Today I want to revisit a story from early July with an update. I’ve finally received the Funeral Book of Richard Babb who died in Bristol, Somerset just months before the Nazi blitz of Bristol and all of England got underway.
I was quite surprised by the size of envelope it arrived in. It was much smaller than I had expected. I had featured that this was the entire book of signatures of the guests at his funeral. It turns out to be a handout that would have been given to the mourners that attended his funeral. It is a mere 3.5″x 4.5″ (roughly 8cm x 11.5cm).
The pictures really did tell the story of this item. But regardless, it was worth retrieving and soon will be returning to Richard’s Descendants in the UK.
To describe the booklet a little more clearly, it consists of a cardstock cover that has been folded in half to create the finished product of the 3.5″ x 4.5″ format I already described.
The text and graphics on the Front Cover are all embossed. There is a thin black line that outlines the entire cover (front and back) When opened a single sheet of paper is inside that forms the poem and tribute. The paper has been debossed with the words that are visible. All printing was one sided and thus there nothing is inside the space between the Cardstock Cover and the paper.
The Back Cover is completely empty save for some very small print in the bottom left and right corners. On the bottom left, but virtually invisible in the photo as it is presented without ink, are the embossed words “Made in England“. If you blow the photo up you’ll be able to make it out. In the bottom right corner, the text reads “No 210“. This is undoubtedly the style option for the cardstock cover which were likely pre-printed.
With the research and high-resolution photos captured the only thing that remains is for it to make its long return journey across the Atlantic and back into the hands of Richard’s descendants.
The previous posts regarding Richard are: