Bookplate News From Around The World

Louis OscarGriffith (1875-1956) was an etcher and painter who lived in many places but is considered an Indiana artist. These two plates by him were recently purchased on Ebay.
I have multiple copies of the Mary A. Warren plate for possible exchange.
In fact, I have multiple copies of many bookplates (mostly U.S. & U.K.) for exchange.
Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

Mark Wilson created a computer generated bookplate which involved a great deal of technical expertise and is described in the link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/funnypolynomial/2569499796/

On the way to the Cooperstown book show I stopped off at the Hobart Book Village.It has grown since my trip last year and well worth a visit if you plan to be in New York State.The truth of the matter is I was delighted to see that they are prospering.It takes a group of brave dedicated souls to launch a "book town" and hopefully some of you will visit them and spread the word.
Here is a link http://www.hobartbookvillage.com/

Claus Wittal in Germany has listed thousands of bookplates for sale. His website (in German) is well laid out and you should be able to find some items of interest.
http://www.exlibrisart.com/

Howard Prouty of ReadInk Books has a Hollywood "Bookplate Graveyard"
http://www.readinkbooks.com/home/bookplatehollywood.htm

Thanks to Will Smith of HangFire Books I made some modifications to the blog so that it downloads more rapidly. In addition, a search engine was added to locate specific topics within the archives. Will , by the way has a great bookseller's blog with an edge.
http://hangfirebooks.blogspot.com/

Random Thoughts About Collecting/Old Hobbies Revisited

My napkin(that's right napkin) collection was given to my daughter Moira. The cigarette rolling paper collection went to my son Steven.

Stamp Collecting was one of my earliest hobbies (after bubblegum cards). Here are two bookplates by H.L. Peckmore relating to that hobby. Click on the Images to enlarge,

I used to collect bookmarks but most of that collection was sold; however, I kept a few of my favorites. The Indian bookmark is made of aluminum.

Bubble Gum cards were easy to collect and only cost 1 cent, plus they came with bubble gum. Some secret ingredient in the bubble gum was vital to our war effort so that hobby ended shortly after Pearl Harbor. After the war ended my father took me to Manhattan where I was able to buy bubble gum once again at the inflated price of 5 cents. Fast forward last year: I stopped off at a bookshop on the way to the Cooperstown book show and purchased this card for $4.00 I will be going to Cooperstown next weekend to attend the show.It's off the beaten path, which is why I enjoy it. Here is a link to information about the show http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:pXsEqEntJfwJ:www.bookhunterpress.com/index.cgi/bkfairs.html+cooperstown+book+show&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

I used to collect ceramic tiles and art pottery. The framed dragonfly tile was made by The American Encaustic Tile Company . E.Stanley Wires wrote about the history of ceramic tiles in the United States. His bookplate was sent to me by Paul Evans whose book Art Pottery Of The United States is still one of the most useful reference books for both beginning and advanced collectors. I assume it is out of print .

See you next week .

P.S. If you are in upstate New York and have bookplates to sell or trade I would like to hear from you. Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

Hand Written Names On Books

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZbookplatemavenQQfrppZ50QQfsopZ32QQfsooZ2QQrdZ0
Link to my Ebay items. Some bookplates plus an odd assortment of things. In the 18th and early 19th centuries bookplates were primarily used by people of means. That did not stop students and the less affluent from creating their own bookplates on the inside front cover or the first blank endpaper. Here are some distinctive examples.
Click on images to enlarge -The image above is not a bookplate . It is hand written ephemera in a book.The Lords Prayer done in the space of a ten cent piece by someone in
Pottsville , Pennsylvania
General George Meade did go to school in Philadelphia but the name is not unusual so I have no way of determining if this was his signature.
I had to look at the Sarah Lawrence plate under a magnifying glass to make sure it was not printed.
Maria Reigart lived in Lancaster Pennsylvania around 1825





Probably done with Oak gall or some other highly acidic ink which ate through the paper.

George Benson went on to become an attorney in Baltimore Maryland.

Last night I listed an odd assortment of items on Ebay.From bookplates to an apparatus for playing duplicate Whist. I will continue to add additional items throughout the dayThere is a link to my Eay items at the top of the page.
See you next week.

Who Watches This Blog?/18th Century Name Labels

http://digital.library.louisville.edu/collections/hewett/
Congratulations to Emily R. Symonds and her colleagues for digitizing the bookplates of Ainslie Hewett. Click onto the link above .It is informative and well thought out.



Walk A Crooked Mile , a book store at the the Mt. Airy train station is a throw back to another time . Here is a blog entry from Straight From The Farm describing it.
.http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2139/2241148897_9ecb8a731b.jpg&imgrefurl=http://straightfromthefarm.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/walk-a-crooked-mile-books/&h=333&w=500&sz=192&hl=en&start=7&sig2=lPcyaxhjAQU4FmKl06vzXQ&tbnid=Q4hQQ8tqV8GOYM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=130&ei=JPJLSKS6HpCSerWM4d0E&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmt.%2Bairy%2Btrain%2Bstation%2Bbookstore%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

I usually go there in the spring and fall because it is a nice place to visit even when I come home empty handed. Last week I got an 18th century woodcut name label for James B. Wilkinson. This is not the American general and I have not found out who he was. It is interesting to note that St. John's College in Annapolis is still active. The plate for John Campbell (1765-1828) also of Maryland was already in my collection. He was a member of the Maryland senate and the U.S. congress. If you click on the image to enlarge it you will see that the Cartouche of bound Acanthus leaves on both plates was done by the same artist.


I am often surprised about the numbers of viewers coming to this blog from around the world.This graph puts the data into digestible form. To me the most interesting fact is that 4% of of the viewers are from Brazil and that China is not even shown. I am not sure why that is since there are more active bookplate collectors in Mainland China than there are in the U.S. and The U.K. combined.

This Week In Bookplates 6/1/2008

Andy English recently completed this bookplate for Hans Maurer. In the May 25th posting on his blog there is a fascinating video about the transformation of a block of wood into a bookplate. http://studiodiary.blogspot.com/

I went to two library book sales this week and here is a site to help you locate the book sales in your community. http://www.booksalefinder.com/

At one of the sales I got an 18th century dated book label for Samuel Dexter (Allen # 222)

He was among other things, the fourth U.S. Secretary of war (1800-1801) and the third U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (four months in 1801)

Click On Images to Enlarge

One of the joys of my bookplate research is discovering little gems about people and events in history. Joseph W.Seton Jr. was a San Diego California Banker and a naturalist. His bookplate is is not all that noteworthy but in my research I found that every employee at his bank was trained in marksmanship . On the evening news in Philadelphia they show videos of some guy who robs local banks with impunity.The good old days may not have been so good but they certainly had some good ideas.While I am in my grumpy old fart mood let me ask a question.

Am I the only one who wishes cell phones were never invented ? I was at a book sale yesterday and could not believe the number of disruptive phone rings and loud talkers.

Journal of San Diego History: "The Bank's shooting range (on the top floor of its downtown office building) was installed by Joseph Sefton Jr. so that everyone 'would know how to shoot straight in case of robbery.'

Next Monday and Tuesday (June 9th & 10th) I will be bookplate hunting in Manhattan and Brooklyn. If you have bookplates to sell or trade let me hear from you. I can be reached at Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

See you next week.

This Week In Bookplates 5/25/2008

On Friday I went to The Archive in Lansdale , Pa. http://www.thearchivebooksandpaper.com/
If you collect ephemera and plan to be near Philadelphia it is well worth a visit. I found among other things , a bookplate from the library of Ellen Doubleday. She ran the company after Nelson Doubleday's death. Click on the image to enlarge and see books by many of Doubleday's authors.The artist's name is difficult to read but it looks like B. Feltt or Peltt.

In the early twentieth century light bulbs were cutting edge technology and worthy of recognition in bookplates. If you can't live without seeing more examples here is a link to a 2006 posting about them. http://bookplatejunkie.blogspot.com/2006/07/rats-gnats-and-light-bulbs.html

Henry Ottridge Reik, M.D.(1868-1938) was an author and Ophthalmologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital

Charles Cox is a professional bookseller in the United Kingdom with whom I have had most favorable transactions. He has cataloged and is offering books from John Fowles library with his bookplate. His email is Rarebooks@coxnbox.co.uk

There is some confusion about who designed John Fowles bookplate. It is attributed by some as having been done by Reynolds Stone but I question this because it is not on any Stone checklists I know of, it does not look like Stone's style and the initials CN or possibly CW can be see on the plate. Here is a link to a very well written article by James Fergusson in the Times Literary Supplement about the John Fowles, Charles Cox, Brian North Lee and the joy of collecting.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article3006095.ece

Mr.Fergusson also mentions another John Fowles bookplate which Mr. Cox did not find in any of the books he cataloged.

See you next week.

Bookplate Hunt ,Brooklyn New York

The latest issue of The Chronicle will be mailed out to members of the American Society of Bookplate Collectors & Designers during the week of May 26th. I am taking a more active role in it's preparation and two articles in particular are noteworthy.There is a checklist of the bookplates of Ralph Fletcher Seymour plus a checklist of bookplates by Daniel Mitsui.
Here is a new bookplate recently completed by Daniel Mitsui for one of our new members, Gabe Konrad of Bayleaf Books:
http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/slbuwk/konrad_big.jpg

For those of you who have three lifetimes to spend reviewing book related blogs here is the most complete resource I have found:
http://www.complete-review.com/links/bloglink.htm

My blog evolved with no particular planning or forethought but frankly I am running out of steam . If you are a bookplate collector I would be delighted to write about your collection. If you are a bookplate designer I might feature you in a future posting. My contact email is Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com
I will be in Brooklyn New York on June 9th and 10th . If you are in Brooklyn and have bookplates for sale or exchange, I would like to hear from you.
In the business section of the May 17th New York Times there was an interview with the president of Greyhound Bus Lines. He mentioned an online bus venture called Boltbus http://www.boltbus.com/ Out of curiosity I decided to make a reservation for my Brooklyn trip.Much to my surprise the total round trip fare Philadelphia to New York City was only $12.00
I always figure that if something sounds too good to be true it is probably flawed. So, if they strap me to the top of the bus with roosters in cages I will not be surprised . I will let you know after the trip is completed.

See you next week.

Let's Face It Ebay Really Works Well

Here is someting I purchased on Ebay last week which fits in nicely with my collection of bookplates from the libraries of famous people.The plate with the sailing ship is one that Kenneth Roberts (1885-1957) starting using around 1937.Pasted under it was a plate he used in the 1920's . I was able to get several additional copies from the seller and they will eventually be listed on Ebay.

Three generations of Jaffes plus one bear at the Brooklyn Flea on Sunday.

Most people seem to bitch and moan about Ebay but my experience has been much more positive than negative. Sure, there is lots of clutter and misrepresentation but at the end of the day, it works well for buyers and sellers. My friend and fellow bookplate enthusiast Anthony Pincott has listed about twenty bookplates for the Bookplate Society.Here is a link:

http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZlondon3621QQfrppZ50QQfsopZ32QQfsooZ2QQrdZ0

I don't have the patience to do searches on Ebay the way I used to but you can sometimes find hidden gems with spelling variations. When time permits I search for bookplate , book plate

ex libris , exlibris etc.

Later in the week I plan to list some bookplates on Ebay and I will add a link for them .

See you next Sunday.

More about the Eatons

Birth Certificate

Christmas Cards

Illuminated Cards

Early in their venture the Eatons published under the name Valhal Studio and later changed the spelling to Valhall Studio.I am gathering biographical information about them but for the moment let me focus on the wide range of items they made besides bookplates. The uncolored illuminated cards were five cents each and fifty cents per dozen. I have not found any price list yet for the hand coloring. Since I have duplicate copies of some of these items I will put some of them on Ebay. Send me an Email Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com if you would like to know when they are going to be listed.

This is the first Sunday I have skipped setting up at the flea market in Brooklyn www.brooklynflea.com

The weather forecast was for a 60% chance of rain . Unless it rains again I will try again next Sunday. It's Lot's of fun but the cost of participation , car rental and gas makes it difficult to make very much money so I may not be doing it too much longer.

See you next week.

The Eatons and the Valhal Studio in Brooklyn

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE One of the unexpected benefits of writing this blog is that every once in a while someone offers me something which belongs in my collection. In the early 1900's Hugh and Margaret Eaton had a studio at 339 Halsey St. in Brooklyn . Not much has been written about them since 1905 when The Troutsdale Press issued a 30 page pamphlet with bookplate tip -ins . I previously wrote about them on June 16th, 2007. To survive they produced all sorts of ephemeral items such as bookmarks, illuminated cards, invitations,calendars, bridge tallys. children's books etc. The good news is that a treasure trove of samples and original art work has come my way and I am in the process of sorting and cataloging it. The next few blogs will focus on the output of this remarkable arts and crafts studio. Stay Tuned.

Kimberly De Souza recently completed her first bookplate and would like to do another one. If you are thinking about getting a custom made bookplate she can be reached at

kim_de_souza_@hotmail.com" I currently reside in Singapore, though I spent 5 years of my childhood in Perth, Australia. I just turned 19 and I am currently completing my last year for my Specialized Diploma in Public Relations and Diploma in Mass Communications. I intend to travel the world next year before I start my Degree, hopefully in Fine Arts.The polar bear bookplate was first drawn on sketching paper with graphite pencils. I got the sketch scanned and pretty much just got the drawing reproduced in a smaller scale on matte sticker paper. The polar bear bookplate is a special present for my boyfriend, just because he loves polar bears after reading His Dark Materials."

Here are a few interesting links :

This one from The California State Library Foundation is about the California muralist Maynard Dixon's bookplates.

http://www.cslfdn.org/pdf/Issue89.pdf

This one is from Wolfgang Rieger , a bookplate dealer in Germany who illustrates many German plates for sale:

http://www.antiquariat-rieger.de/neueexlibris.htm

This one from The State Library of Queensland is about Adrian Feint

http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibit/online/ex_libris/adrian_feint

Watch Papers, Korean & Chinese Charms

Here is a link to my Ebay bookplate auction
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=ViewListedItems&since=7&userid=bookplatemaven&include=0&rows=50&sort=3&completed=1CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO ENLARGE
My wife Mary has begun to collect Chinese , Japanese and Korean Charms. If you have any for sale please contact me at Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

Watch Paper engraved by Paul Revere for Willard Watch And Clock Maker
CLICK on Images To Enlarge



CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO ENLARGE AND SEE THE DETAILS Several years ago I spotted what I thought was a bookplate while shopping at Papermania.It turned out to be a watch paper , so let me explain what they are. Watch papers fit into pocket watches and were engraved by many of the same people who engraved bookplates.They prevent dust and lint from getting into the watch movement.They often have patriotic images and advertise the local firm that sold and serviced the watch. The only watch paper reference book I know of is American Watch Papers by Dorothea E. Spear

Phyllis Bobb of Reclaimed Home stopped by my space at the Brooklyn Flea last Sunday and took some photos. You can see them by clicking on the link below. I will be there again on Sunday April 27th. Stop by if you are in the neighborhood and say hello.

http://reclaimedhome.com/2008/04/21/flea-finds/