Vintage Catholic prayer books - let's see 'em if you've got 'em

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Tis_Bearself

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My husband gave me my Christmas gift today. It’s a vintage 1914 Vest Pocket Prayerbook, imprimatur by Cardinal Farley of New York. It most likely belonged to his Catholic grandfather or one of his Catholic great-uncles or aunts, and has been laying around in his Presbyterian parents’ attic for many decades till he found it while cleaning out their stuff. A really neat little book with all the prayers, Vespers, etc in English and Latin and still in pretty good shape for being 103 years old.

Do you have a nice old Catholic prayer book?
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Happily for me, but perhaps sadly for the owner, the inside looks like it was not used very much. The cover is made of some non-leather material that likely deteriorated on its own due to age and the temperature extremes in the attic. It’s possible that this belonged to a great-uncle who died at a young age in WWI, which could explain why it didn’t get much use before being put away.
 
Wow and you know the history behind it which makes it more awesome
 
I’m just impressed that my non-Catholic husband has enough knowledge of Catholicism to recognize that this was a Catholic prayer book and give it to me.
 
I know. “If you can’t produce a picture, it never happened.”

However, I’m a thousand miles from home, so trust me.

I have in my library* an Order of the Mass book from before Vatican II. It’s tattered and well used so I’m guessing it was printed well before, and in use for several years before the change. My grandfather kept it as a remembrance of a dear old priest.

“*” If you have a garden and a library, you have all you need. — Cicero 106-43 BC
(The Word of God is both my garden and my library.)
 
I have about 3 old prayerbooks that are all from around the 1950’s that my grandmother owned. I also have another old Catholic book from the early 1920’s that served as a Catholic family encyclopedia and the mother of the family that owned it recorded all the births, marriages, and deaths of her family. It’s actually very sad reading the dates since she recorded the death of one of her sons and her husband. I love old Catholic books; they’re like little treasures from the past.
 
I still have the little white prayer book that was given me on my First Communion in the 1960s. I also have my parents’ Imitation of Christ that probably dates from the 1940s.
In the Eucharistic Chapel at Church there’s a book case, and some older parishioners have left their venerable Bibles and spiritual books there. Many have deteriorating covers of that fake (?) or cheap leather, like yours.
 
Limoncello4021 said:
that fake (?) or cheap leather, like yours.
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It’s definitely fake. I had another old Bible I inherited and had to have a Bible repair place rebind it with an entirely new leather cover because the faux leather that is actually some type of cloth over cardboard had completely eroded away into powder.
 
My parents were Catholic converts.

That being said, I have a very old prayer book that I thought was a Bible, but a friend of mine who is more proficient in German than I am, took a look at it, and told me that it’s actually a prayer book, and not a Bible. He was Lutheran.

It’s printed in German, and not in English.

It belonged to my maternal Great-grandfather. It is over one hundred years old, and it’s in good condition. My Great Aunt had it. He probably brought it with him when he came to America from Europe.

My maternal Gramma gave me my Grandfather’s Bible as a confirmation gift. It’s quite old by now, as it was old at the time that she gave it to me, too. I treasure it. He was also Lutheran.
 
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While they are very special to some of us, very few are so special that they should be in a museum.

There is a great myth that old = valuable.

I have a stack of them in my room, another at work, amazing how many people just throw them out.
 
Very nice.
I’m still on the lookout for a nice vintage Little Office of the BVM. I haven’t found one I liked yet.
The recent cheap reprints of the old Latin-English editions changed the layout and typeface to be unrecognizable 😦
 
I would go with black Shagreen if you decide in having the book rebind. Gold engraving of IHS anagram on front should be an option at some restoration providers. Cotton thread used in stitching is probably still good and flexible, can probably be left as is. Paper does no appear to have the traces of acid PH, that is common in books from that period. Having the edges cut is best avoided if possible when not necessary. In determining provenance, since it is part of your family heritage, interviewing your in-laws about the origin of the containings of that specific box in the attic might be your only chance, and provide a clear answer about the original owner.
Tis_Bearself said:
Little Office of the BVM
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Any century in particular?
 
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Once done with medical appointments, will post up a pic of a zippered case 1962 Missal that SIL gave me. And, not exactly a prayer book, but a 1914 copy of The Parables of the Gospel by German Jesuit Fr. Leopold Fonck. Also have a 1917(?) copy of James Cardinal Gibbons’ Faith of our Fathers.
 
adgloriam said:
Any century in particular?
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I really, really want this one. I’m pretty sure it’s been re-printed/ re-released, but the versions I’ve seen have been re-typeset to be “modern” and it looks just terrible.

I’d be willing to buy it from someone who simply reprinted the public domain copy exactly as shown in the Internet Archive digitized version, if it was legible.

 
I think you should give her a rebinding!

Also, I own no old prayer books 😦 My oldest book is a vintage 1949 Douay-Confraternity Bible.
 
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I’ll probably hold off for now as I don’t plan on giving the book heavy use and the cover is still about 80 percent there, plus the internal sewing is good and tight.

The Bible I had rebound had the cover disintegrating entirely.
 
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