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Showing posts from 2008

Feline Ex Libris

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Here is an interesting bookplate from 1903 that will appeal to both feline fanciers and collectors of ex libris alike. It also brings into play an early woman physician, an activist writer for the Indians, and the historic works of craftsman Gustav Stickley. All because of a cat named Darius Dunain. Found yesterday on a bookscouting trip, this bookplate is affixed in the book, Cat Stories , by H.H. (Helen Hunt Jackson), Little, Brown, and Co., Boston, 1903 (reprint from Roberts Brothers, 1879, 1881, 1884). It appears to have been a gift copy from the publisher, maybe as a review copy. The parenthetical pedigree is noted above only because I find the book about as interesting as the bookplate. I come across cat books everywhere when out scouting. The last several decades have produced a huge number of books about cats, but this is probably the oldest book about cats I've ever come across. The stories date back to the 1870s. The author, Helen Jackson, is best known for her novel, Ra

The Christmas Cove Autograph Library

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This entry was crossposted from Archaeolibris because of the interesting ephemera I came across during the research--a library label from a unique library that lent autographed copies of books to its patrons. What do Maud H. Chapin and Theodore Roosevelt have in common? They were both authors, autographed one of their books, and donated their signed copies to a little library in Christmas Cove, Maine. On Christmas Day today, it seems doubly appropriate to revisit The Cowboy Christmas Ball and follow the journey of its author, Larry Chittenden, all the way from Anson, Texas to Christmas Cove, Maine, where he started a very unique library. The Poet Ranchman of Texas, as Chittenden was known, had a second home far from the panhandle plains of Texas. This unlikely place was Christmas Cove, Maine, where the Texas rancher, seemingly out of place on the Maine coast, was right at home with his library concept. He got authors to autograph their books and donate them to his little lib

A book fair in the Spanish Civil War

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Even in a pile of old newsletters published about the Spanish Civil War, a book-related subject rises, like cream, to the top. It was interesting to find an article on the 1938 Barcelona Book Fair (Fiesta del Libro) among the columns about bombing, rebel offenses, and the destruction of Guernica. News of Spain was a weekly English language newsletter published by the Spanish Information Bureau in New York City. This issue was published July 6, 1938. Excerpts from the article: A book fair was held in Barcelona a fortnight ago under the direction of the Educational Department of the Catalan government. The fair ran concurrently with a special book conference held to discuss cultural, economic and pedagogical problems and the relations of the book industry to the present struggle. One feature of the fair was an exhibit depicting the history of publishing in Catalonia from 1770 to the present. Another exhibit displayed books published since July 19, 1936 to show that the war had not entire

Dutton's Books for Children
A Christmas handbill circa 1900

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Just in time for Christmas, publisher E.P. Dutton circulated this handbill advertising colour books; juvenile classics; toy, model & painting books; puzzle boxes & novelties. The British spelling of "colour" indicates this piece was circulated in London. The flip side of this card features several mechanical books. I was hoping to find at least one of these books online so I could date this handbill, but no luck. However, I did search Dutton published books for children prior to 1930, keying on mechanical books. I found two books with similar titles to those listed on the handbill: What a Surprise: A Mechanical Book for Children . Verses by Lowe, Constance M. London/New York: Ernest Nister/E. P. Dutton & Co., No date (c.1898). and In and Out & Round About . London: Nister; New York: E. P. Dutton, (1895 copyright). Both sell in the $300-$350 range. Quite rare and collectible. And the London publications help confirm that the handbill, with its British spelling,

E.H. Cushing - Houston Bookseller & Printer, 1871

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Here is my earliest example of ephemera related to a bookseller from my hometown of Houston. Meet E.H. Cushing, circa 1871. Edward Hopkins Cushing, of Vermont, came to Houston in the 1850s, for a bit of adventure it would seem, after graduating from Dartmouth. He wanted to teach and did at three schools in the Houston area before getting involved in the newspaper publishing business. Writing for a newspaper eventually led to part ownership of the paper and later a controlling interest in another paper, the Houston Telegraph, which he used to promote his ideas for business and education in his beloved, adopted hometown of Houston. His interest in the arts and sciences extended to Texas authors, agriculture, and horticulture. An accomplished horticulturist, Cushing is reported to have had one of the most complete collections of flowers on his estate,  Bohemia , in the United States. During the Civil War, Cushing kept his publishing business afloat, sometimes using wallpaper or w

Biblio-blog tag

I started not to answer this, as I always go for the delete key on chain letters and these kinds of things, but what the heck. In the spirit of the season upon us, I'll give a little. The Exile Bibliophile , who writes an interesting and entertaining biblio-blog, "tagged" me with the following: I am sorry, but I had to do this - it’s one of the rules You have been tagged. Here are the rules: 1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you. 2. Post the rules on your blog. 3. Write six random things about yourself. 4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. 5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog. 6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up. First, thanks for the nice words about my blogs Archaeolibris and Bibliophemera . I somehow let four months go by on the former and the latter has fared only slightly better. Hurricanes (Gustav and Ike), sickness, vacation, and a backlog of work comprise my sling of excuses for n

Texas City Book Nook

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Here's a book shop trade label from Texas City, Texas, a town best remembered for the 1947 Disaster . With the old phone number (WI exchange), perhaps this book shop was around in 1947. The label was found in a 1963 publication. I got to wondering about the telephone exchange name for WI in the phone number. I grew up while the two-letter telephone exchanges were still in effect. Our Houston number started out SUnset 2. Didn't take long to find WIlson 8 by searching the database on this site: http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/TENproject.html Thought I'd throw that in for the nostalgic curious.

Removing a bookplate from a book

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I have in my small, but growing, collection of bookplates a few that I'd like to separate from the books I found them in. Some, I wouldn't dream of disturbing because of the relationship of the bookplate to the book, provenance, etc. Others, like this one from a damaged book or a book that has little value for one reason or another, I determine that the bookplate would be better displayed by itself. Storage considerations creep into these decisions, too. Appropriately, this Training School Library bookplate from State Teachers College in Kutztown, Pennsylvania became my training school in ex libris removal. As you can see from the photo above, it was successful. For that I thank Molly1216 on YouTube. The best instructions I could find were in a YouTube video. For me, actually seeing a task performed, makes it much easier to duplicate and eliminates any confusion that might develop from written instructions. Molly1216 (YouTube user ID) has an interesting series of book-related v

Libreria Tecnica CP 67 - Buenos Aires

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Here's a bookshop ticket from a book published in London, sold in Buenos Aires, and found in Houston. It's done some traveling. From the Architectural Press in London, the book in which I discovered this ticket is titled, Inscape: The Design of Interiors , edited by Hugh Casson. I wondered if the Buenos Aires bookshop might have specialized in architecture books and if it still existed. I didn't have to search too far to find my answer in the form of a YouTube video celebrating 40 years of business. And yes, it does appear to have a specialty in the field of architecture. Reviewing the publication date, 1968, I thought of this: The video commemorates 40 years of business. The video was made in 2007, so 1967 must have been the opening year. And this book would have been one of the early titles to grace their shelves, having arrived the following year. And after all these years, the bookshop is still in business selling the same kinds of books. These days, when physical book

Owen Wister Literary Society

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Here's an old literary society bookplate, circa 1930s, from Rice Institute (now University) in Houston. The Owen Wister Literary Society was started at Rice University in 1924 to handle the overload of its sister societies as the university grew and the need arose for additional societies for women students. Why Owen Wister, the author best known for his novel, The Virginian ? I can find no other reason than that of the acronym, OWLS, formed by the society name. The owl is the school mascot and name of all sports teams representing the university. The Rice Owls. I doubt the ladies had an intense interest in the literary works of Owen Wister. His name was convenient for the acronym I'd guess. The literary societies were established when Rice began accepting women, primarily for developing an appreciation of literature. The book this bookplate is in is a 1938 volume of poetry by Texas Revolutionary hero, Mirabeau B. Lamar. That seems in keeping for a lit society. But the societie

Clarence Wharton Bookplate (Texas Historian)

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I assume this bookplate to be from Texas historian Clarence R. Wharton's library. The book it's in is about the explorer LaSalle with chapters on his settlement and exploration on the Texas coast in the 16th century. So it's a safe bet to assume this CR Wharton is the Texas historian CR Wharton. Kind of an odd bookplate, though, for Wharton. I would have thought something along the lines of a Spanish mission or anything more ornate than a palm or cactus of some sort on what looks like a bare cul-de-sac lot. Perhaps it was from his front yard in Houston and he liked this particular tree. Who knows? It's symbolic of something I'm guessing. Something from Texas history or Lone Star State lore. Compiled from the Houston Chronicle after his death in 1941 and from the Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin, here is an entry about Wharton on the Handbook of Texas Online Web site: WHARTON, CLARENCE RAY (1873-1941). Clarence Ray Wharton, lawyer and hist

Masada, Young Zionists of America book label

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At a book sale over the weekend, I found the following book and bought it for the interesting label above: The Jewish State 1896-1946 , by Theodor Herzl, published by The Emergency Zionist Council, NY, 1946. The title page offers this subtitle: An attempt at a modern solution of the Jewish Question . And I offer that bit of information because it ties in with, or explains the presence of, the book label pasted on the front endpaper. Masada is an historic landmark in Israel where the last group of zealots from the Jewish Revolt against Rome, first century C.E., held out until they realized there was no escape from their fortress and committed mass suicide. Actually, it sounds more like murder-suicide because the men decided to kill their wives and children before allowing them to be captured, enslaved, and the women forced into prostitution. After they killed their families, they killed each other. A few women hid themselves to escape death and later related the story of what happened a

Frederick W. Skiff's bookplate,
by W.F. Hopson

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Frederick W. Skiff (1867-1947), of Portland, Oregon, was a notable bibliophile and prolific collector of Americana. He also authored a few books: Adventures in Americana: Recollections of Forty Years Collecting Books, Furniture, China, Guns and Glass, Metropolitan Press, Portland, Oregon (1935) and Landmarks and Literature: An American Travelogue, also by Metropolitan Press (1937). After Skiff died in 1947, his collection went to the San Francisco auction house of Butterfield & Butterfield, in San Francisco. The auction catalog (left) featured Skiff's bookplate. For the book I obtained with Skiff's bookplate, I hit the trifecta. In addition to the bookplate, the book contains an inscription by the book's author and an inscription by the book's prominent owner. The book is The Joy That No Man Taketh From You , by Lilian Whiting; Little, Brown, and Company; Boston (1907). The author's inscription: To Frederick W. Skiff, Esq. with grateful appreciation of his mos

Ex-libris honors Dartmouth Class of 2008

Thought this was an interesting bit of news in the bookplate world: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~vox/0708/0526/bookplates.html Who knows what valuable and collectible bookplates of the future lurk among this group?

Publisher's review label
Jerome Holtzman, R.I.P.

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Here's a review copy label for Holt & Rinehart's publication of No Cheering in the Press Box , edited by Jerome Holtzman, who passed away last week at age 81. Holtzman was a long-time baseball writer for Chicago newspapers and was baseball's first historian. He also introduced a new statistic to baseball--the Save. This book was a review copy and contained the label and also a press release about the book. A favored icon of many booksellers, the owl, is the only graphic for this publisher's review copy ephemera.

LSU Honor Court label

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From a 1937 college textbook, here is a label, or sticker, from a university Honor Court. The University of Louisiana State (LSU) Honor Court to be exact. Looking like an over-sized bookplate, it is affixed to the front pastedown endpaper (inside cover) of the book. The apparent intent of this label was to track the transactions of this book between all buyers and sellers. It is also apparent that any such attempts to do so with this particular book were unsuccessful. The label is blank. Honor Systems and Honor Courts exist, in general, to deal with students who lie, cheat or steal. The history of such institutions in this country (America) goes back to the founding fathers. Thomas Jefferson created the first Honor System--for his alma mater, the College of William and Mary. Honor Systems and Honor Courts are still around today--some are taken seriously, others not. The primary use for these courts is to deal with cheating and other moral infractions. So why was such a label needed fo

E.P. Dutton billhead, 1871

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Click anywhere on the photos for an enlarged view Think of E.P. Dutton and you probably think big publishing company. But this major publishing house got its start as a retail bookseller. Edward Payson Dutton started the company in Boston, as a retail bookseller, in 1852. In 1864, Dutton branched out to New York (in the building depicted by the billhead graphic), where they also started publishing books. Their focus in the beginning was religious titles. If the billhead above is any indication, it appears that religious titles were still a strong suit into the 1870s. 1864 was a busy year for Dutton. As mentioned, he opened the new branch in New York and introduced a publishing segment to the business. But back in Boston he also purchased Ticknor & Field's retail business, which was located in the Old Corner Bookstore. There, the mantle of a fine literary tradition passed to Dutton. Ticknor & Fields had occupied the building for some 20 years and had published the works of a

L. Barma in Nice, France - book shop trade label

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From the same book (Corneille's Polyeucte ) that contained the Scofield Thayer bookplate (previous entry on this blog), here is a nice old book shop trade label affixed to the front cover. As the title implies, bookseller L. Barma (of whom, I can find nothing) sold classical literature, among other things. Having learned a bit about the book's owner, Scofield Thayer, in the previous post, this was a fitting purchase for him because of his academic interests in philosophy and the classics in his post-graduate studies. A bit of chronology will help date the bookseller and his trade label. Thayer matriculated Harvard in 1913. After graduation, he went to Oxford, which would be about 1917 or 1918. Thayer likely journeyed to France around that time and found this book shop in Nice. So I think the label dates circa 1918. An interesting side note: The book was published by Hachette in Paris, 1906. So Thayer, with all his money, bought a used book from a rather inexpensive series. The

Sidney L. Smith bookplate for Scofield Thayer

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This bookplate is significant for its designer and owner. Sidney L. Smith (pictured left) was a well-known engraver of the late 19th and early 20th centuries whose prolific work with bookplates warranted the book, Bookplates by Sidney L. Smith with a Check-list of the Bookplates , by Gardner Teall, published by Alfred Fowler, 1921. The bookplate's owner, Scofield Thayer, was a poet, editor, publisher, and important art collector. He came from wealth, was educated at Harvard and Oxford, and his literary lineage included an uncle, Ernest Thayer, who was famous for his beloved baseball poem, Casey at the Bat . But Thayer was probably best known for his art collection and for transforming The Dial , with his wealthy inheritance, into a premiere publication for literature and the arts in the 1920s. Much of the art featured in the magazine was from Thayer's personal collection, which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Thayer associated with a Who's Who of lite

W.F. Tenney, another Brattle St. book shop

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Nicholas A. Basbanes, a regular contributor to Fine Books & Collections has a nice article this month about the Brattle Book Shop in Boston. The title of the article claims "oldest bookstore in America," and Basbanes traces its origins to 1825. In my collection of ephemera, I have a book dealer's calendar from 1901. His name is W.F. Tenney and his calendar advertisement states "old books bought and sold." His shop was located at 26 Brattle Street. Could Tenney have been neighbors with the Brattle Book Shop? Were they the only book dealers on Brattle St. or was there a lively book community in that area? On Brattle Street, in Scollay Square, the Brattle Book Shop was born and christened by its location. There it thrived until the 1960s when it succumbed to area redevelopment projects and relocated. No telling whatever came of Tenney. His business may not have been around to see the 1960s. Perhaps it continued under another name or was purchased by another d

London Catholic library label & bookmark

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Here's a book that has a couple of misplaced pieces of bibliophemera. The library label is pasted to the front cover instead of one of the usual places inside the book. Not unheard of. Also, the good folks at the library thought to include a silk ribbon bookmark, imprinted with the library's name, address, and phone number. But for some reason it was pasted to one of the rear endpaper where it was rendered useless as a bookmark. Odd. Perhaps it was there in lieu of a library stamp.