BOOKMARKS: Promotional bookmarks are widespread. Libraries are good places to find them. Many have attractive artwork. My collection includes one publicising the on-line Aberdeen Built Ships Project with three historic images; one for Alyth Museum with old photos and map; a simple, striking design for the Ballads of the Book project; and a calendar. Maybe there's material for a future Antiques Roadshow?
POSTCARDS: Postcard collecting is deltiology so this is deltigratisology. But it's not the "Weather is here, wish your were nice" variety. It's promotional postcards. Some of them are proper postable cards. The National Archives have recently issued
a high-quality A5 series relating to migration into Britain. There are poetry cards issued each year for National Poetry Day. I picked up last month a series of historical fiction book covers (designed as voting cards for your favourite historical novel). Edinburgh at fest time is a collector's paradise.
SHELLS: Don't shell out to she who sells sea-shells on the sea shore – she shall not sell sea-shells to the free-collector. Arrange your shells artfully so you can read off the names as a list-poem and savour the litany of wonderful names: eg blue-rayed limpet, painted topshell, thick-lipped dog whelk, prickly cockle, common wentletrap.
MAPS: Free maps? Yes, so many you'll have to specialise. Town and city maps, transport maps, leisure maps, forest maps, every conceivable kind of tourist map. They're colourful and informative; many are works of art. You can use them as posters, or as wallpaper; to recollect or plan trips. They're all you need to travel in your chair and your mind, without the disappointment and expense of the real thing.
FEATHERS: Birds drop them: pteronopholists pick them up. Plucking may be considered fowl play. Feathers come in all the colours of the spectrum. Identify which avians are the shedders and moulters from birdy books; learn to tell your vane from your shaft, your barb from your barbule and barbicel. Follow that bird and feather your … loose-leaf feather-folder.
The full article contains 342 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
