Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Just wanna go home...

I had too much trouble with Best Western's WiFi to do any posting, yesterday. Plus elephants moved into the room above me, so I didn't get much sleep. I'm now at a La Quinta by SeaTac and it's better.

This job is done and the books are packed and palletized and at the cargo carrier. And I'm so glad it's over. The packing, itself, was actually fun. These were illustrated books by Cruikshank and Rowlandson and others, who were like the "Doonesbury" commentators of their day (middle 19th Century). Some very brutal stuff in them, too.
Cruikshank loved to make fun of people -- not just the upper classes but the middle and lower, as well. No one was spared.
Rowlandson was along the same lines, but not quite as obnoxious about it. And both of them sold lithos of their works that were then hand-colored. It's amazing.

The owner spent years collecting these books, and it shows. I've seen similar works by these artists at Heritage, but he has some I'd never even heard of, and they are lovely volumes to explore.

This is the one fun part of the job -- seeing the collections of fine works. Handling books with massive histories behind them.

One less fun part is dealing with the people handling the shipment out of the city. Today, even though I have TSA clearance, I was treated like I was out to blow the office up when I asked to use their copier to finish the paperwork. It's ludicrous, especially since I've been to that very office several times in the past.

I didn't know I was the type who needed to be profiled.

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