Bookplate Odds and Ends

Here is a link to a well written, competently researched and thoroughly enjoyable ephemera blog

http://ephemeraresources.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/sarah-sophia-banks-collecting-ephemera.html

                                                           British Museum. Prints and Drawings. C.1-193-219

Click on image to enlarge

                                                                        
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Generally speaking , there is not strong interest in the copper or steel engravers plates used to create a bookplate. There are always exceptions.. Fellow collector Anthony Pincott sent me this link about
 the Christies sale of  an 18th century copper plate engraved by Nathaniel Hurd for Francis Dana
( Allen # 201).Follow the link if you are curious about the sale price.

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot/an-engraved-copper-bookplate-signed-by-nathaniel-5764101-details.aspx

In my own collection I have 13 Aluminum plates used by Sara Eugenia Blake. The plates were owned by Mary Alice Ercolini.and eventually became part of Earl Heims collection*. When he died his collection was sold to a gallery in Portland Oregon and I purchased the plates from them. Some day someone will write a long overdue book about Sara Eugenia Blake and hopefully I will be able to loan the plates to the author..

*Earl Heims was a Rockwell Kent collector and he used a Kent image on his bookplate
,I currently have a duplicate for possible exchange.

Fellow collector/dealer Tom Boss sent this mystery bookplate for identification.It is possible the owner's name was cut off. This is one of those bookplates which can drive one bonkers.I know I've seen it before and I have a lingering feeling it is in my collection or I bid on it in the past. Maybe one of you can help Tom.
Send your input to
Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

Speedy response from Anthony Pincott

Your bookplate queried by Tom Boss is that of Abram P Longbottom  Allen #515.

See you again next Sunday

Random Thoughts On A Sunday Morning.

William Hammatt Simmons (1884-1949) did at least 20 bookplates. Here are two examples.

The Henry F. Nutt punning plate is by Samuel Hollyer. For more examples of his bookplates click on the link near the bottom of this posting.

Sara Eugenia Blake (1886-1973) was the librarian at the Tufts University Medical school and a very talented bookplate designer. She did over 120 bookplates, mostly etched . Surprisingly no one has written a book about her.

I must have called on over 10,000 customers during 40+ years of selling and am hard pressed to recall the names and faces more than two dozen clients. At the same time I purchased and traded thousands of bookplates and can tell you where I got 80% of them.

There is something therapeutic about collecting . At the most stressful times I can open an album of bookplates and be transported to a blissful state very quickly.

Yesterday fellow bookplate collector and author John Titford mentioned that

" if you take a look at my surname dictionary, (Searching For Surnames) you'll see that HOLLIER/HOLLYER was a whore monger/brothel keeper! The female equivalent was a HOLLISTER."

This was a timely bit of information since I was going to include this link about Samuel Hollyer (1826-1919)

http://www.lunacommons.org/luna/servlet/view/all/who/Hollyer,+Samuel,+1826-1919?res=2

One last thought- If you are in New England and have bookplates for sale or exchange let me hear from you . I will be going to Boston in November.

Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

See you next week.