Genealogy Bug: "Meant To Be"

I don’t normally go to the Flea Market and Antique Shows at Cornwell’s Turkeyville, but I decided that this weekend I would go check it out and see if I could find any photos to rescue.

As I perused the items in one of the booth’s, yesterday, this photo caught my eye. I took it up to the people running the booth and asked if they would take $15 for it (asking price was $25). They told me they would take $20 and I agreed. I told them that I was a photo rescuer and that I wasn’t interested in the frame but the picture itself. The woman told her husband that he should tell me about an item that they had at home. He proceeded to tell me that they had an old “photographer’s desk” that had an album on the outside and inside was a desk with an inkwell in it. He also told me that it wasn’t for sale. Unfortunately I had forgotten to bring my business cards with me and told them that. My hope being that someday they might decide to sell it and would contact me. At the end of our conversation it was agreed that he would bring it today so I could see it and I told them I would return today business card in hand. He again reiterated that it wasn’t for sale.

Mike Wright holding the "Photographer's Desk" album.

Today, I hunted down the booth again but did not see them sitting in their chairs and to be honest I had forgotten what they looked like. There was a guy there moving things around but I wasn’t sure if it was him or not. So, I walked off and checked out the remaining booths. I was almost thinking of leaving when I decided that I would go back to the booth one last time. As I approached I saw the gentleman from earlier talking to another gentleman and showing him what I knew was what he called a “photographer’s desk”. I immediately stopped. He looked at me and said “You’re the one from yesterday?” and I said “Yes!” I stood there as he opened the album up and was showing the other gentleman the contents. Every album page inside still held all the photos that originally came with the album and in the back was indeed a mini desk with an ink well, the pen for the ink well and some loose photos and real photo postcards!! I told him it was rare to find an album like that that still had all it's photos inside. The other gentleman asked what something like that would go for and he said “Well, we weren’t going to sell it but my wife and I talked last night and decided that if I was interested they would sell it to me for $350.” I told him I was definitely interested. As we went to his booth so I could pay him he said that when he and his wife were talking last night he had told her “That is the right person to sell this to.” So, it was definitely "meant to be" for me to now have this beautiful album in my possession.