Brooklyn Bookplates /The Burning Bush

Daniel Mitsui keeps getting better and better. This is a print he is doing for a friend in California. I first visited the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens on a class trip around 1949.The reason I retain that memory is that we were shown a century plant in bloom and we were told it would not bloom again until 2049

The Eatons had a studio at 339 Halsey Street in Brooklyn where they designed bookplates and greeting cards

Augustus Toedteberg was a major print and book collector who lived in Brooklyn.

Dr. Meyer lived and manufactured cosmetic products in Brooklyn.

As far as I know The Pratt Institute is still in Brooklyn.This plate was engraved by the American Banknote Company.

I remember the first book I got at The Brooklyn Public Library. It was The Five Chinese Brothers or maybe it was four.

Several weeks ago I posted some information about the Enright collection. Here is an update :

http://viewersite.wordpress.com/2008/04/01/lewis-jaffees-bookplate-

Well I am two days late in getting the blog posted. On Sunday I participated in the Brooklyn flea (http://www.brooklynflea.com/ ) and on Monday I recuperated. It was invigorating and exhausting.

I will be there again this Sunday with lots of bookplates , ephemera, Victorian hardware and much more. Come on by and say hello. Last week I was in space L8 and I may have that same booth again.

See you next week.

Birds,Fleas,Mites and Assorted Tidbits

CLICK on Images to Enlarge
NEWS FLASH-I just signed up to exhibit at a flea market in Brooklyn on Sunday April 13th. I'll bring some bookplates, some ephemera, several crates of restoration hardware, old books and whatever strikes my fancy. Here is a link with driving instructions. WWW.brooklynflea.com
Unless it rains real hard I plan to be there and hope to meet some of you. Dr. Friedman's specialty was Scabies an itchy affliction cause by the creature on his bookplate.
Gordon Craig did this bookplate for William F. Gable.

On Friday I went to two book shows in New York City and noticed a pile of books about Hubert's Flea Circus in Greg Gibson's booth.This triggered dim but fond memories of trips to Times Square when I was about fourteen years old. I used to get 15 cent hamburgers at a place called Grants and one time I recall going to a nearby "freak Show" and flea circus.The flea circus was absolutely fascinating and I think I went back a second time. It turns out that Diane Arbus was also intrigued by the place and took many photos there. Somehow the photos were forgotten about until Bob Langmuir, a Philadelphia book and ephemera dealer rediscovered them.Greg signed a copy of the book for me and I look forward to reading it tonight. Since fleas are the topic of conversation I have added two bookplates of some flea relatives.
Book Review- It's Tuesday morning and I finished the book last night. I am going to give it a very mixed review.
On the one hand it brought back fond memories and I certainly enjoyed reading about booksellers and places I know . On the other hand, the "hero" is a self-destructive Nixonian creep who enjoys bragging about all the people he has screwed throughout his life.That unfortunately includes the readers of the book.
This book was written to promote an auction and has the feel of a slick offering from a vanity press. Let the buyer beware.

I have been consolidating two bird collections into one album and have chosen nine images that appeal to me. Here they are. This one was done by Elly De Koster in Holland. Her specialty is natural history and her website is www.people.zeelandnet.nl/kely/

Charles William Beebe (1877-1962) Author, Naturalist and Explorer

How could you not like a bookplate depicting a happy vulture?

This one was done by Riva Kern.

Paper cut Japanese bookplate

Mary just handed me an article on the front page of The Sunday New York Times about death by blogging. I think I will read it now and hopefully see you again next week.

The Enright Collection/The Schrader Collection/The Pierce Collection

Malcolm Enright in Australia was kind enough to send me some information about a very fine collection he recently acquired.The collection was nurtured in the late 1800's and is largely intact in its original display boxes.

Each of the six book boxes is bound with leather and they have gilt lettering on the spines.

The boxes when opened on a flat surface look like this

The bookplates are mounted on folded sheets of paper which fit into the boxes.

Click on images to enlarge. Here are six mostly Jacobean style English plates randomly chosen from one box .

Provenience : The collection was owned by Alexander W. Mackenzie of Columbus , Ohio and changed hands in the late 1950's. In doing some preliminary research I discovered that his wife was a bookplate designer.(Ref.#4938 Bookplates, A Selective Annotated Bibliography of the Periodical Literature by Audrey Spencer Arellanes )

The hand colored plate is a from The Vatican for Pope Gregory XV dated 1621

I purchased the Fred J. Pierce collection of natural history bookplates six months ago and it is slowly being integrated into my collection. The rooster plate was done by Bertha Bates, a student of Howard Pyle and Professor Goldi's tells you much about his life's work in Brazil.

Although my weekly focus is about bookplates , I am very interested in ephemera and the joy of collecting. It is with that thought in mind that I recommend you visit the following site:

http://www.leonardschradercollection.com/

One last word : If you are a member of the American Society of Bookplate Collectors and Designers please be sure to complete the questionnaire which was recently sent to you along with The Exlibris Chronicle .We would like to complete the membership directory within three months. If you misplaced the questionnaire send me an email and I will transmit a replacement.

Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

See you next week.

Storing and Displaying Bookplates

Two pocket sheet, side one-Click on Images to Enlarge Two pocket sheet , side two.
Does anyone know who designed the Vivian De Sola Pinto plate?

Click On Images To Enlarge I received an inquiry from a new collector who wanted to know the best way to store and display bookplates.There is no one best way so I will describe what works for me and what works for a few of my collector friends. I purchase top loading loose leaf sheets that are made by a company called Ultra Pro http://www.ultrapro.com/ .Most hobby shops carry this brand or something comparable.They come with two , four and nine pockets . In each pocket I insert acid free paper to better display the bookplates.

The nicest display I know of is done by a fellow collector who has a professional framer mat bookplates in groups of four or six by designer or category and has a professional calligrapher write a brief description on the bottom of each mat. This is quite pricey but very impressive.

Here is what two other collectors have written in answer to my inquiry:

I found after a lot of experimenting that by putting the plate onto acid free card stock and inserting in a polypropylene sleeve that I can manipulate the plates well. I use photo corners to mount the plate. I use two sizes of sleeve: 5x7 and 8x10 and write information on a sheet I put into the sleeve on the verso side. I get my supplies from either Light Impressions or Gaylord; other library supply houses carry the sleeves. The sleeves can also be bought in bulk from Pro-Line/Filmguard Corp. The plates are stored into archival "shoe boxes" which hold the proper size of sleeve. My collection is arranged by artist, then by owner. Unidentified plates are a-z arranged. This is a simplistic approach but dealing with many thousands of plates can be daunting.

I mount my bookplates in 81/2" x 11" spiral-bound Rhino Sketch Journals. Each journal has 80 acid free pages (160 pages front and back). The bookplates are mounted only on the front side of the page by means of clear archival photo corners. Occasionally, I write a notation in pencil beside a bookplate. I like being able to turn the pages and look at the bookplates. That's why I store them this way, aside from the fact that it's easier than more elaborate mounting and storage procedures. I never glue a bookplate to a backing except for use in a reading book. The Rhino journals may be obtained at http://www.runningrhino.com/

Earlier this week I wrote a guest editorial for Collectors Weekly. It is a distillation of several blog postings about bookplate basics including a simple way to remove bookplates .While you are at their site take a good look at what other people collect. It's overwhelming and well worth a visit.

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/blogs/dave/guest-column-bookplate-collecting-basics/

Michael Jones , in addition to being a very talented artist is also a bookplate collector.Here is a link to his collecting website:

http://www.geocities.com/mjonesartist/ex.html

See you next week.

Bookplates Don't Get No Respect/Gertrude Lawrence

I collect bookplates from the libraries of famous people.The Gertrude Lawrence plate is a duplicate . If you have something comparable for possible exchange please send me a scan Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

Mell Efird's plate is illustrated on p.235 in Historic Bookplates In California by Clare Ryan Talbot and Howard Morepark's plate is also mentioned on P.168

If bookplates could talk they might use Rodney Dangerfield's line "I just don't get no respect" They are , if you think about it, miniature prints and yet most print collectors do not give them a second thought. Perhaps Ebay is altering the landscape ever so slightly. Paul Landacre's prints sell for thousands of dollars. Yesterday a pencil signed bookplate from his library sold for $273.00 on Ebay. The seller who is a friend was shocked and delighted.I think the buyer made a very wise investment. I have scanned a few other Landacre bookplates from my collection.

The Oriental Institute: Fragments for a History of an Institution: <center>Bookplates in the Oriental Institute Research Archives</center>

Here is a link to some interesting bookplates which was sent to me by Charles Ellwood Jones.

http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~lcr/archive/bookplates.php

Here is still another bookplate link you might enjoy.

See you next Week.

The Mabel Westall Pettee Collection

Click On Image To Enlarge

Bookplate mania in America and England was at it's peak from 1890 to about 1920.That's when the really great collections were formed. Most of them were either dispersed or absorbed into other collections . From time to time an old collection does resurface and last week I purchased a portion of the Mabel Westall Pettee collection. I am unfamiliar with this collector but suspect she lived in the Boston area. She had two bookplates that I know of , one by E. B. Bird and one by Edmund Garrett.

These collections are like old friends because they all came from the same gene pool.Perhaps there were 100 collectors who actively exchanged duplicates and many of the same core plates are to be found in all the collections They were often mounted on 6 inch by 9 inch card stock.

I am still in the process of sorting through them but have scanned some of the the the American plates from the collection which are also illustrated in Charles Dexter Allen's American Bookplates.

Since I already have copies of these plates they will either be exchanged with other collectors or sold on Ebay. More items from the collection will be added throughout the week.

Stay Tuned.

Macbeth, See Allen. P.78 and 352

Hollingsworth ,See Allen P.29 and 355

Courtenay, See Allen P.123 and 356

Hoyt, See Allen, P.366 and 367

Gorman image appears to be the same as Samuel Wesley Marvin

See Allen P.366 and 367

Coffin, See Allen P.374

Tarzan/Brains/Odds &Ends

Brian J. Bohnett is an author who has been collecting Edgar Rice Burroughs material since he was ten years old . He was kind enough to send me a copy of a letter from Burroughs explaining the symbolism in his "Tarzan" bookplate.If you click on the image it will enlarge.

I may have occasional "senior moments" but I can still recall where I got thousands of bookplates over a thirty year period.The brain is funny that way.The first brain bookplate I purchased was for Harold J. Finder. Other than the fact that he was alive in 1924 I know nothing about him. The second plate I obtained was for Bernard Zufall. He was a performer and memory expert.

I believe Dr. Ward is the Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Washington.

On the back of the Richardson plate a previous owner has made the following notations: "Phila Not Medical ..Recd 1912,Designed C.F. Marple..200 copies and the plate destroyed."

If you have any brain bookplates in your collection send me a scan and I will add them to this posting. My email is Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

The Philadelphia office for the Obama campaign opened up yesterday and I am going there right now to sign up for volunteer work. Later I will add a few more odds and ends.See you then.

Here is a video clip from Saturday Night Live with a cartoon about Obama.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=saturday+night+live+obama+cartoon&search_type=

I belong to a group called The Delaware Bibliophiles. The $10.00 annual membership entitles you to the the Endpapers newsletter which I always read from cover to cover. It is both informative and amusing. This months issue contained some actual Ebay copy that Steve Beare contributed. Here is a portion of his article:

Bidders sometimes ask questions, and sellers can include these in their descriptions along with their answers.
Q: Hi ~ I'm very interested in this auction. I was hoping you could tell me about any significant flaws the interiors of these books may have? I noticed you mention page yellowing, if that is indeed the case… Can you tell me if they an actual tan color or lighter (like a potato chip), and any other significant flaws. I really appreciate your time. Hopefully we’ll talk again!A: Hi. Please understand that this auction is only for Vol II of the set. The title page and inner cover pages are tanned, comparable to a potato chip, but more of a tan than yellow. The inner pages are an off-white with approximately 1/2" of their four edges tanned like the title page.
This is the first time I have heard of page yellowing being compared the color of a potato chip. I suppose one could come up with a scale of yellowing from mild (Pringles) to severe (Velveeta).

Sometimes auctions seem like they are written in another language:
TITLE: doughters of the cross SOUNDNESS OF BINDING: a little lose other than that goodOVERALL CONDITION: 24 pages have some kind of stains they are not that bad i belive becouse the book is so old books that old tend to get this tipes of stains, other than that grea RARE FIND.DISCRIPTION OF CONTENTS: WOW WOW here we have a rare find heroines missionaries of the cross of christ, distinguished wemen who have toiled and sufferd on heathen soil, and have given there all for the cost of the salvation of the lost, here in this book you will read many stories of how they serfferd in preaching the gospel to the lost heathen peaples of this manny countries. look at the pictures for contents.
Despite this frightening description, the book sold for $67.

If you wish to join send your $1o.oo check payable to The Delaware Bibliophiles to

Andrew McKay ,Treasurer, 7 Valley Drive, Newark De. 19711

See you next week.

Where Do You Get Bookplates ?

The etched Josiah Colby Bassett bookplate was in a group which I recently purchased . The name is not all that common so my research leads me to believe he was a lawyer in Boston who graduated from Harvard in 1900. The artist's initials SC are probably for Sheldon Cheney.
If you click on the image it will enlarge. Does anyone out there know the purpose of the smoldering basket on the pole ? I bought the plate out of curiosity and would love to know.

People often ask me where to find bookplates so I thought it might a good time to write about building a collection.

EBAY

When I started this adventure about 35 years ago there was no Ebay so I built a collection without it.

Today Ebay it is certainly an excellent way to find bookplates from around the world. It takes time and discipline because there is so much clutter but it is still worth the effort.

BOOKPLATE SOCIETIES

When I first got interested in bookplates I joined both The American and English bookplate societies .That gave me an opportunity to meet with and obtain bookplates from other collectors.

It still makes good sense to join these organizations.

www.bookplate.org

www.bookplatesociety.org

BOOKSELLERS

Antiquarian and used booksellers will go out of their way to help you if you make your interest known to them. It gets harder each year as the number of open shops decrease, and the number of pre -1920's books on the shelves is decreasing. Nevertheless , it is often productive. Start looking in either the poetry or foreign language sections as owners of such books seem to have used bookplates more frequently and there is often less turnover of inventory.

Ask the bookseller if he keeps a box of detached boards.I have found some excellent 18th century plates in such boxes.

I buy a number of bookplates from two dealers. One in the states and one in England.

Tom Boss Tgboss@comcast.net will send you bookplates on approval. Just tell him the categories you are interested in and if he has representative items he will send them on approval.

James Wilson in England has often done the same thing. His contact information is

Mr. James Wilson, 22 Castle St.,Berkhampsted Herts, HP4, 2DW, United Kingdom

BOOKBINDERS

Hand bookbinders often keep old bookplates and they might sell you some.

BOOK AND PAPER SHOWS

I have always enjoyed going to shows . After a while dealers will save things for you. It pays to stop at every booth and ask. The next show I will be attending is in Washington D. C. on Friday March 7th . Here is a link to book shows sorted by state:

http://www.bookhunterpress.com/index.cgi/bkfairsbystate.html

ANGEL OF DEATH LETTERS

I am almost (not quite) embarassed to admit to the fact that I used to look up the ages of bookplate collectors and wrote to all those over eighty to inquire if they knew of any collections for sale. The point is that it was a very productive and I bought two major collections that way.

For the record I am Seventy so do not bother me until 2018.

LETTERS TO FAMOUS PEOPLE.

I have occassionally gotten some remarkable bookplates by writing to celebrities but I have not had too much luck in recent years.Too much mail is filtered by clerks and more often than not you get a signed photo or an autopened label.

That's about all I can think of right now.I wrote the blog early this week. If you have something to add drop me a note

Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

Bookplate Exchanges

Daniel Dulany was a loyalist from Maryland and this is his son's plate. I received it in a recent trade.The link below has additional information about him.
http://books.google.com/books?id=d_sMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA156&lpg=PA156&dq=daniel+dulany+jr&source=web&ots=RELmU6V3QG&sig=gjTvZC2-BKOZcj5KgxkWIgK4vX4#PPA156,M1

From Richard Wagener

From Roy Cooney

From Charles De Langhe Bookplate engravers and designers often are willing to send you a bookplate in exchange for one of yours. It's a simple way for them to meet potential customers. Of course , you need a decent bookplate to begin with .

I am always interested in exchanging bookplates with other collectors and was very pleased to receive the January , 2008 Directory Of Members from the Bookplate Society. There are about 200 + individual members in the group and about 159 have indicated a willingness to trade , along with their areas of interest. If you have been looking at this blog for a while and want to bite the bullet, come out of hiding and join an organization which gives much more than it gets , now is the time to act. The society website is http://www.bookplatesociety.org/

There is a good deal of information about the society, it's history,news and events, how to join, publications etc. Stop procrastinating.

By the way I am going to list the wants of collectors in some future posting. If you would like to be included send me your contact information and the kinds of bookplates you are looking for.

Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com For a while, I was spelling out my email address with dots and coms to thwart the Nigerian scammers, Irish Sweepstakes winning notifications, problems with my bank account at banks I never heard of etc. but I have now downloaded Dr. Zorba's deathray so I feel fully protected .

Here are the kinds of bookplates I am most interested in trading or buying:

18th century American,

Judaica from any country,

bookplates from the libraries of famous people from any country

plus wharever strikes my fancy.

Here is a link to a blog which lists many interesting book related blogs. It will keep you busy for a while so bookmark it if you are pressed for time.

http://www.bibliopolis.com/main/books/book-blogs.html

See you next week.