Something To Be Afraid Of From Messrs. Lestaret & Co.

It’s been a quiet week on the post front since my return from Scotland, mainly due to a temporary curtailment of eBay activities during this period. This has unfortunately meant that junk mail and bills have far outnumbered the packages containing books which usually brighten up my day. Yesterday however, the situation improved immeasurably as I received another envelope bearing the stamp of the esteemed Lestaret & Co.

I wrote about the mail art of Lestaret in June (here) after receiving a wonderful handmade book which was inspired by my Rural Weird mix which is still available for download (here). Once again I would highly recommend a visit to his blog (here) and web shop (here) as I always find his work intriguing. Now back to that envelope…

After prising open the small black envelope, I gingerly removed the following card;

I decided to run the main title through Google Translate and discovered it’s meaning to be “Pointless Specimen Identification” which elicited a hearty chuckle. Bizarrely enough, this small piece of text is a mixture of Swedish, Latin and Welsh. I then turned my attention to the interior of the card;

The plate depicting a ‘Common Bookworm’ which is subtitled “Oligochaeta Libri” is printed on beautifully textured, handmade card. The inscription on the card to the left of the plate is in Esperanto and was translated by Google as follows;

Official Notification.

To be kept safe for easy reference.

If identified within your establishment alert the ministry of librarian things are going.

Penalty for failure to conform is unpleasant and probable cause social disgrace, speech impediments and loss of appetite.

Below this text is another line of Esperanto meaning “Citizen Notified” followed by my name which is hand written in cursive script. It’s all marvellously odd and wonderfully unique, two qualities which I have come to associate with all post I receive bearing a Lestaret stamp. If it’s good enough for His Excellency Viscount Runcible of Arbourthorne then it’s good enough for the humble unsubscriber – keeping checking your bookshelves!

Here’s a final shot of the plate as researched and catalogued by the erstwhile Messrs. Lestaret & Co.