Tiffany Bookplates and Ephemera

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For those of you who do not remember telephones which were dialed by inserting your finger in a hole the object shown below may be of interest.It is a sterling silver telephone dialer sold by Tiffany &Co.

Audrey Hepburn in the movie Breakfast At Tiffany's was looking for an unusual gift which would cost no more than $10.00. She almost purchased a sterling silver telephone dialer but opted to have a Cracker Jack Ring engraved.I suspect telephone dialers are like bagel cutters and cheese slicers. They were given as house warming gifts , used once, kept in their original boxes on the top shelf of the kitchen cabinet and will eventually show up on Ebay.

The Murphy Paint and Varnish item shown below was probably engraved for Tiffany by Frederick Spenceley.It came to me via Ebay from the estate of Frederick Spenceley Jr.

The sketch shown below was either for a bookplate or an engraved silver object.Click on any image to enlarge it.

I have many Tiffany engraved bookplates and have chosen several of the pictorial ones.

Charles Major (1856-1915) was an American Lawyer and Novelist

Would you believe I have had over 30,000 visitors to the blog since it began about one year ago ? I like to track where the traffic comes from and well over sixty per cent comes from Google inquires. Several months ago I started getting viewers from a link at the following site

http://www.curiousexpeditions.org/

It has nothing to do with bookplates but you might enjoy looking at it . See you next week.

More Brooklyn Bookplates/Hugh & Margaret Eaton

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I collected art pottery for several years . After a while I was able to recognize the output of many potteries ten feet away from a flea market table.
The familiarity that comes from touching , seeing and handling applies to the bookplates as well.

In the early 1900's Hugh and Margaret Eaton operated The Valhall Studio at 339 Halsey Street in Brooklyn.They produced Christmas cards, bookplates ,illuminated cards , etc.
Very little has been written about them so more research needs to be done.Hugh Eaton died in the 1920's but I am under the the impression the studio continued to operate for many years.




eBay Seller: bookplatemaven: Prints, Postcards Paper items on eBay.com

I listed 25 bookplates for sale on Ebay this weekend.If you are curious simply click on the link above.

At the end of the month I will be in the Albany, New York area visiting family and going on to a " book village " in Delaware County (Hobart , New York). I still have some free hotel nights left but have opted to try something new( for me) , a bed and breakfast.
By June 30th I will be in Cooperstown ,New York for an antiquarian book fair.
If you are in upstate New York and have bookplates to sell or trade I would love to hear from you. My email is bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

See you next week.

Brooklyn, World War Two and Bookplates

The Erasmus Hall bookplate shown above was engraved by Peter Maverick around 1790.
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Erasmus Hall has been around since the late 1700's and during that time I am sure many captains of industry, poets . politicians and artists have studied or taught there. Unfortunately, the only famous graduate I know of is Barbara Streisand. Last night , I took a stupid pill and went to see Oceans Thirteen in which Barbara Streisand's ex husband Elliot Gould appeared.It was a terrible waste of time. Save your money and see something else or wait for it to come on HBO.
I will make an effort to list other notable Erasmus Hall graduates and your input is also encouraged. My email is bookplatemaven@hotmail.com
A list of famous graduates was easy to find. Follow this link:
Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus_Hall_High_School

The Frederick Willis Davis plate was engraved by William Fowler Hopson
I have no idea what a stationary engineer is or does.Later in the day I will look it up out of curiosity.Click on any image to enlarge.
Okay, in laymans terms stationary engineers are responsible for keeping boiler systems running properly.My source is Http://www.iuoe.org/Stationary/StationaryField.htm


When we went on a class visit to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens around 1948 or 49 we were shown a century plant in bloom.The next time it blooms my four year old grandson Harrison will be about forty five years old.




I grew up in Brooklyn , New York during W.W.ll when the "Axis Of Evil" were the Germans, Italians Japanese. We used to collect nylon stockings and tin cans , which were brought to to the fire station where somehow they were used to defeat the enemy. Bubble gum was not available because it had a secret ingredient which also was needed for the war effort.
The Brooklyn Dodgers were alive and well and the Dewey Movie Theatre on Coney Island Avenue was so small that they gave away free comic books to the first twenty five kids who left .
I buy bookplates and ephemera with a Brooklyn connection so here is a representative group.

See you next week.

George W. In Wonderland

I have , long before it became trendy, had a visceral dislike of George W. and his rabid supporters . One small collection I have relates to poking fun at this obscenity we call our president.The item shown above can be obtained from Funny Times as part of a Bush gift basket.
Http://www.funnytimes.com



Here are some Alice in Wonderland themed bookplates that may give you more pleasure than my ranting about George W. In Wonderland. To enlarge any image simply click on it.
For more information about Lewis Carroll and Alice here are two excellent sites to visit:

Http://LewisCarroll.org


Http://collectalice.home.comcast.net


The two Lewis Carroll Room plates below were designed by Paul Kucharyson







The mad hatter/Alice plate below was designed for Mary Alice Ercolini, a very active bookplate collector.