What is this lovely book and how old is it?

March 21, 2023 1:20 PM

My mother found a book in Granada, Spain and it looks like this. I have some suspicions about it but don't want to add red herrings to an investigation when my ideas are truly just ignorant suppositions. There is *no* copyright page. The book itself is quite delicate and I am hesitant to open and play with it more because of how it is arranged (see images). Any ideas/concrete information would be appreciated.
posted by jpziller to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

I kinda doubt that's an antique (with a translation into Japanese?). I'm not sure how much research you did yourself, but just in case, it's a colorised cutout of this engraving. The Carmen Thyssen museum in Malaga had an exhibition in 2018 about Doré in "Romantic Andalucia" (see tweet). I find it conceivable that this would've been for sale in the museum shop.
posted by ClarissaWAM at 1:45 PM on March 21, 2023

I've spoken to a Spanish friend who says it looks like a gift shop item. They also told me that they had 'books like that in the 70s or 80s'. Maybe retro throwback styling from the junta de andalucia?

There is only *one* image in the book that is *not* attributed to Doré (a 'Whymper', certainly not a bang).

Without a copyright page I'm not sure I can mark a 'correct answer' but I'm nearly certain it is a gift shop thingy from that exhibit.
posted by jpziller at 2:39 PM on March 21, 2023

Definitely looks like a gift shop book. The font looks modern, I'd guess a few years old.
posted by Sebmojo at 5:15 PM on March 21, 2023

The font is just Futura, one of the two or three most common fonts of the twentieth century. The italic seems to Garamond-esque. Neither dates the book to anything more specific than post-1930. I agree that it’s probably recent, but I can’t prove it.
posted by kevinbelt at 5:21 PM on March 21, 2023