This Week in Bookplates 7/19/2009

Sometimes I forget, but one of things I try to ask booksellers is whether they have a box of ephemera. This week I visited a shop in Doylestown ,Pennsylvania and found this bit of ephemera done by Leonard Baskin. It has the same image he used on a bookplate for Frederick Cleveland Mitchell ( Fern & O'Sullivan #385 )* Here are a few more Baskin bookplates. *I do not know of any complete checklist of Baskin bookplates. The Complete Prints Of Leonard Baskin by Alan Fern and Judith O'Sullivan is an excellent reference and includes some of his bookplates .

Click On Images to Enlarge

If you have any Baskin bookplates for sale or exchange I would like to hear from you.

One of the things that amused me in Doylestown was a law office I passed on South Clinton St.

The name of the firm and I kid thee not is Angst &Angst
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I received this announcement from fellow bookplate enthusiast Jim Lewis I have just had a miniature book 3" X 2" printed letterpress and hand-made paper by the Ascensius Press in Maine. It is limited to 50 copies and the binding is by Gray Parrot, also of Maine. The subject of the book is the Estelle Doheny leather bookplate and in each copy of the book is tipped an original example of the plate.

They are $50 each and copies can be ordered from
Jim Lewis
10 Chestnut St. #2110
Exeter, NH 03833
Please send check or cash in US$ only.

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Fellow collector Jose Vicente De Braganca has an excellent bookplate blog. Here are some of his postings on American bookplates.

http://bookplate-jvarnoso.blogspot.com/search/label/American%20Bookplates

That's about it for this posting. See you next week.

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From Norwich U.K. to Jerusalem

Sarah Spooner and Jon Gregory are two print makers based in Norwich U.K. who work with wood engravings, woodcuts and linocuts.The Woodman bookplate below is one of their recent projects.They write that "as a general guide ,a set of 50 hand -printed bookplates(4 x 3 inches) from a original engraving would cost $150.00 (not including delivery)" Their website is http://www.spoonergregory.plus.com/

Leonard Baskin was an American sculptor, painter, print maker,book designer and ephemera collector who did some very striking bookplates with Jewish themes.

Somewhere in the back of my head I know who designed this very powerful bookplate for the American Friends of the Hebrew University .In Fact, the artist's signature ( In Hebrew) is on the plate.You can click on the image to enlarge it. In any event, I will let you know when I find out. Update- Bob Weinberg , just refreshed my memory.The bookplate is by Arthur Szyk (1894-1851).

This bookplate below was engraved by Joris Mommen of Belgium

The two bookplates shown above were designed by Ephraim Moses Lilien (1874-1925)

I have always liked bookplates with Jewish themes or symbols.It is a niche within a niche which perhaps five people focus on. Within my collection there are some favorites which I have illustrated and as always , your input is encouraged.

Two excellent books on Judaica bookplates are Illustrated Essays On Jewish Bookplates by Philip Goodman and Jewish Book-Plates by A.M. Haberman