath her. In her portrait, she holds the artichoke instead of a globe, as was typical in a coronation portrait, because her world, her reign, was much attenuated with the marriage to Brandon. It is much the same as the story of Zeus and Cynara, the beautiful girl who became the first artichoke. Now, hopefully, artichokes can be displayed in the homes of the daring and random facts can be disseminated.
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