Ex Libris(bookplate)

George Bancroft's bookplate and signature. "εἰςφάος"isAncient Greekfor "Toward the Light". The tablet is an ancient Romantabula ansata

AnEx Librisfromex librīs(Latinfor 'from the books (or library)'),also known as abookplate(orbook-plate,as it was commonly styled until the early 20th century),is a printed or decorative label pasted into a book, often on the frontendpaper,to indicate ownership.Simple typographical bookplates are termed "book labels".

Bookplates often bear a motif relating to the book's owner, such as acoat-of-arms,crest,badge,motto,or a design commissioned from an artist or designer.The name of the owner usually follows an inscription such as "from the books of..." or "from the library of...", or in Latin, "ex libris".Bookplates are important evidence for theprovenanceof books.

The most traditional technique used to make bookplates isburin engraving.The engraved copper matrix is then printed with anintaglio presson paper, and the resulting print can be pasted into the book to indicate ownership.

In the United States, bookplates replacedbook rhymes(which replacedbook curses) after the 19th century.

History

Early examples

Bookplate for Hildebrand Brandenburg of Biberach, woodcut, black printing ink, and hand coloring on paper (Germany, 1480). Bookplate is in Jacobus de Voragine'sSermones quadragesimales(Bopfingen, Württemberg, 1408)

Sir Patrick (Peter) Budge Murray Threipland 4th Bt. ofFingask Castle(1762–1837). From a copy of a 1761Book of Common Prayer

Bookplate depicting ancient city ofEmporionor Empúries, inCatalonia,Spain

The bookplate of theSwedishandNorwegiankingOscar II.

The earliest known marks of ownership of books or documents date from the reign of Amenophis III in Egypt (1391−1353 BCE).

However, in their modern form, they evolved from simple inscriptions in books which were common in Europe in the Middle Ages, when various other forms of "librarianship" became widespread (such as the use of class-marks,call numbers,orshelfmarks). The earliest known examples of printed bookplates are German, and date from the 15th century. One of the best known is a small hand-coloured woodcut representing a shield of arms supported by an angel, which was pasted into books presented to theCarthusianmonastery of Buxheimby Brother Hildebrand Brandenburg ofBiberach,about the year 1480—the date being fixed by that of the recorded gift. The woodcut, in imitation of similar devices in old manuscripts, is hand-painted. An example of this bookplate can be found in the Farber Archives ofBrandeis University.In France the most ancient ex-libris as yet discovered is that of one Jean Bertaud de la Tour-Blanche, the date of which is 1529.Hollandcomes next with the plate of Anna van der Aa, in 1597; then Italy with one attributed to the year 1622.The earliest known American example is the plain printed label of Stephen Daye, the Massachusetts printer of theBay Psalm Book,1642.

The history of the bookplate as a symbolical and decorative print used to mark ownership of books begins in Germany. Bookplates are often of art historical interest.Albrecht Düreris known to have engraved at least six copper plates (some quite large) between 1503 and 1516, and to have supplied designs for several others. Notable plates are ascribed to Lucas Cranach and toHans Holbein,and to the so-calledLittle Masters(Masters of the small format—the Behams,Virgil Solis,Matthias Zundt,Jost Amman,Saldorfer,Georg Hupschmannand others). The influence of these draftsman over the decorative styles of Germany has been felt through subsequent centuries down to the present day, notwithstanding the invasion of successive Italian and French fashions during the 17th and 18th centuries, and the marked effort at originality of composition observable among modern designers. The ornate and elaborate German style does not seem to have affected neighbouring countries; but as it was undoubtedly from Germany that the fashion for ornamental bookplates spread, the history of German ex-libris remains relevant to all those who are interested in their development.

Printed ex-libris became common in France in the early 17th century. Until then, the more luxurious custom ofblind-or gold-stamping a book's binding with a personal device had been more widespread: thesupralibros.From the middle of the century, however, the ex-libris proper became quite popular; examples of that period are numerous and exhibit a complex design sensibility. The term "ex-libris", used as anoun(Exlibris(written in one word) in German) originated in France.

England

The various styles of English bookplates from theTudor periodto the lateVictorian periodreflect the prevailing taste in decorative art at different epochs—as bookplates do in all countries. In 2010John Blatchlyasked whether the hand-painted armorial device attached to afolioof the first volume ofQuatuor concilium generaliumbelonging toCardinal Wolseyshould be regarded as the first English bookplate.It is made of paper and was pasted onto the front pastedown of the book. However it was not printed. In this respect it is the only known example. The librarianDavid Pearsonhas argued that a plausible case can be made for regarding this as a kind of bookplate.

The earliest English bookplate appears to be the gift plate ofSir Nicholas Bacon;it adorns a book that once belonged to Henry VIII, and now is located in the King's library,British Museum.The next example is that ofSir Thomas Tresham,dated 1585. Until the last quarter of the 17th century the number of authentic English plates is very limited. Their composition is relatively simple compared to contemporary German examples. They are as a rule very plainly armorial, and the decoration is usually limited to a symmetrical arrangement of mantling, with an occasional display of palms or wreaths. Soon after the Restoration, however, the bookplate seems to have suddenly become an established accessory to most well-ordered libraries.

The first recorded use of the phrasebook platewas in 1791 by John Ireland inHogarth Illustrated.Bookplates of that period are very distinctive. In the simplicity of their heraldic arrangements they recall those of the previous age; but their appearance is totally different. First, they invariably display thetincture lines and dots,after the method originally devised in the middle of the century by Petra Sancta, the author ofTesserae Gentilitiae,which by this time had become adopted throughout Europe. Second, the mantling surrounding the face of the shield assumes a much more elaborate appearance which recalls that of the contemporaryperiwig.This style was undoubtedly imported from France, but it assumed a character of its own in England.

From then until the dawn of theFrench Revolution,English modes of decoration in bookplates generally followed French trends. The main characteristics of the style which prevailed during theQueen Anneand early Georgian periods are: ornamental frames suggestive of carved oak; a frequent use of fish-scales;trellisor diapered patterns, for the decoration of plain surfaces; and, in the armorial display, a marked reduction in the importance of the mantling. The introduction of the scallop-shell as an almost constant element of ornamentation gives a foretaste of the Rocaille-Coquille, the so-calledChippendale fashionsof the next reign. During the middle third of the century thisrococostyle affects the bookplate as universally as all other decorative objects. Its chief element is a fanciful arrangement of scroll and shell work with curveing acanthus-like sprays—an arrangement which in the examples of the best period is generally made asymmetrical in order to give freer scope for a variety of countercurves. Straight or concentric lines and all appearances of flat surface are avoided; the helmet and its symmetrical mantling tends to disappear, and is replaced by the plain crest on a fillet. The earlier examples of this manner are generally simple. Later, however, the composition becomes exceedingly light and complicated; every conceivable and often incongruous element of decoration is introduced, from cupids to dragons, from flowerets to Chinese pagodas. During the early part of George III's reign there is a return to greater sobriety of ornamentation, and a style more truly national, which may be called the urn style, makes its appearance. Bookplates of this period exhibit an appearance which at once recalls the decorative manner made popular by architects and designers such as Chambers, the Adams, Josiah Wedgwood, Hepplewhite and Sheraton. The shield shows a plain spade-like outline, manifestly based upon that of the pseudo-classicurnthen very alive. The ornamental accessories are symmetrical palms and sprays, wreaths andribands.The architectural boss is also an important factor. In many plates, indeed, the shield of arms takes quite a subsidiary position by the side of the predominantly architectural urn.

Bookplate awarded as a Sunday School prize for 1898.

Some bookplates were issued by institutions, often religious ones, which awarded books to individuals to recognise achievements such as academic performance and good behaviour. These would be inscribed with the name of the individual by hand. Such plates could be very elaborate, or very simple in their design, reflecting the character of the awarding institution.

From the beginning of the 19th century, no special style of decoration seems to have established itself. The immense majority of examples display a plain shield of arms with motto on a scroll, and crest on a fillet. At the turn of the 20th century, however, bookplate design diversified and flourished beyond traditional armorials.

The main styles of decoration have already been noted. But certain styles of composition were also prevalent at certain periods.Although the majority of the older plates were armorial, there were always pictorial examples as well, and these are the quasi-totality of modern ones.

Of this kind the best-defined Englishgenremay be recalled:the library interior—a term which explains itself—andbook-piles,exemplified by the ex-libris of W. Hewer,Samuel Pepys's secretary. We have also manyportrait-plates,of which, perhaps, the most notable are those of Samuel Pepys himself and of John Gibbs, the architect;allegories,such as were engraved by Hogarth, Bartolozzi, John Pine and George Vertue;landscape-platesby wood-engravers of the Bewick school, etc. In most of these the armorial element merely plays a secondary part.

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  Bookplate of SirCharles Philip Huntington,1912
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  1899 bookplate
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  Bookplate of Jane Patterson, 1890s
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  1810 British bookplate

Art

Ex-libris of Hungary bookplate stamp

Until the 19th century, the devising of bookplates was generally left to the routine skill of the heraldic-stationery salesman. Near the turn of the 20th century, the composition of personal book tokens became recognized as a minor branch of a higher art, and there has come into fashion an entirely new class of designs which, for all their wonderful variety, bear as unmistakable a character as that of the most definite styles of bygone days. Broadly speaking, it may be said that the purely heraldic element tends to become subsidiary and theallegoricalor symbolic to assert itself more strongly.

Among early 20th-century English artists who have more specially paid attention to the devising of bookplates, may be mentionedC. W. Sherborn,G. W. Eve,Robert Anning Bell,J. D. Batten,Erat Harrison, J. Forbes Nixon,Charles Ricketts,John Vinycomb, John Leighton and Warrington Hogg andFrank C. Papé.The development in various directions ofprocess work,by facilitating and cheapening the reproduction of beautiful and elaborate designs, has no doubt helped much to popularize the bookplate — a thing which in older days was almost invariably restricted to ancestral libraries or to collections otherwise important. Thus the great majority of plates of the period 1880–1920 plates were reproduced byprocess.Some artists continued to work with the graver. Some of the work they produce challenges comparison with the finest productions of bygone engravers. Of these the best-known areC. W. Sherborn(see Plate) andG. W. Evein England, and in America J. W. Spenceley of Boston, Mass., K. W. F. Hopson of New Haven, Conn., andE. D. Frenchof New York City.

Study and collection

Bookplates are of interest to collectors either as specimens of bygone decorative fashion or as personal relics of well-known people, and can command high prices. However the value attached to book plates, otherwise than as an object of purely personal interest, is comparatively modern.

The study and collection of bookplates dates back to around 1860. The first real impetus was given by the appearance ofA Guide to the Study of Book-Plates (Ex-Libris),byLord de Tabley(then the Honorable J. Leicester Warren M.A.) in 1880. This work established what is now accepted as the general classification of styles of British ex-libris:early armorial(i.e., previous to Restoration, exemplified by the Nicholas Bacon plate);Jacobean,a somewhat misleading term, but distinctly understood to include the heavy decorative manner of the Restoration, Queen Anne and early Georgian days (the Lansanor plate is Jacobean);Chippendale(the style above described as rococo,tolerably well represented by the French plate of Convers);wreath and ribbon,belonging to the period described as that of the urn, etc. Since then the literature on the subject has grown considerably.

Societies of collectors were founded, first in England in 1891, then in Germany and France, and later in the United States, most of them issuing a journal or archives:The Journal of the Ex-libris Society(London), theArchives de la Société française de collectionneurs d'ex-libris(Paris), both of these monthlies; theEx-libris Zeitschrift(Berlin), a quarterly.

In 1901–1903, the British Museum published the catalog of the 35,000 bookplates collected bySir Augustus Wollaston Franks(1826–97).

One of the first known English collectors was Maria Jenkins of Clifton, Bristol, who was active in the field during the second quarter of the 19th century. Her bookplates were later incorporated into the collection ofJoseph Jackson Howard.

Some collectors attempt to acquire plates of all kinds (for example, the collection of Irene Dwen Andrews Pace, now at Yale University, comprising 250,000 items). Other collectors prefer to concentrate on bookplates in special fields—for example, coats of arms, pictures of ships, erotic plates, chess pieces, legal symbols, scientific instruments, signed plates, proof-plates, dated plates, plates of celebrities, or designs by certain artists.

Contemporary bookplates and their collection

Since the 1950s, there has been a renewed interest in the collection of bookplates and in many ways a reorientation of this interest. There are still substantial numbers of collectors for whom the study of bookplates spanning 500 years is a fascinating source of historical, artistic and socio-cultural interest. They have however been joined by a now dominant group of new collectors whose interest is more than anything the constitution—at quite reasonable cost—of a miniature, personalized art-print collection. In this miniature art museum, they gather together the works of their favorite artists. They commission numbered and signed editions of bookplates to their name which are never pasted into books but only serve for exchange purposes.

More than 50 "national" societies of ex-libris collectors exist, grouped into an International Federation of Ex-libris Societies (FISAE) which organizes worldwide congresses every two years.

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  Jacques Hnizdovsky's own bookplate, 1972
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  Maximilian Liebenwein's bookplate
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  Edward Penfield's bookplate
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  Bookplate ofHikmet Şimşekby Hasip Pektas, author of a book on bookplates
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  Bookplate ofEdgar Rice Burroughs
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  Bookplate designed by artistJacques Hnizdovskyfor his wife Stephanie
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  Bookplate ofAlbert Hahn
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  Ex Libris John Barr byThomas Gulliver

See also

• Book collecting
• Lithograph
• Library classification
• Printer's mark
• Title page
• Book frontispiece
• RFID
• Percy Neville Barnett,Australian bookplate collector
• Irena Sibley,contemporary Australian bookplate artist

References and sources

Sources

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Castle, Egerton(1911). "Book-Plates".InChisholm, Hugh(ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 230–233.

Further reading

• Allen, Charles Dexter (1968).American Book-Plates: A Guide to Their Study.New York.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Arellanes, Audrey Spencer, ed. (1971).Bookplates.Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company.
• Arellanes, Audrey Spencer, ed. (1986).Bookplates in the News.Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company.
• Faber (1984),Bookplates in Britain
• Johnson, Fridolf (1978).A Treasury of Bookplates from the Renaissance to the Present.New York: Dover Publications.
• Jones, Louise Seymour (1959).Human Side of Bookplates.Los Angeles: The Ward Ritchie Press.
• Labouchere, Norna; Wharton, Edith (September 2009).Ladies' Book-Plates: An Illustrated Handbook for Collectors and Book-lovers] (Originally published in 1895).Frederiksen Press.ISBN9781444653137.
• Lee, Brian North(1979).British Bookplates: A Pictorial History.David & Charles.
• Lee, Brian North(Summer 1982). "Pictorial Bookplates in Britain".The Private Library.3.5(2).Private Libraries Association:58–116.
• Romer, Sargent (June 1916). Maurice, Arthur Bartlett (ed.)."Curiosities of a Book-Plate Collection".The Bookman.Vol. 43, no. 4. New York:Dodd, Mead & Co.pp. 398–403.
• O'Hagen, Lauren Alex (2020)."Social Posturing in the Edwardian Book Plate, 1901-1915".The Book Collector.Vol. 60, no. 4, Winter. pp. 662–672.ISSN0006-7237– via White Rose Research Online.
• Severin, Mark; Reid, Anthony (1972).Engraved Bookplates: European Ex Libris 1950–70.Pinner, Middlesex: Private Libraries Association.ISBN0900002913.
• Shackle, Edward H. (1968).Bookplates for Libraries: Contemporary Designs for School, Public, College and University Libraries.Austin: Roger Beacham.
• Sibbett, Ed (1977).Children's Bookplates and Labels.New York: Dover Publications.ISBN0486235386.
• Thwaites, Ian Geoffrey (2002).In Another Dimension: Auckland Bookplates 1920–1960.Auckland: Puriri Press.ISBN9780908943234.
• Thwaites, Ian Geoffrey; Fletcher, Rie M.; Auckland Ex Libris Society (2005).75 Years of Bookplates: Auckland Ex Libris Society, 1930-2005.Auckland: Puriri Press.ISBN9780908943319.
• Thwaites, Ian Geoffrey (2009).Biographical Journeys: 100 Favourite Bookplates.Auckland: Puriri Press.ISBN9780908943371.
• Thwaites, Ian Geoffrey (2024).Bookplate Miscellany: More Bookplates and Stories About Their Owners and Designers.Auckland.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

External links

Bookplate engravers

• Traditional French bookplate engraving

Societies

• The Bookplate Society
• American Society of Bookplate Collectors & Designers
• International Ex Libris Competition Varna - Bulgaria,containing many samples of contemporary bookplates
• The New Australian Bookplate Society

Journals

• Selected articles published by the American Society of Bookplate Collectors & Designers since 1922
• The Cyber Journal of Heraldic Bookplates

Institutional collections

• "40997 Ex Libris".Hungarian Virtual Exlibris Museum.
• "Percy Neville Barnett".Auckland Museum Library: Collections Online.Auckland War Memorial Museum.Retrieved3 September2022.Approximately 4,000-5,000 bookplates (including albums).
• "William Augustus Brewer Bookplate Collection".Morris Library, University of Delaware.University of Delaware.
• "Augustus Wollaston Franks"Franks Bequest. Catalogue of British and American Bookplates bequeathed to the Trustees of theBritish Museumby SirAugustus Wollaston Franks.
• "Ainslie Hewett (1880–1963) Bookplate Collection".UofL Bridwell Art Library: Digital Collections.University of Louisville.
• "Special Collections Bookplates".The University of Auckland Library.University of Auckland.
• "RBSC Bookplates".The University of British Columbia Library: Open Collections.University of British Columbia.
• "Yale Bookplate Collection".Yale Library: Bookplates at Yale.Yale University.
• "Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures".The Met: Watson Library Digital Collections.Metropolitan Museum of Art.An exhibition catalogue containing material on bookplates (PDF available).
• "Bookplates Designed by Twentieth-century Russian Artists (130 bookplates)".Rare Book and Special Collections Division: Bookplate Collection.Library of Congress.
• "A Disappearing Art: Bookplates and Hong Kong".Hong Kong Baptist University Library.Hong Kong Baptist University.A database of 897 bookplate images.
• "Bookplates Collection".Indiana State Library: Rare Books and Manuscripts.Indiana State Library.