Collector Profile- Michael Kunze

My own bookplate made in 2000, still looking like me.

Michael and Elizabeth Kunze

I did not chose to collect bookplates - it seems it lay in wait for me.

In September 1997 a friendly second-hand bookseller  gave me a book with a bookplate. I read that book and still have it:  The German translation of Mary Holderness'  "Journey from Riga to the Crimea" (1822), printed 1824 in Jena, Germany.
 Nice but nothing special so far; However, the owner’s bookplate  "Ex Bibliotheca Serenissimae Domus Saxo-Isenacensis"  - i.e. (Library of the venerable House Saxon-Eisenach) puzzled me.

 That puzzle which drew me me into the bookplate-jungle was hidden in detail. The "Domus Saxo-Isenacensis". The last descendant of the family ruling the Duchy Saxon-Eisenach died in 1741.  So - how did it get into a book printed in 1824? All I found out was that the The Duchy was combined  in 1809 with the Duchy of Saxon-Weimar to form Saxon-Weimar-Eisenach.  After quite a time I had  called the Chief Librarian of the Duchess-Anna-Amalia-Library in Weimar by phone and asked him if he had an explanation. He did not have any at hand and  promised to call me back. Some days later he fulfilled his promise and told me that in 1809 all the books of the Eisenach-Library were brought to Weimar to be added to the Library there - together with quite a number of unused Eisenach-bookplates. And as it was obvious that from now on all books marked by this bookplate belong to Weimar, they decided to use the remaining bookplates up to the last one to mark new bought books. A nice by the way: Library director from 1797 unto his death 1832 was Johann Wolfgang Goethe.

This initial bookplate experience had consequences. It is the main reason why my interest in this heartwarming hobby still is searching and investigating for details about the owner of a bookplate. The pictures get more focused when the outlines of a biography are unearthed. That still is what moves me most.

Sometimes, if an owner’s name gets my attention I  only, in the second place, notice how beautiful a bookplate looks.

Here are several of my favorites:

Carl Otto Czeschka, born 1878 in Vienna,  lived in Hamburg when he made the elegant bookplate for Martha Hane in 1910.

                                                             Michel Fingesten's Bookplate

Max Klinger did this bookplate for Eduard Arnhold, a Berlin merchant and banker, in 1906

For several years my main interest has been pictorial Judaica bookplates .

There are other bookplates categories and artists of interest such as 

Literary authors writing in German as owners or artists

Max Klinger,

Hermann Struck,

Emil Orlik,
Michel Fingesten,

Fre Cohen (The Netherlands),
Willi Geiger,

Bruno Heroux,

Georg Jilovsky,

E.M. Lilien,

Hans Thoma and others.

There also are a lot of unsigned bookplates which excite me. Often of interest is the way a bookplate is printed.  It certainly mustn't be a copper engraving to be of interest. But on the other hand engraving sometimes says something about the skill of the artist, of his creative ability,  the love of his handicraft  and, last not least,  something about the number of exemplars probably being in circulation.

I am not a member of any bookplate society. But there are some fellow collectors sharing my interests.  It is a pleasure to exchange stories, opinions, suppositions - and bookplates, of course.

Michael Kunze, Dortmund, Germany
M.kunze@dokom.net
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Notes From Lew

  Thank  you Michael for submitting your profile.

Mrs. Geri Caruso sent me this Email last week

"I wanted to let you know that after reading your blog and looking at the bookplates for a while I decided to contacted one of the bookplate artists. She designed a bookplate for my son which I gave him as a birthday present. We did it so that he can reproduced it by printing it on sticky paper. It was a hit! Highly individual and useful forever
Michael is reader and a gardener. The little guy in the picture is his son Nick"

Here is the bookplate which was designed by Muriel Frega
murielfrega@gmail.com

.
I really enjoyed this month's edition of the Old Book News Monthly and want to share it with you.
Of particular interest was the article about searching on line book databases

http://www.clique.co.uk/OBN-Jul.htm

See you again next Sunday.

Bookplates For Exchange

I have not received any collector profiles for a while and hope a few more of you will participate.
The format is quite simple.Send me a few paragraphs about yourself and your collection along with some scans of your favorite bookplates.If English is not your first language I will assist you with the words and any suggested changes will be sent to you for approval before publishing.
Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

Here are a few randomly selected examples of collector profiles.

http://bookplatejunkie.blogspot.com/2012/05/collector-profile-john-blatchly.html

http://bookplatejunkie.blogspot.com/2012/08/collector-profile-thomas-c-s-wixon.html

http://bookplatejunkie.blogspot.com/2011/10/collector-profile-luigi-bergomi.html

http://bookplatejunkie.blogspot.com/2012/03/collector-profile-wally-jansen.html

http://bookplatejunkie.blogspot.com/2010/06/collector-profile-michele-behan.html

Skype

    I confess, I  am a lapsed Luddite.

About three years ago my children purchased  a video camera for me and set up a Skype account.

My first Skype conversation occurred on a Sunday morning when the kids and grand kids called while I was sitting in front of the camera in my pajamas  .working on the blog.

My visceral reaction was that Skype is  very intrusive and an invasion of my privacy.
 I did what any devout Luddite would do, I pulled the plug.

Lately, I have begun to experiment with Skype and have had pleasant video conversations with collectors in England and Germany. Skype has great potential for bookplate exchanges.

Bookplates For Possible Exchange

 Exchanges are a simple way to add to your collection
.I have scanned a number of duplicates for possible exchange.
None of  them are larger than 2 1/2 inches wide by 3 1/2 inches high.

Click On The Images  To Enlarge

George W.Alexander was the mayor of Los Angeles in 1912.

The artist's initials are H G B

William Hensel's bookplate was designed by David McNeely Stauffer

Elizabeth D. Pope was a science fiction collector in Utah

Harold F. Pitcairn was an aviation pioneer

Harold May Elwood's bookplate was designed by Harvey Ellis in 1898
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Ellis

C.B. Farwell's plate was engraved by The Western Banknote and Engraving Co.
C. B. Farwell was a New England-descendant Chicago family man, businessman, political leader, and philanthropist who helped to found the town of Lake Forest in 1856-57 and then to relaunch the Collegiate Department of Lake Forest University in the 1870s. He was the institution's largest benefactor in the 19th C., contributing ca. $300,000 (in the era when Rockefeller initially founded the University of Chicago with $1 million).

Marguerite Hope Bennett's plate was designed by Dean Babcock of Denver Colorado

Richard H. Lawrence was a member of the Grolier Club.His engraved and embossed bookplate
did not scan well ..It is very delicate.and quite lovely.

Henry Hutton  Landon's plate pretty much tells you everything you need to know about his background.and interests.

Hugh and Margaret Eaton were bookplate designers .This was an early bookplate they used in their own books.The plate has a few repaired tears and a small part of the upper right corner is missing.

George May Elwood's plate was designed by Harvey Ellis in 1898

The plate for Mr and Mrs Stevens was engraved in 1929 by HF (The artist's initials are tiny and difficult to read even with magnifying glass)

Hyder Edward Rollins plate was done by Rudolph Ruzicka

Neil Elliott's plate was done by Leonard Baskin

Florence Bronson Windom's plate was also done by Rudolph Ruzicka

Harold Murdock's plate was done by Amy M Sackler and is illustrated on page 119 in
American Bookplate  byWilliam E. Butler

E.B.D. used a Roycrofrt bookplate

De Robert Sonnenschein's plate was engraved by J.W.Jameson  in 1937

That about wraps it up for today
.See you next Sunday..

This Week In Bookplates 6/30/2013

In 2004 a very generous friend invested many hours making a detailed hard copy inventory of my 18th century American bookplate collection. Since then I have been keeping records of additional purchases on various scraps of paper . It is very disorganized so I have begun to sort about 130 bookplates purchased since 2004 and am attempting to put them into an Excel  database. In doing so I have found a  mystery bookplates along with one or two duplicates I didn't  know I had..

Here is a mystery bookplate:
 Allen #980

Allen describes it as follows:  Unidentified (name defaced)
    Pictorial .An Eagle holding a small United States shield in his beak, and a ribbon on which the United States motto is given E Pluribus Unum. In the oval beneath ,Use this carefully and return it immediately.
A bible under all.
Signed W.Barber, Sculpt.
The only W.Barber listed in Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters , Sculptor's and Engravers  is William Barber
 " Engraver,.Born in London 1807 ;died in Philadelphia  1879 .He started as a silver plate engraver but soon entered the employ of the U.S. mint in Philadelphia where he remained until his death."
My assumption is that the owner of the mystery plate was probably located in or near Philadelphia.
If any of you have  information about this plate please contact me

Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

I received a call from Tom Boss about this mystery bookplate. He recalls seeing it some time ago and the name that he remembers is William Ballord. I found one reference to that name on p. 21 in A Classified List of Early American Bookplates with a Brief description of The Principal Styles  And A note As to The Prominent Engravers by Charles Dexter Allen .  This is a  booklet that was made to accompany an exhibition at the Grolier Club ,Oct.1894. More research needs to be done but this is a good start.

Here are of the duplicates I unearthed for possible trade or sale.

Allen #41 Harry Atwood

Allen# 805 William Smith  A.M.

Allen #467 Knight's of the Square Table

 This one is not a duplicate.
 It's interesting how the meaning of words changes over a period of time. Describing someone as cheap generally has a negative connotation nowadays but in the mid 19th century it was something to brag about.

Pinterest , an Internet scrapbook has multiple pages with bookplate illustrations.
Follow the link below to see Ingrid Sherwood's labor of love.

http://pinterest.com/spencerbunny11/book-plates/

Here is another interesting link with many Japanese woodblock prints including bookplates and matchbox covers
from the  Collection of Gary and Janet Christenson
http://www.miniaturejapaneseprints.com/id7.html

Unknown artist. Woodblock printed matchbox cover. Image size 33 mm x 52 mm.	Unknown artist. Woodblock printed matchbox cover. Image size 33 mm x 52 mm.	Unknown artist. Woodblock printed matchbox cover. Image size 33 mm x 52 mm.
Unknown artist. Woodblock printed matchbox cover. Image size 33 mm x 52 mm.	Unknown artist. Woodblock printed matchbox cover. Image size 33 mm x 52 mm.	Unknown artist. Woodblock printed matchbox cover. Image size 33 mm x 52 mm.
Unknown artist. Woodblock printed matchbox cover. Image size 33 mm x 52 mm.	Unknown artist. Woodblock printed matchbox cover. Image size 33 mm x 52 mm.	Unknown artist. Woodblock printed matchbox cover. Image size 33 mm x 52 mm.
Unknown artist. Woodblock printed matchbox cover. Image size 34 mm x 52 mm.	Unknown artist. Woodblock printed matchbox cover. Image size 34 mm x 52 mm.	Unknown artist. Woodblock printed matchbox cover. Image size 34 mm x 52 mm.

I'm tempted to start collecting these but time and money slow me down.
See you next Sunday.

More About Exchanges and Israeli Bookseller Labels

On Monday June 17th Fellow collector Yosef Halper    came   to the states for his semi -annual  family visit.. He took a side trip to Philadelphia and we traded duplicates. Here is one of the items  I got from him.
The link below is about his store in TelAviv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O04oZtMWuZM

Unless Inspector Porter received a multi volume set of books there are no other copies of this leather bookplate.
Inspector Porter is mentioned in the link shown below.

.http://hampshireconstabularyhistory.org.uk/?page_id=866

I remember a movie called The Yellow Rolls Royce in which the ownership of a car is traced from generation to generation. Inspector Porter's bookplate started its journey in Victorian England and somehow  got to Israel . Now it's here in Philadelphia..If only the book it was originally pasted in could talk I suspect it would tell a remarkable story.  Books with the bookplates used by successive owners do just that.
They talk to those willing to listen, about a book's journey.

Another thing I like is bookseller labels. Here is group of Israeli labels which  Yosef brought along for exchange

Speaking of bookseller labels, I recently added Gabe Konrad's website to my blogroll.
http://www.booksellerlabels.com/Home_Page.php

From Gabe Konrad's Website
" Pictured below is a beautiful label from Universitas Booksellers in Jerusalem.  This is a large label—truly bookplate size at 7 cm by 12 cm.  Until recently I would have sworn this was designed by Reynolds Stone, but in fact it was designed by Ismar David (1919-1996).  David was a German-born graphic artist who lived in Palestine from 1932 until 1952.  In ’52 David moved to New York where he remained until his death."

This is one of my favorite bookplates. I think the artist was Mary Waterman Bonsall but I can't say that with certainty

See You Next Sunday

A Newly Discovered Bartolozzi Pictorial and Bookplate Exchanges

A newly discovered Bartolozzi pictorial Submitted by John Blatchly

"Jim Shurmer kindly sent me a scan of this fine design, its Latin inscription 'Ex-libris Elisabethae Lichtner' correctly declining the lady's first name into the genitive. I can as yet throw no light on her identity, but accept Anthony Pincott's suggestion that the design was borrowed as recently as 1900, and most Lichtners seem based in the United States.

            Bartolozzi almost always stipple-engraved bookplates after Cipriani but the designer of this Classical scene is E F Burney, Edward Francis, favourite nephew of Dr Charles Burney and cousin of Fanny. His father Richard Burney, Charles's brother, was a dancing master. Of the young Edward Francis, Sir Joshua Reynolds wrote 'His propensity to painting is so strong that I believe we must call it genius'. High praise from the master, with a recommendation that he should be hung at the Royal Academy which he was from 1780 to 1793. Read of him (as E B) in Charles Lamb's Essay Valentine's Day. He was a prolific illustrator, for example, for his uncle Charles's Handel Commemoration of 1784, the History of Music and his cousin James Burney's Discoveries in the Pacific. He played the violin at the Norbury home of his cousin Susan and her husband: 'We do not apply to Edward commonly till after supper – and then he is grown very good. Good food and good wine no doubt. EFB died unmarried at his house in Wimpole Street in 1848, aged 88."

Note from Lew . I am always delighted to receive submissions for inclusion in the blog and am most appreciative  that John Blatchly took the time to send us this information.
Here is John's collector profile.
http://bookplatejunkie.blogspot.com/2012/05/collector-profile-john-blatchly.html


Two of the things I enjoy most about this strange hobby are bookplate exchanges, and researching topics  about which I know very little.This  three inch square bookplate from Newmarket Virginia was one of the items I recently got in an exchange with a fellow collector.My educated guess is that Rebecca Hentel * was a Mennonite and she lived in late 18th or early 19th century.
. I just ordered a copy of  the book listed below to learn more about the subject and I will keep you updated

History of Mennonites in Virginia 1727-1900 (vol 1) , by Harry Anthony Brunk

*Fellow Collector Michael Kunze just sent me this information .

Thank you Michael

Hello Lewis,
very interesting, your bookplate of Rebecca Henkel (not: Hentel) as you wrote.
found some more stuff about her family I guess,, look for:

Physicians in the Shenandoah Valley: Letters, 1860-1864 http://oculus.nlm.nih.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=henkel;cc=henkel;rgn=main;view=text;idno=2934124R-4 Mar 26, 2013 Henkel , Rebecca to Henkel , Caspar Coiner, March 1860. Broguerun. Va. by this time is John in NewmarketNew Market (Va.)  Note From Lew  Now that I have the correct spelling a Google search  led me to this site: http://www.newmarkethistoricalsociety.org/Solomon_Henkel_bio_for_NMHS_website.pdf I discovered that Rebecca Henkel's husband  Dr. Solomon Henkel owned a printing press.. "According to his will and the settlement of his estate (9 Nov 1847), Dr. Solomon Henkel owned an Operating room, Laboratory, Medicine Rook, Brick storehouse with counting room, and a Bookbindery and Copperplate Press. Although Solomon‟s younger brother, Ambrose Henkel, was the first printer in New Market, Solomon is known to have co-owned the Henkel Printing Press, or at least had controlling interest in it, as of 1807, 1811, 1817, according to various sources. These buildings were grouped near each other , rather like a family compound"

Physicians in the Shenandoah Valley: Letters, 1860-1864

http://oculus.nlm.nih.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=henkel;cc=henkel;rgn=main;view=text;idno=2934124R-4

Mar 26, 2013 Henkel , Rebecca to Henkel , Caspar Coiner, March 1860. Broguerun. Va. by this time is John in NewmarketNew Market (Va.) 

Note From Lew  Now that I have the correct spelling a Google search  led me to this site:

http://www.newmarkethistoricalsociety.org/Solomon_Henkel_bio_for_NMHS_website.pdf

I discovered that Rebecca Henkel's husband  Dr. Solomon Henkel owned a printing press..
"According to his will and the settlement of his estate (9 Nov 1847), Dr. Solomon Henkel owned an Operating room, Laboratory, Medicine Rook, Brick storehouse with counting room, and a Bookbindery and Copperplate Press. Although Solomon‟s younger brother, Ambrose Henkel, was the first printer in New Market, Solomon is known to have co-owned the Henkel Printing Press, or at least had controlling interest in it, as of 1807, 1811, 1817, according to various sources. These buildings were grouped near each other , rather like a family compound"

This Week in Bookplates 6/10/201

Fellow collector Stephen Pochin has written a new  book  focusing on the art and bookplates of
 Osman Spare and other notable Edwardian artists.
The book can be purchased at this site:

http://www.weiserantiquarian.com/cgi-bin/wab455/44494.html?id=8f68HDQM

A FEARFUL ASYMMETRY  
THE PECULIAR STYLISTIC INNOVATIONS OF AN EDWARDIAN SYMBOLIST!
BY STEPHEN POCHIN
AFTERWORD & COMMENTARIES BY DR WILLIAM WALLACE


Binding:
Hardback, square format (8.5” x 8.5”), 220 pp. Produced using archival quality print upon a superb soft white, 110gsm acid-free archival art paper — profusely illustrated throughout together with an index of bookplates by artist. Bound in a black subtle weave linen finished paper and elegantly blocked in matt black and gold on the upper board. .





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I purchased this trade label on Ebay recently.It probably was used in boxed instruments but this one was pasted on the inside front cover of    The Shipmaster's Assistant and Commercial Digest ,9th edition published in 1857. It is easy to date the label because the firm moved to 244 South Front Street around 1860. I already had two similar labels shown below. 

The Frederick W. Lincoln Jr. label was also pasted in a book purchased on Ebay  several years ago. 

 My favorite is The W. Hooker label and I have no idea where I obtained it.The proprietor William Hooker engraved it. He worked in Philadelphia around 1805 and moved to New York City around 1840. "He engraved a few portraits in stipple ,and subject plates in line, but he seems to have been chiefly employed in map engraving" *

*Ref.Page 174 Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters Sculptors and Engravers with an Addendum      James F. Carr publisher 1965














Duplicate Pencil Signed European Bookplates for Possible Exchange 

Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com










By Walter  Wuyts








By Clemente Garcia Gil



By Edmund Peter




Modern Books and Manuscripts

Houghton Library, Harvard University



http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/houghtonmodern/2013/05/29/the-bookplates-of-harvard-men/

   The Houghton Library   Blog has a very interesting article about the bookplates of Harvard graduates




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Bookplate Odds and Ends

Mystery Bookplate Sketch
     I was looking for something and opened one of  many boxes we put into a closet about forty years ago.
It looks like something I might have purchased and just forgot about ..A quick Google search showed a Dr.
Lynval E. Davidson whose collection of fine press books was sold at auction in 1969.Perhaps this sketch was done for him. Any information you have about the bookplate or the artist would be appreciated

Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

Larry Nix at the Library History  Buff has written about the bookplate of Hiram Deats
http://libraryhistorybuff.blogspot.com/2013/05/bookplates-and-hiram-e-deats.html

Eleanor Sears, beautiful engraving by A,.J. Downey

Lower right outside corner was torn and repaired
 One of the items I put on Ebay
My seller name is bookplatemaven

Walker, I don’t know anything about the owner.

It looks like one arrow has already hit him in the back  (another of the items I listed  on Ebay).

This is an interesting item I no longer have.

Someone took a trade card from the 1890’s cut it down to about 3 in. square and pasted a pen and ink book drawing into the infants hand.

Perhaps it was done by Mr. Bare or perhaps it was done by someone named Lang.

Another unknown is whether this mock up was a proof or whether Mr. Bare created individual clever bookplates for his books.