This Week in Bookplates 7/8/2012

Sometimes it is  difficult to determine if you have a bookplate used by a well known person or someone who shares a  name with a celebrity..A recently acquired bookplate from the library of Emily Post is a good example of what I mean.The bookplate was in a tattered copy of  Coins de Paris by Georges Cain
( published around 1907).When I questioned the dealer who offered it to me he explained that Emily Post the American guru on all things relating to etiquette visited Paris in the early 20th century so he concluded that the book was used by the real Emily Post (wishful thinking ) I happened to like the bookplate so I decided it was worth keeping regardless of which Emily Post was the original owner.

Emily Post

 Some of  Emily Post's descendants are involved with The Emily Post Institute so I contacted that organization .They responded quickly but their answer was inconclusive,  I am still uncertain about what I purchased. Here is a link with more information about Emily Post.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Post

On Friday I got a bookplate for Roland Keith Young. Research on this one was effortless.The English actor Roland Young was an avid collector of ceramic Penguins

Here is some biographical information about Roland Young:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Young

The Virginia bookplate was also purchased on Friday. I assumed it was from the library on a yacht.
As it turns out the Virginia did  start out as a yacht, owned by W.K. Vanderbilt . By 1909 she became a house boat.It is the only houseboat library bookplate I have ever had.

Here is a detailed record of Virginia's life.

Status: DESTROYED

Original Name: Virginia Current Name: Virginia

Hull Number: 533 Boat Location: DESTROYED

Contracted By: W.K. Vanderbilt Current Owner:

Contract Date: 10/11/1899 Owner Since:

Class: New York 70 Sub-Class:

Original Rig: cutter Current Rig:

Original Price: $32,594 Restored By:

LOA: 106 ft. 0 in. Beam: 19 ft. 4 in.

LWL: 70 ft. 0 in. Draft: 14 ft. 0 in.

Designer: NGH

Provenance:

Owner Years Location Boat Name Sail No.

W.K. Vanderbilt 1900 - >1906 New York, NY Virginia

A Philadelphia owner has turned her into a houseboat by 1909.

http://www.herreshoffregistry.org/doc/HMC_Registry.pdf

Pictured below is a mystery bookplate .If you know something about it please contact me .
Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

When I put the Latin phrase on Google I Came up with the following:

1. . auction slip tipped in at front, two pictorial bookplates, one with the motto "felix est qui me habet" and the other with the name "Harold Marshall, Harlesden.

2 Since there was an HMH in the upper right corner and no other name I incorrectly speculated that this might be a bookplate used by Harold Marshall Harlesden. After several emails with fellow collectors Richard Schimmelpfeng and Anthony Pincott I decided  that my speculation was  also wishful thinking. Here is what Anthony wrote :   

“Happy is he who has me” could be one translation, but the other is “It is Felix who owns me”, and I suspect the owner enjoyed the double interpretation.

The initials HMH are surely those of the artist. It would surely be strange to mix the address into an owner’s initials.

The Brooklyn Historical Society Blog has a nicely presented posting about bookplates.Here is a link:

http://brooklynhistory.org/blog/tag/bookplates/

See you again next Sunday