The Bookplates of Ellen Terry,Gordon Craig and Henry Irving.

Ellen Terry  (1847-1928)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Terry

"Dame Ellen Terry, GBE  was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain.

Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London and toured throughout the British provinces as a teen. At 16 she married the 46-year-old artist George Frederic Watts, but they separated within a year. She soon returned to the stage but began a relationship with the architect Edward William Godwin and left performing for six years. She resumed acting in 1874 and was immediately acclaimed for her portrayal of roles in Shakespeare and other classics.

In 1878 she joined Henry Irving's company as his leading lady, and for more than the next two decades she was considered the leading Shakespearean and comic actress in Britain. Two of her most famous roles were Portia in The Merchant of Venice and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. She and Irving also toured with great success in America Canada and Britain."

I have no idea  when I purchased a group of Ellen Terry's bookplates designed by her son Gordon Craig.,  They sat undisturbed in an album until I recently started reading A Strange Eventful History by Michael Holroyd .The book is about the dramatic lives of  Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and their remarkable families.It has stimulated my interest in victorian theatrical celebrities.The book  includes eight line sketch drawings of bookplates by Gordon Craig. He designed his mother's  bookplates. and on one of them she hand wrote  travel instructions.

1. Edward Gordon Craig(1872-1966)

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gordon_Craig
2. Edward Henry Gordon Craig, sometimes known as Gordon Craig, was Ellen Terry's son. He was an modernist theatre practitioner;  an actor, director,writer and scenic designer..During his lifetime he designed over 200 bookplates.
3.  Fellow collector  John Blatchly has written an exceptionally well researched book 
4. 
   
5. The bookplates of Edward Gordon Craig ,published 1997 by The Bookplate Society and The Apley House Press
6. It  belongs in your bookplate reference library if you do not already have a copy
7. 
   

Here are just a few  examples of bookplates by Gordon Craig

1. .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Irving

Sir Henry Irving (1838-1905)

"Sir Henry Irving  born John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J.H Irving * was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility (supervision of sets, lighting, direction, casting, as well as playing the leading roles) for season after season at theLyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as representative of English classical theatre. He was the first actor to be awarded a knighthood. Irving is thought to have been the inspiration for the title character in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula."

           
This bookplate  by Bernard Partridge was used by Henry Irving.
The letters of his name are black.


Here is a link to The Irving Society

http://www.theirvingsociety.org.uk/

*1/6/2014 Update from  Michael Kilgarriff at The Irving Society

" Irving's birth certificate, of which I have a copy, show that he was born John Brodribb.  Henry was added later at his christening.  I have never seen him referred to as JH Irving."

The bookplate shown below(with the letters of his name in red) was reproduced on page 238 in English Bookplates by Egerton Castle.
From time to time I have seen his bookplate with the red letters..Such bookplates were cut out of Mr Castle's book and are bogus.

This Week in Bookplates 9/11/2011

The bookplate shown above is listed by Charles Dexter Allen as #911. It was engraved by
Cephas G. Childs. His signature is in the copper plate but it is so small that Allen did not see it.
Here is some biographical information about William Warren:

"William Warren (b. Bath, England, 10 May 1767; d. Washington, D.C., 19 October 1832) was an actor. His first appearance was as Young Norval in Home's tragedy of Douglas. Soon afterward, Warren came to this country, making his debut at Baltimore, Maryland, as Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet. In 1805 he went to England, as agent for the Philadelphia Theatre, to collect a company of comedians, and on his return in 1806 he married the actress, Mrs. Ann Merry. Later, Warren became manager of the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he made his last appearance on 25 November 1829 as Robert Bramble in the Poor Gentleman. His son, also named William Warren, was also an actor. "
Since the father and son had the same name and Cephas Childs was active during both their lifetimes it is possible the plate may have been for either or both of them.

In any event, this is the oldest Early American actor's plate that I am aware of.

Two of the eleven bookplate themes available from Erika Stefanutti

Fellow collector Erika Stefanutti has designed an elegant group of bookplates and desk accessories.
They are for sale through her website .
If you have been thinking about purchasing bookplates they are worthy of your consideration.
http://www.parvumopus.com/Ex_Libris.html

PicClick is a relatively new service which shows all the EBay images pertaining to the search word(s) you choose.I played with it for a while and was not all that impressed but I did find it helpful when searching for watch papers On any given day there may be hundreds of watches and only one watch paper. Because the watch paper image is distinctive it did speed up what is a time consuming search.
http://picclick.com/

Richard D. Sheaff has designed a wonderful ephemera site with many illustrations.
http://www.sheaff-ephemera.com/

I have always wanted a bookplate from the library of the English Shakespearean actor Henry Irving so when one was offered to me in 2008 at the Boston Book and Ephemera Fair I purchased it.
Last week when my copy of The Bookplate Society Newsletter arrived I read a most informative article
about this plate.The plate was reproduced in color in English BookPlates by Egerton Castle. To prevent people cutting out the plate and selling it as an original the colors were reversed .What should be in red on the original plate was shown in black and vice versa. You guessed it. I bought a bogus plate. If you are offered a plate like the one shown above don't buy it.
Let the buyer beware.

See you next Sunday.