The check lists of California artists , never got very far.
If you are in California and have the time to assist me with this project please send an email..
Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com
For the month of December here is a snapshot of readership by country.
Entry
Pageviews
United States
4290
Russia
2459
Germany
524
Ukraine
373
France
308
United Kingdom
197
Canada
176
Spain
72
Costa Rica
61
Australia
44
It is interesting to note that China which is feuding with Google never shows up in these stats even though I know many in China are reading my blog
Looking Forward
I would like to get more collector profiles and reader submissions next year. It is hard to believe but 2016 will be my tenth year as a blogger. In blog years ( like doggie years ) that is a long time. To celebrate the tenth year I plan to have a bookplate contest.
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Antioch Bookplate Archives–Unusual New Year’s Greetings submitted by
Among the little correspondence from the 1930s that remained in the Antioch Bookplate Company files were some New Year’s Greetings from Art Young * to his friend (a friendship developed from their shared interest in socialist causes) and Antioch Bookplate Company founder Ernest Morgan.
Art Young in the late 1930s
1936 New Year's Greeting
1938 New Year's Greeting
*Art Young's bookplate designs for Antioch Bookplate were
shown on these posts:
From my own collection here is a New Years letter from 1943 which I cherish because it reflects
the pulse of a time long gone , when people had great respect and admiration for their leaders..
About Ralph Ward and Howard B. Cunningham
In 1941, Ward Baking Company became one of the
first companies to enrich bread. The company introduced New Tip-Top Bread on
June 3, 1952. This new bread doubled the calcium content and contained 1/3 more
milk solids. The company was able to change its bread formula with the addition
of the new ingredients without increasing the product costs. 11 The New York
City headquarters of Ward Baking Company was eliminated during a company
reorganization in 1974. 7 The company left the baking business entirely in 1981,
when it sold the last of its baking operations to Interstate Brands Corp. 8 In
1924, George Ward’s son, Ralph,became the president of Drake Bakeries, a
position which he held until his death in 1953.9 . Drake Bakeries is another
bakery that is now owned by Interstate Bakeries Inc. The company is known for
their snack cakes including Devil Dogs, Yankee Doodles and Ring Dings.
Howard B. Cunningham, assistant director, division of purchases, Office of Production Management (OPM), director of National Biscuit Company, New York City
I love to receive unexpected submissions from readers like this one from Guillermo Moran If you want to contact Guillermo about bookplate exchanges here is his email address <guillermoran@gmail.com>:
If you want to submit an article for publication in 2016 here is my email address
Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com
Dear Lew,
Here are the pics with their short explanations. Hope you find it
interesting. Maybe the text will need some editing: as always, it is up to
you.
Regards,
Guillermo
Here is the original sketch, drawn with white pencil on black paper, as I find
that this way of drawing is the closest to the mezzotint technique, where the
areas affected will hold no ink and therefore, be white on the print.
Next step consists of cutting a copper plate to the desired size. Then it is to
be grounded with the rocker': The rocker has small teeth that, when rocking the
plate, will teve tiny dots and their burrs on its surface. A lot of passes, in
different directions will leave an even and complete coverage of dots and burrs
that will hold the ink. Before being affected by any other tools, the plate
should print an intense black surface.
With a scarper and a burnisher, the plate is to be affected where it has to
print white. Here is the plate compared to the sketch. On the left there is a
composite tool: pointing down it is a scarper, pointing up it is a burnisher.
The lettering has been added
The plate has been inked and wiped: the affected areas do not retain the ink.
Then, a slightly wet paper is to be placed on top of the plate and the whole is
passed through the press, applying significant and even pressure
Collectors everywhere hope some day to find a hidden treasure overlooked by everyone else.
It is part of our DNA. That is why TV shows like American Pickers and The Antiques Road Show have such a large following.
Rebecca Rego Barry has written a book about collectors who grabbed a brass ring. My copy is in the mail and I thought the book might interest some of you.
In her new book Rare Books Uncovered: True Stories of Fantastic Finds in Unlikely Places
Rebecca Rego Barry recounts 52 extraordinary discoveries from the world of book
collecting, including a stash of vintage comic books worth $3.5 million, long forgotten in a Virginia
basement
Rebecca Rego Barry is the editor
of Fine Books and Collections magazine. She has also written about
books and history for various publications, including The Guardian, JSTOR
Daily, Preservation, The Millions, and Victoria. A member of the
Ticknor Society, a book collectors’ club based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, her
personal collecting specialties are 19th- and early 20th-century illustrated
medical books, and Henry David Thoreau. She lives with her family in New York’s
Catskill Mountains. Here is a review of the book by fellow collector Jerry Morris
In 1879 when the electric light bulb was invented.Mr. William Connell an early user of this cutting edge technology was proud to incorporate a light bulb in his bookplate
The Clarence Edward bookplate shown below was designed in 1918 when light bulbs were no longer cutting edge technology. Mr. .Rose was an Electrical Engineer.
The Electrical Standardizing and Training Institute bookplate was designed by
T Erat Harrison (REF. Ex Libris Journal Volume # 2 page 4)
If you have any interesting electric bulb bookplates and want them added to this posting send JPEG images to Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com
I received a n Email announcing the start of a new exlibris exchange site and contacted David Kovats ,one of the site developers for some background information.
Here is his response.
Dear Lew,
Thank you again for taking the time to help us
improve Collectorism as well as offering to write about it in your blog. This is
a fantastic opportunity for us.
I have attached 8 images that were selected to show how diverse
is the bookplate collection of Ferenc Galambos which we acquired a few years
ago.
Our journey on becoming seriously involved in the exlibris
trade began when we had the chance to buy this collection. Over 70,000
bookplates and the whole library that comes with it. It took us days if not
weeks to even understand the volume and the quality we are dealing with. We did
have some experience with bookplates; I used to see examples while on valuations
with Sotheby's and Karoly has been an antiquarian from the start so it wasn't
all new. However this collection took us to a whole new level. In a couple of
months we knew that we want to have this as a full time occupation. We opened
stores on different online marketplaces, joined societies in different
countries, attended meetings, auctions and congresses. We kept selling works and
buying/exchanging new ones at the same time.
We were surprised to see
there is no real online platform for people to exchange their bookplates (or
actually any other collectible). We wanted to create a place where everyone is
welcome, where collectors can meet others without having the trouble of
traveling to fairs or conferences. A place where people can showcase their
collection and the passion behind it. And most importantly a visual, easy-to-use
and fun system to exchange items with anyone from anywhere in the
world.
The site opened last week and we already have lots of
bookplates online. There are people who only want to showcase their collection
or interest and that is great. It's also a fantastic way to make new contacts
and there is no need to create your own website for a fortune anymore. There are
also no restrictions on exchanging, so it's not just bookplates for bookplates,
you can trade bookplates for a stamp collection, coins for posters or vintage
toys for modern lego.
I know by experience that there are many collectors out there not able to
spend $10/$50/$100 weekly to buy new works but they would love to have the
chance to get access to thousands of items that are all up for
exchange!
I truly believe this is a great way for exlibris lovers (and other
collectors) to keep in touch, browse and find new things on a regular
basis.
I hope what I put together for you is not too much, please do let me know
if you have any questions
or need further information!
Note from Lew
When I retired my employer held a farewell luncheon for me in Chicago.
I continued westward and visited friends along the way
In Arizona I made an appointment to see Bill Glaseman ..
Looking back, six years later it was the highlight of my trip.
Bill was ninety four years old and he was (and still is) at the top of his game.
I am pleased to publish this long overdue tribute to him.
How did you stumble into bookplate collecting ?
My introduction to bookplates came in a rather interesting manner.In an attempt to purchase a fresh water pearl ring for my wife ,I visited an estate dealer in Cleveland, Ohio. He specialized in buying out old estates , and reselling jewelry.His office was overrun with mounted works of art which caught my attention. I inquired about them and was told they were bookplates . I purchased the ring, which had to be sized ,so I had to come back a week later to pick it up. When I returned I was drawn to the bookplates and the dealer asked if I would be interested in buying the collection and "take it off his hands".He quoted an extremely low price and I was hooked. That is how I came into possession of five large trunks and many boxes containing bookplates and bookplate correspondence from around the world.
Who was the original owner of the collection ?
The collection came from the estate of William R.A.. Hays (1875-1943). He devoted a large portion of his life to a worldwide quest for bookplates. The collection consists of more than 33,000 bookplates of which at least 20,000 are mounted. In addition there are in excess of 6,000 letters .These letters were in response to Mr. Hays requests to exchange bookplates. They came from royalty,captains of industry and notable people from many countries. He wrote more than 30,000 letters in his quest for ex libris.
I do not know how he had time to deal with his law practice. The combination of correspondence and responses alongside the bookplates adds a unique dimension to the collection.
How have you organized such a large collection ?
Thanks to computers,I have entered into a database
about 12,000 bookplates,indicating a reference number,owner,artist,date,and
country of origin.
The database also indicates normal size bookplates,
miniatures (about 1,500) erotica , schools , libraries etc.
I still have a long way to go. I recall from our
meeting many years ago that you estimated “it would take two
lifetimes.”
The bookplates are matched with correspondence and
placed in acid free sheet protectors which are housed in three ring
binders.
Another ongoing project I am working on is to include
biographical information for the bookplates of notable owners.
Has the collection been exhibited anywhere ?
In 1972 the Cleveland Public Library learned of the collection and asked about the possibility of exhibiting some of the material in their downtown facility.I agreed to their request and they sent a team from their fine arts division to my home.For three days they examined the collection. I was not at home during the research period but my wife kept hearing "WOW"throughout their visit. Several hundred were selected and framed and the exhibit was open to the public for six months.
What are your favorites bookplates in the collection ?
There are so many it is hard to make a selection but since you asked, here are two I particularly like.the Enrico Caruso group. I feel that the two trial proofs must have been handled by Caruso and the combination of the three items are unique.
Enrico Caruso Engraved by A.N. Macdonald (three items)
Trial Proof #1(This is a scan of a Xerox copy)
Trial Proof #2 Before Lettering
Completed Bookplate
David Greene Engraved by Paul Revere
Note From Lew - In my next blog posting I will show some examples of Mr Hays letter writing skills
"Stealing is punishable by the law," the sign reads. "If you are caught stealing
the bathroom tissue from dispenser, you will be barred permanently from all New
York Public Libraries."
Had I seen this sign in the Morisania Branch of the New York Public Library I would have been tempted to take it and add it to my ephemera collection :however, the sign is gone. Staffers at the library put the sign up three months ago but took it down after it went viral.
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It is Thanksgiving day here in the states and I will forgo the usual images of bookplates with Turkeys.
Here are some American Turkeys.
Most of the world news is dreadful so here is a feel -good news item from THE NEW YORK TIMES
A Storied Bookstore and Its Late Oracle Leave an Imprint on Islamabad
Photo
Saeed Book Bank is an institution in Islamabad, displaying 200,000 titles, mostly in English, and stocking more than four million books in its five warehouses.CreditDanial Shah for The New York Times
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — After his father died, Ahmad Saeed took over the office on the ground floor of the family’s storied bookstore here, Saeed Book Bank. Then the elderly men started visiting, seeking to settle old debts.
“They all apologized and said they had tried to see my father while he was alive but his office was always too crowded and they were embarrassed,” Mr. Saeed said.
Five times such men arrived, hat in hand, not just to pay their respects to the son and family, but also to say they wanted to pay for books they had shoplifted as children. Mr. Saeed said his father, Saeed Jan Qureshi, who died of heart failure in September, would have been amused: He had always regarded book theft by children as an investment in a future where people still read, and thus become his customers.
The man himself became an oracle to those looking for advice on books, taking time to establish a personal connection and to urge favorites on visitors. (That is another thing his son has inherited: He asked a visitor if he had read “Fallen Leaves,” the last book by the prolific American historian Will Durant, published in 2014, more than 30 years after his death.)
Photo
Ahmad Saeed, left, overseeing the cataloging of new arrivals before they are put on the store's shelves. He inherited this business from his father, the founder, Saeed Jan Qureshi.CreditDanial Shah for The New York Times
That approach helped Mr. Qureshi make an extraordinary future for Saeed Book Bank, particularly in an era when online sales have been driving independent bookstores out of business, and in a region where unfettered book piracy adds to retailers’ travails.
With his passion for books, Mr. Qureshi built one of the biggest bookstores in the world — mostly selling books in English, in a country where that is a second language for most people.
Saeed Book Bank has 42,000 square feet of usually busy floor space over three stories, displays 200,000 titles, and stocks more than four million books in its five warehouses — all, Ahmad Saeed said, “by the grace of the almighty.”
(His visitor had not read “Fallen Leaves,” so Mr. Saeed sent one of his 92 employees to fetch a copy. “It is so good, you must read this book.” Another visitor to the office, an aged doctor named S.H. Naqvi, agreed, having himself read it at their insistence: “It will touch your heart,” he said.)
Saeed Jan Qureshi came from a family that worked for a feudal landlord named Mir Banda Ali. His estates in southern Sindh Province were so vast that five railway stops reputedly lay within his property lines. His library was similarly scaled, and as a 9-year-old, Saeed was put to work dusting the shelves. One day Mr. Ali found him reading instead of working, and told the boy to get back to work immediately — but added that he could take a book home every night, so long as he returned it in mint condition.
Saeed never got past high school but he was exceedingly well-read, and after school he found a job as a book salesman for a company that sent him to its Peshawar branch. Later, in the 1950s, he opened his own bookshop in Peshawar.
During the Cold War years that followed, Pakistan was an outpost in the American rivalry with the Soviet Union, and Peshawar became an important military base, and later a vital C.I.A. base of operations, particularly during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Say what you will about the spooks, they were readers, and Mr. Qureshi built his business around catering to their literary tastes.
(Speaking of Afghanistan, Mr. Saeed said: “Have you read ‘The Spinner’s Tale,’ by Omar Shahid Hamid? No?” He seemed mildly shocked. Moments later a Pan Macmillan paperback copy of the novel materialized. “I am sorry, we’ve sold out of ‘Fallen Leaves’ — it’s so hard to keep in stock — but read this,” Ahmad said. “A lot of it is set in Afghanistan.”)
Later the rise of terrorism and fundamentalist Islam made Peshawar, capital of the wild frontier lands of Pakistan, a dangerous place for a bookseller — especially one who insisted on carrying magazines like Cosmopolitan and Heavy Metal, books by Karen Armstrong on Islam, and even the scientist Richard Dawkins’s atheist treatise, “The God Delusion.” (“You just wouldn’t believe how that sells,” Mr. Saeed said. “We buy a thousand copies from Random House every year, year after year.”)
On the other hand, he said, another best-seller is “The Message of the Qur’an,” an English translation of the holy book by Muhammad Asad, a European Jewish scholar and diplomat who converted to Islam.
Forced to close shop in Peshawar, Mr. Qureshi focused his efforts in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, a place heavily insulated from the country’s more extremist elements. Hard times followed as even Islamabad became a “no families” posting for diplomats and aid workers, but by then the bookstore was so big that its sheer breadth kept it viable, as plenty of Pakistanis read books in English.
Photo
A salesman at Saeed Book Bank sorted volumes according to genre.CreditDanial Shah for The New York Times
“Other Pakistani booksellers laughed at us that we never carried pirated books,” Mr. Saeed said. “But only best-sellers get pirated, and we carry everything.”
The result is a bookstore of impressive scope, quirky and catholic. “Islamic Fashion,” a glossy coffee table book and a best-seller, vies for shelf space with “Queer Studies.”
A thick condolence book for Mr. Qureshi, the third so far, sits on a counter, which sags under the weight of a couple hundred miniature books as well. A few rows away, an entire shelf is given over to Noam Chomsky, 26 titles in all, which may well be more than any bookstore in the world displays for the radical linguist and philosopher.
“Honestly, Chomsky sells here,” Mr. Saeed said.
As the eldest son, Mr. Saeed was always destined to take over the business when his father passed away, and to learn the trade he traveled with his father to international book fairs; annually to Frankfurt, thrice yearly to London, twice yearly to Delhi.
But not to the United States, the Saeed Book Bank’s biggest source of books.
“We spend $500,000 annually in America, and I can’t get a visa,” Mr. Saeed said. “The consular officer said, ‘Why can’t you just order by email and fax?’ They just don’t understand about books. You have to go to the warehouses, and see them and feel them — that’s how you buy books.”
(“Fallen Leaves” again: “When my father was sick, he said, ‘Read this book, and you will calm down,’” Mr. Saeed said. “He was right.” Dr. Naqvi could quote lines from it. “What if it is for life’s sake that we must die?” Otherwise, “youth would find no room on the earth.”)
Mr. Qureshi made sure his children had the education he did not. Ahmad has a master’s degree in business administration, with ambitious plans to computerize the store’s inventory and build up what is now a clunky and unsophisticated online business. Nonetheless, it sells $1,000 worth of books a day online in a place where credit cards are still a novelty.
For his father, books were more than just a business, Mr. Saeed said. One of the penitent former book thieves who dropped in was Suleman Khan, the vice chancellor of Iqra University, in Islamabad.
“He came to say that when he was a child, 6 years old or so, he stole an Archie comic book and my father saw him,” Mr. Saeed said. “He said he was afraid he was going to get slapped, but my father said: ‘This is good that you like books. So every day you can take a book but keep it in mint condition and return it when you’re done so I can still sell it.’”
And then the vice chancellor said, “Everything that I am now, I owe to your father.”
(Dr. Naqvi, who is getting on in years, had seemed to doze off for a moment but awoke when he heard that story. “‘Fallen Leaves,’” he sighed. “You have to read that book. Everything is in there.”)
