Armchair Dreaming

I often wished that Norman Rockwell would have painted more historical, or even fanciful artwork, more in the vein of Mucha. Ah well—but he did offer hints of what that would look like. This Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover is dated late winter, but its content might as well be for gathering autumn.

Armchair dreaming in front of the fire is a lovely activity that I highly recommend.

The sparkling spoon atop the medicine bottle is a superb detail

Chivalry echoes deep throughout the ages, and these days is lost in the tumultuous banality of everyday life, but forever resides in quaint volumes waiting to be rediscovered by empathetic souls.

As a boy, I found the above old Saturday Evening Post at the bottom of a stack of meaningless ephemera, in a book shop. Then later that same day, in a different store, I found the quaint 1895 volume below tucked in a dark corner just waiting to be rediscovered—not identical to Rockwell's rendering of the book, but close enough to spark my youthful sense of wonder.

Such were the days of my youth.

Dusty Treasure

I've mentioned before how I have very fond memories of digging for treasure in the old dusty book and magazine stores of my youth. Old SatEvePosts with Norman Rockwell covers sold for 3 dollars. I had a hard time picking out 3 for the ten dollar bill I had in my pocket. Below was one of 'em. I idolized Rockwell in those days.