The Romulans are Coming

News Flash-Fellow collector Gabe Konrad has started a website devoted to bookseller labels.
http://www.booksellerlabels.com/
It is a dirty little secret , not widely known but 50% of all antiquarian booksellers are closet collectors of these little bugers which lay dormant in desk drawers and cigar boxes scattered around the country.. It is my personal belief that they are the seed pods for Romulan Shape Shifters and all these new devices with weird names like Nook and Kindle have been programmed to activate the pods in 2012. We need to organize now in order to protect our planet before this happens.
12/27/2010 The following note was sent by MG this morning:
"I understand your concern about the Romulans and other terrestrial beings. Some time ago, I learned from a secret source that the neon colored painting frequently seen on our sidewalks and streets and which I thought was placed by utility workers actually represents inter-galactic communications and landing instructions associated with the coming invasion. I usually try to augment these paint markings whenever I can in an effort to keep my part of the world safe for democracy and now for bookplate collecting. I am now sharing this information with you so that you too may protect you City and your bookplate collection. May the force be with you!"
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After a while bookplates tend to get lumped together in unexpected groupings. Here are three which have one thing in common. Each of the owner's was a U.S. ambassador to Turkey.

Here is a list of U.S. Ambassadors to Turkey along with some biographical information.

http://www.nndb.com/gov/430/000120070/

Henry Morgenthau 's plate was designed by Percival DeLuce
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I recently bid on some Antioch bookplates which I suspect came from an employee.They were an odd assortment . Some were sales samples and some were made for well known people in the mid 20th century. I did not get this one for Charles Knight. It turns out he was a Dinosaur illustrator of considerable fame.

http://www.charlesrknight.com/

Israel Amter (1881-1954) was a Marxist politician and founding member of the Communist Party in America. The plate was modified by Lewis T. Silverman from a design for another plate done by E. M. Lillien

John L. Lewis was a labor leader and headed the United Mine Workers of America

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Lewis

These stickers were used like bookplates, for people who lent their 78 RPM records to friends.

I have no idea if they were ever actually sold. Many of the samples I have were for artists and executives at Antioch.

That's about all for today.Merry Christmas. See you next year.

This Week in Bookplates 8/22/2010

After seeing last week's posting about The Antioch Bookplate Co. Evelia Sowash sent several scans .The one above shows Ernest Morgan ,the man who co-founded the company.

It was taken when he was in his eighties and shortly before he passed away.

In the picture below Evelia is doing her thing at Antioch in 1998.

Evelia currently runs her own design firm http://www.eveliadesigns.com/









The information and photos below were received from Dr. Thomas Ferguson whose brother Benton did freelance art work for The Antioch Bookplate Company.

Benton Ferguson , shown above was born in the early 1900's and died in the 1970's

During his lifetime he was a reporter for the Scripps -Howard newspaper chain ,an account executive for several advertising agencies and eventually ran his own advertising, P.R. firm.

Along the way he did some freelance art work for Antioch. The distinctive designs of his

"Young Moderns" series of bookplates are shown below.
They are still quite popular almost 50 years later and can still be ordered through Bookplate Ink

http://www.bookplateink.com/

The man hole plate above is my favorite. If Mr. Ferguson were still alive today he might substitute a cell phone for the book . Have you noticed the increasing number of people crossing the street , talking on a cell phone, while ignoring changing traffic lights and oncoming cars ?

Here are a few links that may interest you.

Papermania is set for next weekend in Hartford Conn.

http://www.papermaniaplus.com/

I will be there . If you plan to come and would like to exchange duplicates send me an email Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

See you next week, probably one day later than usual since I am usually wiped out upon my return from Papermania.