old book

Among the many things I inherited from my parents are a number of old books. My dad had books floor to ceiling in many rooms of our house.

This one, published in 1938 in England is a collection of 100 paintings on color plates.


I had never heard of this painter before, Gianbattista Moroni. The painting, above, is titled 'Portrait of a Tailor,' which is in The National Gallery in London.



Apparently my mom gave this book to my dad in 1939, before they were married (in 1941). (My brother Nelson kindly corrected the year of their marriage, which I posted wrongly as 1939 before.) My father was a Baptist minister.

He was also an artist in his own right, drawing this pen & ink of a hart, which he turned into the personalized book plate that is inside the cover of this book. This drawing was also etched into the headstone at my parents' grave (photo at bottom). His surname was Hart, and a 'hart' is another name for a deer. He loved the verse from the Psalms:

Psalm 42:1 (King James Version)
"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God."

Click on the image above to see the detail better.